So, this morning in St. Louis we’re digging ourselves out of yet another snowfall from Heck. Up to 12+ inches fell in some places – mostly in a long band across the area, with much less in areas on either side. Several highways (70, 44) and many road were closed down multiple times yesterday. Many cars wrecked, flipped, went off the road, or were just abandoned. The stories are trickling in at work today – for those who’ve actually made it in…
So, St. Louis Dopers: share your tales of horror!
Me: driving home from IL to MO, the Illinois roads were beautiful (go, IDOT!). The Missouri roads were a horror, and once off the highway, were almost completely unplowed.
I actually got to my condo subdivision, tried going in, got stuck, spent ~45-min. digging my car out with my ice-scrapper, and barely made it back out of the subdivision. Ended up parking my car in the nearby grocery store’s lot, and left it there overnight. Hiked home, hiked back this morning to scrape the snow and ice off for the drive to work. Should have just stayed home.
Oh, and my DirecTV succumbed to the snow, and still isn’t working.
I live in Lake St. Louis (hence the cool moniker). We got 1 whole inch on the ground. BFD.
On Tues at ~9 AM I drove to work on a mostly dry Hwy 40, doing 65-75 all the way to I-270. On 270 I had to slow to about 40 mph because everybody else was driving slow. If I was alone I’d probably have been doing 55. Yes, there was a light snow falling, but not enough to get excited about.
Our office (270/manchester area) got ~8" over the course of the day. One guy with a sports car got stuck in the lot leaving work, but somebody else with a pickup pulled him out. I went out for lunch & the roads were a bit messy & most parking lots hadn’t yet been plowed. Traffic was light.
I drove home at 5pm at 65-70 mph all the way on fully plowed almost dry freeways. By then it had long since quit snowing. Many people had panicked and left work earlier in the day (i.e. in the middle of the storm), so traffic was, if anything, lighter than normal.
What’s the big deal?
I’m from L.A., so I’m the very opposite of a grizzled blizzard-veteran. As far as I can tell, St. Louisians are total pusses when it comes to weather.
The big deal appears to have been based on where and when you were dealing with the snow.
We got ~10" in Fenton, and they basically didn’t clear any of the roads. St. Charles apparently got almost nothing. I had no problems on the highways; one of my coworkers had a 4-hour commute because they kept closing I-70.
LSLGuy, you just haven’t been properly indoctrinated into the St Louis mindset. Just the idea of any snow triggers this irrationale need to stock up on bread and milk as if the snow would shut down all grocery shopping for weeks. That’s why they have the special “panic ailes” at Dierbergs.
Seriously, I’ve never understood the reactions around here to a little snow. But people here truely can’t figure out how to drive in it. On my way in from Illinois, I passed at least ten vehicles off in the ditch on 270.
I’m in North County, where we got 10"-12" yesterday.
Definitely stayed home from UMSL yesterday. Had an 8am class and nothing was really going on weather-wise when I needed to leave, but I had a feeling the forecasters were right, that it would start falling soon, so I went back to bed. Woke up when my first class would have been ending, looked outside. Nothing but white. UMSL ended up closing at 11am. And I got paid for my library shift I didn’t have to go to, yay.
Today I had work here at 730 then class with a paper due at 1230, so I made it in this morning.
Roads are SO BAD. At least the side roads. I don’t take a highway to get to UMSL. I don’t live very close to 270 or 170 so I just take some other roads then Hanley the whole way instead of popping on 170 for a couple minutes.
Every road I was on from my house to UMSL was completely snow covered or damn close. I was having serious issues on Hanley for awhile, going 20 or less and still spinning out and fishtailing. I drove slowly and carefully the whole way and it was still terrifying at points. There’s still a few inches of packed, slushy snow everywhere on the side roads. And of course, the roads going the other direction were cleaner than the direction in which I had to travel this morning.
I really hope MoDOT can get some major plowing done today. The roads are still really dangerous out here.
What, no toilet paper? I grew up in the DC area, and learned early on that, if it’s going to snow, you have to stock up on bread, milk, and toilet paper.
Usually, the stores run out of eggs, milk, and bread; we always joke that you’re required by law to make french toast for breakfast if it snows. Funny thing was, I woke up at 2 AM to the sound of the furnace repeatedly trying to start. Checked the water heater and stove: out of propane. I have to get a new propane company…this is the second winter they’ve done this to me. (I’m paid in full and they decide when to deliver…five years of trouble-free service up till last year.)
