How does one get ready for the big stormstorm that’s predicted for the Northeast?
First thing to do is to accept it. Then, make sure there’s enough food in the place—although after the almost nonstop eating fest of the last week or so, a little fasting might be a good thing. Next, get the flashlight and the candles out, in case there’s a repeat of the great power outage of 2008. Finally, wait, with peace in your heart.
Where I live, the streets get cleared after a blizzard very efficiently and quickly, and things are usually moving again in almost no time. A far cry from my youth in New York, when we lived on an unimportant side street with such low priority that we could wait days before a plow appeared. Here, it’s also beautiful after a snow—very beautiful indeed, especially at this time of year, when the classic New England homes are tastefully decorated in classic New England style for the holidays, and the evergreens get heavy with snow, especially if there’s been little wind to go with it.
This time, though, those evergreens will remain green and uncovered; there’ll be no shortage of wind. That’s what the word “blizzard” means—a whole lotta snow plus a whole lotta wind:
To be a blizzard, a snow storm must have winds in excess of 56 km/h (35 mph).
Additionally, blizzards must reduce visibility to 400 metres (1,300 ft) or less and must last for a prolonged period of time ”” typically three hours or more.
As for great blizzards of the past, I well remember this one. Fortunately, I was not among those stranded motorists on Route 128, some of whom died because their exhausts got covered and the carbon monoxide backed into their cars. I was safe at home hunkered down with my husband and a fireplace.
Unfortunately, however, I was stranded on a Greyhound bus with a seat near front row and center for this biggee. My bus and I were somewhere in Indiana; I’d been on my way to a family wedding where I was scheduled to be a bridesmaid. In those days, forecasting the weather was a great deal more primitive than now, and nobody foresaw the scope of this storm at the time I joined a ragtag group of people who stepped onto that bus and filled every single seat.
I did have the foresight, however, to wear multiple layers of clothing, and so I was very warm. I must have been hungry, too, but I don’t remember that. I chiefly recall an interminable night of sitting with my Intro to Botany text open on my lap, reading the same paragraphs about xylem and phloem over and over again and trying vainly to absorb the information, while somebody’s pesky two-year-old roamed the aisles unsupervised, his copiously running nose unattended and dripping with the cold.
How long did the bus sit there without moving? I don’t know, but my memory tells me it was at least 24 hours. Did I make the wedding? Yes.
