Dewie - White Juan - Major Snow Storm

On the evening of the 18th and all day on the 19th of February Nova Scotia was hit with an intense weather system that dropped upwards of 100cm of snow (over 3ft) in most places. And wouldn?t you know it but I tried to go to work at 4am on the 19th. This is the story of what happened to me.

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The morning of the Thursday February 19th I got up at 4:00am to check out the roads to see if I?d be able to drive to work or not. I put on a pair of old clothes as I didn?t want to get my (thin and cold) uniform dirty in the event that I got stuck or something. I put on a wool jacket and my excellent 3M Thinsulate jacket on over top. I knew the weather was calling for snow over night and I figured that if I could get out of my driveway and up the road I could get to work, and while I was correct, I didn?t anticipate what happened next.

After I managed to get out through the secondary roads into Stewiacke, and onto the highway I had pretty good traveling. There was virtually no one on the roads. I got almost to the Shubi exit when I saw a tractor-trailer in the ditch on my right hand side. The truck was lying sideways in the ditch, and facing the opposite direction. It had been going the other direction when it went off the road, crossed over the median, and over my lane. I stopped off the side of the road to make sure everyone was ok, but there was no one around. Lights were on inside the truck, the 4-way flashers were going, but no one to be found. I pulled out my camera and tried to get a good picture, but this was as good as it was going to get. Winds were insanely fast, and the snow was more freezing rain than snow at that point. My hair was drenched in an instant.

I got back in the van and left the truck, only to have my alternator light come on. I also lost power steering. This meant that I had lost the belt that powers both off the engine. This was not good. Without that belt on it was a bit harder to steer, but I knew that I wouldn?t be able to make it all the way to the airport running just off the battery. I decided that I would try to make it to the Elmsdale exit. I was doing ok when I made it to the exit, only when I got there, there was a huge line of trucks. I stayed in the line until I managed to make it up to the top where there was an 18 wheeler stuck up against the guard rail at the top. He was blocking all right turning traffic, which was where I wanted to go, over to the gas station to see if I could get a belt for the van.

As I got to the top I noticed a Snow plow had gone down the on ramp across from me, and onto the Highway, so I decided I would try to make it to the Big Stop in Enfield. About half way there my lights started getting dim. I kept the van going, afraid that if I slowed down I wouldn?t get going again. I had turned off the radio, heater fan, gauges lights, everything that wasn?t absolutely necessary for the van to run, to save my battery power to get there. By the time I got to the Enfield exit I could hardly see out of my windshield and was just following the truck ahead of me, hoping that he would be going to the Big Stop for fuel and food. Unfortunately doing this led me to where the scales are in Enfield.

As soon as I stopped the van died. I was dead in the water; or well snow at least. By this time there was about a foot of snow down. I knew that if I managed to get as far as I did on the battery in the van that if I could charge it I would be able to get to the airport no problem. I got out of the van and asked the trucker ahead of me what his intentions were, if he planned on going to the Big Stop or not, he said that yes he did intend to, but also go led astray by the trucks ahead of him. I explained to him my situation and he told me to hop in and that he would drive me over. I did so and we managed to get past the trucks that had stopped and over to the Big Stop.

When at the Big Stop gas station I asked if there was anyone in the garage. When I was told no I asked if there was a battery charger. The girls at the counter said that yes there was but that it couldn?t go off the property, that I would have to bring the battery over (which was no surprise, I would have had nothing to power the charger on anyways?) So I asked a guy at the pumps driving a Jeep Cherokee if he would mind driving me over, he actually got excited at the idea as he wanted an excuse to go try out his new Jeep. He was able to get me most of the way over to the van where he said he would wait for me to take me back over to the garage.

When I got to the van I had to dig out my tools. Fortunately I knew what sizes of sockets and everything that I needed because I had only put the battery in the van the night before. When I popped the hood and then got the battery out, my manager from work called wondering where I was. Before I had left I left a message on his voice mail saying that I was headed to work. He was surprised that I had made it as far as I did and told me I was crazy to even try. Apparently everyone had called in saying they wouldn?t be able to make it, and I was the one that lived farthest away out of everyone going to work that day, and I had made it the closest, but there was still no one at work.

