Were you in Raleigh for the Ice Storm Back in 2005? (Durham: home, neighborhood)

[NCHomeFinder]

My kids and I were "fortunate" to be in the car only 2 hours on the way home from preschool - my kids were 1 and 4, and I was worried about being stuck in the snow with both kids, especially since the mobile phone service was overloaded all day, so you couldn't get through. Once we were home, my husband kept trying to call hourly to keep us updated, and he only got through about 1 in 5 calls. He left RTP at 4:30, finally had to pull off 540 on to Six Forks at 9:00 for gas, slid and popped a tire, had to put on the spare... he didn't get home until after 2:00 AM. At least I was home with the kids, but it was nerve wracking, especially with spotty phone service.

[cakeprincess]

Did you all get mails from US Postal during that freak weather?

[MoMark]

Icestorms are far worse than snowstorms in general I think (clearly blizzards are in a class of their own). Here we got hit on Nov. 30 with 3" of torrential rain that evolved into an icestorm of 1 1/2" of ice coating everything with trees splitting, falling, big limbs dropping everywhere, then ten hours of sleet....heavy sleet (5") on top of that, then 6" of snow on top of it all. Keep in mind that the torrential rain had flooded large areas the night before and then had frozen over by the next morning where it pooled, so ice, sleet, then snow on top of all of it. I didn't go anywhere for five days.

[RaleighRob]

Originally Posted by i'minformed

I'm confused.... the ice storm was in December of 2002 (and then another one a few months later in February 2003). The storm of Jan 2005 was .7 inches of snow that fell, melted on the roads, and then froze solid on the roads. The "storm" of Jan 2005 caused a 12 hour grid lock and that's it (relatively speaking of course) the Dec and Feb. ice storms of winter 2002-2003 caused region wide power outages that lasted for over a week for some people; closed EVERYTHING and brought tons of trees down. Jan. 05 was an inconvenience and if any disaster.... one of infrastructure, timing, and planing. The real ice storms were actual natural disasters that if I remember correctly claimed several lives from Carbon monoxide poisoning.

Agreed...this was how it was.

Yeah, the Dec '02 storm was the biggie for this area. The odd part of it also, was how it caused so much trouble with power lines for days and days, but the streets were relatively clear the next day. I think the ice caused tons of branches to crash on wires, leaving days of work to clean up from. And all that extremely cold weather plus no electricity made it a hell-on-earth week. I remember Duke Power getting high criticism for their response in Durham & Chapel Hill being much slower than Progress Energy's response in Raleigh, even though they were hit equally bad.

January 2005 was a joke, really. Ice formed on the roads for a bit, just when all these schools let out and everyone and their mother decided to leave the office at the same time causing gridlock gallore.

[raleighjayne]

I left home (far north raleigh) at noon to pick up my 4 yo son from preschool. Normally a 10 minute drive took me about 45 minutes. Then we left there at 1:00 (strickland and Falls) to head down to my other son's magnet school ITB. We got to the school at 5 pm. My son had already been taken home by the woman I carpool with. She had been down at the school to volunteer and since she was down there already she brought her daughter and my son home. She tried to call me to let me know but I didn't have my cell phone with me. So after driving 4 hours to get to school, I had to turn around and drive back home. The principal gave us a bag of microwave popcorn and two bottled waters.

There was a hispanic family from the Brentwood area that had left their car at Wal-Mart on New Hope Church and walked the rest of the way to the school to pick up their kids. They were about to walk back to Wal-Mart to get their car so I gave them a ride since it was on my way. The grandma didn't speak any English and the older sister only spoke a little. The two boys who were students at our school spoke some English but they were way in the back of the mini van so I couldn't really talk to them at all. The grandma and sister were speaking Spanish to each other and then my 4 yo starts trying to talk to them. Of course it consisted of him turning to the grandma with this great big grin and saying "LECHE" really loud. She just cracked up.

The sister and I carried on a bit of a conversation and she even invited me to dinner at their house that night to say thank you. I felt bad turning her down but I knew that I would never make it home if I did that. I ended up getting home around 1 am. My dh and sil were up waiting for me, very worried. My 4 yo never once cried or complained and made it the whole time without going to the bathroom. Of course when you don't have much going in food and drink wise you don't have to go to the bathroom.

Yeah, that was something I don't want to relive.

For the true ice storm, dh and I were in Ireland and our kids were in Chicago with family. We kept seeing news reports on CNN but couldn't get through to neighbors to find out how our house was. Luckily by the time we got back all the ice was gone and our house was fine. Couldn't even tell it happened.