So I built a fire - I remember feeling like a rich man when I was stacking the firewood last fall - and got on the phone to the propane company and watched the snow pile up outside. Made some coffee and oatmeal using the fireplace and listened to the radio for a few hours and the gas guy showed up about 9:30 and we pumped about 200 gallons into my tank. One hot shower later I was a happy camper. When I went to the mailbox (about a quarter mile) about 3 PM, the deepest snow was a little over my knees. This is southern Jefferson County, a few miles north of Washington State Park. My road’s been plowed, but there’s no way I can get up my driveway at the moment. No big deal for me, now that I’m cooking with gas again, ha! I’m making some bread right now and there’ll be venison at lunch.
Heh. We always make the same joke. I don’t want to know what they’re making for snow breakfast in DC if stocking up on toilet paper is vital…
Oddly, since I live in a condo complex, all our driveways, sidewalks, and walkways were shoveled and salted early yesterday as the snow tapered off. It looked weird, since the cleared driveways led into a foot of snow on the unplowed streets that were littered with abandoned cars of the people who’d tried the hill. Walking back to my car this morning, it looked as though Mr. Plow was a little drunk, since the plow path weaved and dodged its way around the cars.
I work on the UMSL campus for a large corporation and had to go to work yesterday. I live in Ballwin, though. When I left, there was just a light dusting of snow in my neighborhood, but by the time I got to the campus, it was practically a white-out. Then daycare called to tell me they were closing at 3, so I left at 1:30 thinking I’d have plenty of time. I only got to daycare at 4:20, and didn’t get home until 4:45. It was awful. Fortunately my husband was also able to leave work and pick up the little guy, but he only got there about 15 minutes before I did, even though he left at 2.
Here in Northeastern Wisconsin, a 12-inch snowfall is typical.
Except for this year. I don’t think we have had more than 6" at any one time, and everytime Chicago or St. Louie get a bunch, we get only 3". Although the total precip this season is a lot, the plows have been able to keep up with it so far.
But if God truly loves us, he won’t play chicken with snow, but clone us another Favre.
I live in the Webster/Kirkwood/Crestwood area, work at West Port, and I had no problems getting to work today - everything was clear. Lindbergh was moving right along as usual.
Getting home last night though - THAT was special. I don’t understand why Olive in Creve Couer hadn’t been salted, plowed, or anything but as soon as I turned off on to Spoede (which is, basically, kind of a side street) things were beautiful and were beautiful all the rest of the way home. Olive, a major East-West road doesn’t get any plowing love while Spoede, which is usually pretty much unused, gets the gold treatment? I don’t understand…
I can see the Page/270 interchange from my desk at work. Watching that yesterday afternoon was sort of painful; people kept getting stuck on the 270 Northbound on-ramp, spinning their wheels on the ice.
Everything was good today, though, on the routes I usually take.
Yesterday, when I left for work in St. Charles, it hadn’t started snowing. It didn’t snow all that much in St. Charles. By the time I started home, it had quit snowing.
I got home to find 10-12 inches of the white stuff. I shoveled the driveway. It was wet and heavy, but came off cleanly.
I understand it was a big deal to a lot of people, but not to me.
Seeing this thread reminded me to check my DirecTV. It’s back on. huh. So the signal wasn’t lost because of my satellite dish being knocked awry by snow, and my dish wasn’t snow-covered yesterday, then… snow knocked out the satellite? :dubious:
The location moniker by my name is pretty literal, and we got 10+ inches. I’d have to go on an unplowed hill in either direction after leaving my unplowed cul-de-sac; a debatable proposition right there. So I said, you know the drill.
Was supposed to go to a meeting at 9AM in…where’s Sunnen? Webster Groves or Shrewsbury? Ahyhoo, I feel confident I’ll be forgiven.
Neatly, all was quite clear by 5PM. :dubious: But I think some of the ice may’ve gotten where it shouldn’t. My passenger side windshield wiper is misbehaving. :mad:
Olive is particularly important right now because of the complete closing of several miles of highway 40/64; Olive is being pushed as one of the major ‘alternate routes’ for east-west commuters. It’s getting about three times the traffic it was four months ago. Compared to an elementary school…in a district that (IIRC) wasn’t even open on the day in question, I’d think Olive would be the priority. It still boggles the mind. (The elementary school is on Spoede between Olive and Ladue, only a block or two South of Olive. Spoede had been beautifully and completely plowed its entire length down to Clayton Road…quite a distance.)
