This past week’s blizzard was record breaking and closed our studio for a couple of days. We are all still digging out from the record snowfalls ranging from 20″ up to 40″ of snow dumped on Connecticut. And our little studio was buried since this past Friday in 38″ of snow! But we are up and running again today … even if we may not get to our blue front door until April!
{image: amy graver}
Here are few staff pictures taken in Branford, Madison, New Haven and Seymour. As you can see, while beautiful, the amount of snow we received is no joke!
Melissa, who lives in New Haven, captured the skyline as the blizzard was just warming up {no pun intended!}:
{image: melissa coleman}
And this was the start of the storm from Branford, CT. We actually had two storms combine into one mega-blizzard right on top of our small state. Amy snapped this photo Friday afternoon – but hold onto your snow shovels, kids. This was before it really got bad out. At the end of her street you can see just see Long Island Sound beyond the fence.
{image: amy graver}
Amy’s daughter, Adaline, who is 5, made her first snowman during the storm. Later that same day, the snowman was buried under a 3’ft. high snow in their front yard. We’ll find him again come spring.
{image: amy graver}
The blizzard, nicknamed “Nemo” by the press, really packed a one-two-punch. It started Friday and didn’t end for some areas until early Sunday morning with high winds causing serious drifts and power outages. The real accumulation began Friday night into Saturday. In Branford, we were getting 3-5″ an hour for awhile. We woke up literally buried in snow. It was tough to open doors the snow was piled so high. Here is Tracy’s view outside her house. Guess you won’t be getting any mail for awhile, Tracy!
{image: tracy forbes}
A common image on social media channels was to show the mound of snow where your car once stood. Here’s ours:
{image: amy graver}
Amy’s brave husband, Scott, shoveled out our cars. It took him six hours to shovel our tiny driveway and clear off the cars. And most of us spent all day Sunday doing the exact same thing – shoveling, shoveling, shoveling.
In the end, it didn’t really matter because with 3′ ft. of snow covering the roads, we couldn’t drive anywhere anyhow.
The Governor of Connecticut officially shut down all the roads from Friday until Sunday at 4p.m. But even then, many of us were still stuck.
{image: amy graver}
Melissa’s car is down there, somewhere. Melissa lives in New Haven, which was also just crippled in the storm:
{image: melissa coleman}
This was a very welcome sight for many! A payloader arrives on Allyson’s street in Madison, finally today (Monday), to clear her road.
{image: allyson coughlin}
It was last night at 3 a.m. before a payloader and plow finally came to Amy’s street in Branford. Ben, Melissa and Tracy are still waiting for their roads to be cleared. Many folks are still snowed in today. And with this much snow, one of the serious problems became – where do we put it all?
There were many snowplows that got stuck. Can you imagine? One state plow was abandoned near Amy’s house. And there was chatter online from people far away from the storm who couldn’t understand why we couldn’t just plow our roads and go back to ‘work as usual’. You really have to experience getting this much snow this quickly to grasp the problem – the plows couldn’t handle it and each road needs a payloader to clear a one lane path – meaning: scoop, turn, dump, repeat. Then plow. One lane. On. Every. Road.
Meditate on how long that takes for a minute.
Here is Ben’s street view after it stopped snowing. Yes. That is a car and its on a road that’s there somewhere …?
{image: ben jura}
Here is Amy’s street again, post-payloader, plow and freezing rain. Yes, we are experiencing freezing rain today which is a nice topping on the snow! The rain + snow is causing flooding in areas.
{image: amy graver}
Here’s Allyson standing in her parking lot which is filing with icy water:
{image: allyson coughlin}
So, as we continue to dig out, I’m safely working away in our toasty studio with slippers on, music up, and a nice hot cuppa cocoa by my side. Stay warm and safe, friends! We’re here if you need us …
~Amy
