Snow Days - the bad stuff

We have had an extremely cold winter. Here in the south, we are not used to cold temperatures. We've even had a few late starts at school when the temperature got as cold as 12 degrees. On Tuesday, our state was blindsided. During the weekend, there was a prediction of snow south of Montgomery. Monday night, the weathermen still predicted 1-4 inches of snow for South Alabama (which is very rare) for Tuesday night. The Birmingham area was predicted to only get a "light dusting" with no travel problems. I desparately wanted snow. I even took Kaylee's picture Monday night and put her in her snowman towel and posted on social media that we were waiting on the snow. I knew I would be disappointed again, because we rarely get snow. Tuesday morning, I checked the weather again before we went to school. It was the same forecast, South Alabama below Montgomery was supposed to get 1-4 inches and we were to get a light dusting, 1/10 of an inch. Everyone went to work as normal. Brian emailed me about 9:30 to say that it was starting to snow in downtown. I got a couple of emails from friends who have windows in their classrooms to tell me that it was snowing. In between classes, I would walk up to the office to get a sneak peak. At 9:45ish, we got an email from our principal that said county officials were going to meet at 10:00ish to make a decision about schools (at this time, we were still predicted to only get that light dusting). Then at 10:30 when the snow had not slacked up, the county officials decided to dismiss school at 11:30. When I left school, it was snowing, hard! I left in a hurry to get my kids and get ahead of the traffic because I knew our high school road would be crazy with everyone trying to leave at the same time. I actually slid on the road in front of daycare and missed my turn and had to circle the block. I drove extremely slow on the way home unaware of what was going on everywhere else. It took me an hour and a half to get home (normally it's a 25 commute). I saw one wreck and slid several times, but I had no idea what was going on everywhere else. I tried to call Brian and the phones were out. When I got home, and checked social media sites, I realized, we were not getting a "light dustng". We were getting an inch of ice, with snow on top of that. I finally talked to Brian, and we decided that he would not drive in it. In fact, he had to park his work truck and walk miles back to the office. I started texting and calling my friends to see if they had made it home. I was one of the lucky ones. It took my friends HOURS to get home. I was even on the phone with one friend when she got hit when a car slid into her. Several of my coworkers stayed at school until all the students made it home safely. Some coworkers had to stay with others because it was unsafe to drive. Brian never did make it home that day (he and 4 others stayed at their office), my mother wound up being stranded at her office for two days, Brian's mother was stranded at her office and Brian's sister was stranded at her office. It was crazy! That night, I read stories and stories of people's adventures to get home, and some never made it home that night. They slept in their cars, they slept in stores, and some I'm sure didn't sleep at all. I could not quit reading about the snow/ice storm. Children were stranded at school because parents could not get to them. Teachers and administrators stayed with them. That part of me felt guilty, because I rushed out to get my own kids. We wound up having three and half snow days. Alabama governor declared a state of emergency because of how bad the situation was. People abandoned their cars just to get to warmth. One thing I never read were bad stories...I never read about any violence or any one taken advantage of, and for that I'm so grateful. Instead, I saw a community pull together southern hospitality. Major food chains were giving free food to the stranded, major stores and malls stayed open to provide shelter. This even is something I will never forget. These are not my pictures, but I wanted to keep a record of how bad it was after our "light dusting."