[carolinatrendsetter]

I work in downtown Raleigh and lived off of Falls of Neuse and Litchford Road in North Raleigh Left work at 5:15 PM and didnt make it home till after 1:00 AM the following morning. TRUE STORY. Bad Bad timing, plus the roads had been sub-freezing for a few days,so when the snow did hit it, it was instantly frozen. Capital Blvd. SixForks, Creedmoor Rds, Falls of Neuse were a Cold Icy Mess. Apparently the same thing happened up in Norfolk, VA Beach area that day. Talking to a friend of mine. I will probably never happen again it was so freakish. Most of our snow comes at night around here. Not lunch hour.

But if it does Happen again I certainly hope they allow certain roads to flow All one Way. Like they do the interstate in case of Hurricanes.

[ncsu99]

Fortunately I was working on a job in Wilson during the January 2005 debacle. I followed a salt/sand spreader down US 264 back to Zebulon. Instead of the usual 30 minute drive it took maybe 75 minutes... not bad. My wife, on the other hand, works in downtown Raleigh. She left work around 3 or 3:30, and sat on New Bern Ave for 3-4 hours trying to head east. By that time I had gotten home to watch the news and heard that all of the bridges across the Neuse River had been closed, so she wasn't getting home. After hearing that, she called one of her co-workers who made it home to west Raleigh in 45 minutes and she spent the night there. Later I heard that several folks said they got on the Knightdale bypass (which was still under construction and didn't open until July '05) from the beltline and made it home to Knightdale, Zebulon and points east. That would have been a good idea for my better half, but she never got more than a half a mile out of downtown.

[dzhon]

Originally Posted by RaleighRob

...Yeah, the Dec '02 storm was the biggie for this area.... January 2005 was a joke

I live in the Raleigh area and work in Durham, 25 miles west. I also lived in Alaska for 3 years, in Massachusetts for 3 years, in Denver during the 'worst December/January in 100 years' ... also Omaha Nebraska and northern Indiana.

2005 was not a joke at all. I have never seen worse weather or driving conditions in my whole life, and I'm over 50, and I've seen 41 of the 50 states and several foreign countries.

It took me 9 hours to drive 25 miles. For my wife it was even worse: She left work in RTP at about 2:45, and she didn't get home until about 1:30 in the dead of night. People were crying, people had to leave the cars and find a hiding place to relieve bodily functions and so forth. It was sheer misery. We can laugh about it now, but at the time, it was 100% not funny.

[NCBoyMommy]

Oh did you have to remind me of that!!! I left work at 11:30am to go pick up my kids and didn't get home until midnight. Thankfully a good friend picked them up for me! My husband left work at 1:00 pm and didn't get home until 3:00 am the next morning. All routes into Wake Forest were a mess. Falls of the Neuse was shut down because of the bridge so people were coming at US 1 from all angles and it was at a standstill. It took me over 12 hours to get from 540/Us 1 to Rogers Road in Wake Forest.

[dansdrive]

Yes, indeed I was. I wish I could have 'slipped' by that one but could not!
I worked in N. Raleigh around Six Forks and Milbrook at the time and it was
my first winter here. Coming form upstate NY and seeing the snow "flurries" that
day around noon and the countless people filing out of work I laughed and said
I'm staying. Only had to get to Wake Forest, no problem......What's the panic about?

Man I could not be anymore wrong if I voted for G.W. Bush! Anyway, all political
satire aside. I left work at about 4:30PM and moved quickly out of works parking lot only to hit the real parking lot called Six Forks. Needless to say I never made it home that unforgettable night. I made it to Capital Blvd @ 10PM and got up to Milbrook at
12:30AM and then got a hotel there and slept on the floor in the lobby along with
all my fellow stranded trying to get home newly acquainted friends.....

Needless to say I learned valuable lessons that day.
1. Make sure my 4 wheel drive vehicle really has 4 wheel drive when needed.
2. There are creative ways to be stuck in traffic and still go to the bathroom!
3. One picks up sign language very well in stop-go traffic hour after hour.
4. People in the same boat tend to be nice, sincere, and helpful when trapped!
5. Local Businesses really helped open their doors to stranded people!
6. Have a alternate route or two home in case your primary route(s) are blocked.
6. I learned the southern way of dealing with snow, RUN FROM WORK AS QUICK
AS YOU CAN AND DRIVE HOME!!!! YA'Hear!