Blizzard of 2006

Worst blizzard in 50 years just hit us! WOW! What a doozer!! This is Roger doing some shovelling outside during one of the worst parts. We couldn't see past our front railing our window. It was unreal! We went for a couple block walk as a family and what an experience! We wanted to experience this blizzard firsthand - definitely something our kids will never forget! We're walking in the middle of the street, not seeing a thing - no houses, no cars (which we often walked into as they were parked on the side of the street) and we could hardly even see each other. We had to hold hands cause otherwise we lost sight. It was so easy to get disoriented and mix-up in our directions. I can't imagine what it was like for someone trying to drive in this. People were stranded in their vehicles for 4-6 hours and only a block from a gas station. People had no idea where they were. I sure was glad to be back home safe and warm.
The next day, I went out and took pictures after the streets were cleared. There were walls of snow piles everywhere! Vehicles were 3/4 hidden under snow drifts.
It was so beautiful though! With all the snow on the trees - it was gorgeous! A winter wonderland. But it took a couple of days for people to get cleared out of their driveways and farmyards. We had up to 25 cm in 24 hours.
Between Osler and Saskatoon, 36 cars were counted in the ditches the next morning. People just couldn't see. I spoke to this one man who was driving from Saskatoon to Warman (20 km apart) and he threw up out the window continually as he drove because he was so disoriented it made him severely sick. He had to work hard at not passing out continually while he slowly drove home. There have only been 3 deaths reported from the blizzard of people who left their vehicle to walk somewhere.

Thank you God that it wasn't much worse than this. Thank you for warmth and power and shelter. Thank you that there were no power outages or furnace breakdowns in our home. Thank you for keeping us safe and warm. Thank you for the many, many good samaritans, good people that helped others and provided shelter for those who were stranded. Thank you for my family and that we're together.