Were you in Raleigh for the Ice Storm Back in 2005? (Durham: to buy, elementary schools)

[aldamon]

My neighborhood in Durham was devastated by the storm in 2002. We went to work to have some heat and a hot meal. Here is a pic from the day after the storm at my work place in Cary. It was far worse in Durham.



I beat the storm in '05 by about a half hour. I saw the carnage unfolding in its early stages and basically left work a bit early and gunned it home. I got ahead of all of the traffic and the gridlock.

[jeffm]

Do they not have any salt trucks around?

[dansdrive]

Originally Posted by jeffm

Do they not have any salt trucks around?

Yes they use liquid salt and spray the roads, better since the 2005 storm. Problem was it was a quick moving 1/2 inch of Snow that hit the ground and froze to a shinny slippery undrivable smash into other car, curb, or tree type of snow! Then once the roads were full with cars and impassable the salt trucks could not get through.....the perfect snow storm! It was not pretty if you had to drive in it!

[cackalackie]

December 2002 was the one that had more of a lasting impact (power outages, damage, etc). I too recall the sounds all night long --- of the pine trees snapping in the weight of all the ice, making it sound as if we were in a war zone.

Jan 19, 2005 was the one day freak event. I'm sure it was a Wednesday. I left my office in Morrisville, headed to West Raleigh to pick up one kid, then headed to ITB to get the other. I was making good time until I got to Wade Avenue. Just past the Whole Foods, you could see cars going down that big hill - and not coming back up. I cut over to Hillsborough Street and cars were sliding everywhere. It was wild.

[daveraleigh]

The Dec '02 storm was BAD. Living in Cameron Park at the time and also remember hearing the sound of branches snapping and transformers blowing all night. Out of power for 6 days...Brrrrrrrrrrrr!
Was lucky enough to be at home in '05 due to surgery. Glad I missed that mess!

[saturnfan]

Although roads got better quickly in 02, parking lots were pure death for a week. No way to get rid of the ice.

We bought ice cleats which strap on your shoes. Really good to keep on hand.

I live 2 miles from work. Took 3 hours to get home in 05.

[wolfpack99]

I've lived here a long time and that was the worst experience I ever had driving in a "storm."

I was one of the lucky ones -- it only took me four hours to get from the back gate of SAS to State.

On my out of SAS, a jerk in a sports car cut me off and almost hit me. As I neared the gate, I was debating whether to turn right onto Trenton Road to head up Trinity, or go left onto Reedy Creek, which was still unpaved at that time. The sports car jerk meanwhile turned right, spun three times, and slammed into a car that was stuck on the side of the road. He got out of his car, cursing and jumping around angrily. After making sure he wasn't hurt, I turned left toward Reedy Creek. The gravel was nice traction and my drive wasn't bad at all.

Thankfully I had a full tank of gas and lots of snacks in the car.

[Funky Chicken]

During the '05 storm I left work at about 1:30 PM at Regency Park in Cary and drove West on 64 to NC55 and up the 6 or so miles to West Cary (Carpenter Fire Station Road) with NO problems. Home in 20 minutes.

My coworker walked out the door with me, got in his car, and headed up US1 toward his home in Bedford at Falls River and didn't get home until after Midnight.

Just another example of how weather can be extremely localized here.

[hula]

Next question to ask is who's been here when a hurricane went through. Hurricane Fran in 1996 was a doozey! It effected the entire Triangle with trees down everywhere and many areas were without power (including clean water since there was no power to run the water filtration plants) for up to 2 weeks. It was early September, hot, and the smell of bbq grills cooking meat b4 it spoiled was everywhere for days on end! It was really quite a disaster that I hope I never experience again.

[welovedurham]

Originally Posted by dzhon

I also lived in Alaska for 3 years,

I lived in Alaska for 3+2 years. There's feet of snow, slush, mush, cold, frostbite, but nothing like an ice storm. This is a key thing about ice storms. It's not the typical Northern snowy/storm bad weather situation. And it doesn't have to do entirely with preparation or lack of. The ice just does horrible things to trees, power lines, roads, roofs... that snow doesn't do.

I was here for all the recent ice storms, although I'm remembering the ... was it 2002? ... as the worst. We packed up ship and flew West to stay with relatives after 3 days of no power, freezing with a toddler. I'll never get caught without gas in the car again--didn't realize the pumps had to run on electricity!

Oh, I was here for Fran, too. No power for more than a week. They had curfews in Carrboro starting at dusk, but we did drive around during the day to see all the trees down.

Um, but North Carolina is generally mild. Really.