I was releasing the hood prop bar that holds the hood up when I noticed that the serpentine belt that runs everything was still there, that it had just fallen off (likely do to excessive snow in that general area) This made me kind of happy and I took my battery over to the guy in the Jeep and he took me back to the gas station.

When I got inside and asked to use their charger it ended up being a booster pack, not a battery charger. I now had the battery out of my van and wasn?t any closer to getting to the airport. Inside there was a cab driver from Halifax that was trying to drive a customer to the airport. He had already tried the highway from the Halifax end but with no luck, so he drove through Fall River and made it as far as the Big Stop. His customer was trying to get him to take him the rest of the way. The guy had ?faith? in the cabby?s driving, and that he could get him to the airport. He also had ?faith? that his airplane would be taking off for Calgary. Eventually the cabby was able to pay some guy in a 4x4 Blazer to drive this clown to the airport.

As the cab driver was leaving I asked him if he could drop me at the scales on his way by (he was again going via Fall River) and he agreed. I then took my battery back down to the van, put it back in and then fought with the serpentine belt trying to get it on. After probably 20 minutes of trying to get this damn belt on, only to have it almost with 2 hands down inside holding the belt and a wrench on the tensioner, only to have the wind blow and cover my glasses in so much snow and ice that I could no longer see, I gave up for the time being and hopped in the van. I was able to start the van again because the battery was a good and fairly new battery and the charge came back over time. I was then able to pull the van up behind the next truck in line. The van very quickly died but I was that much closer to my final goal. I had a tow strap with me and I thought maybe the truck ahead of me would be able to tow me over to the gas station if he went that way. So I went up to the truck and talked to the driver.

When up there the guy told me to get in the truck as with his window down snow and rain and stuff was blowing right in his face. So I went around the other side and got into the truck. I didn?t realize how cold I was until I got into the truck with its heat running. It was a nice feeling to get some feeling back again. Turns out that this guy was stuck, he was on his way back from Moncton and stopped in here quick with the rest of the truck intending only to clean off his headlights and wiper blades then continue to Halifax (aka home for this guy). His problem was he came off the highway with his tires hot, and they had sunk down into the ice just enough that he couldn?t get out of the hole he was in. He had been trying all the time I was running back and forth to the Big Stop but to no avail.

After I had warmed up a bit (but not dried off) we decided we would try to dig his truck out. The trucker had a couple of boards and we were able to get all wheels free, but still couldn?t move. While doing so we noticed there was a red van stuck at the bottom of the off ramp, sideways in the road, and a bit cube-van stuck even farther down the ramp, again sideways. The trucker said I was more than welcome to come back to the truck where it was warm and so we both had someone to talk to. The truck only had a ?day cab? (2 seats) on it so it was about impossible for the truck driver to just lay down and go to sleep ? there was no bunk.

I got out a bit later to try my van again and while it did start I was now stuck. I didn?t push the issue much as the transmission in the van is weak and I didn?t need to blow the transmission on top of my other problems.

Later on in the day a snow plow came by and cleared out in front of us. The plow wasn?t allowed to pull us out, but fortunately the driver of the plow and driver of this truck were friends, and the guy dropped us off a big pile of salt. We were able to throw the salt under the tires of the truck and that got us up and going. It looked like we were home free, and we got to the stop sign at the scales. We got most of the way through the sign and just so we were blocking both lanes of traffic, when the trailer got stuck in a massive drift that actually lifted the wheels of the trailer off the ground (we were keeping our momentum up, but this drift was somehow hidden to both of us right at the stop sign.

Unsure of what to do a D.O.T. truck came along with a plow on it and started plowing all around the truck and what he could to get us out. Ken?s Towing also showed up and gave us a pull. With this we were able to get over the Big Stop again, and he parked the truck. The truck driver then introduced himself as Gary, and I told him my name. We then went inside where Gary got some coffee and the girls at the counter were surprised I was still around.

I managed to get the D.O.T guy to drive me over to my van where he plowed me out a bit and then took off. I then shoveled out the van some more with a shovel I had borrowed from the Big Stop. I had a nice clear path cleared but I now couldn?t get the van to go. I had used up my very small window of trying with that battery. I was about 3 /4 of the way back to the Big Stop walking when I met Gary, he was walking over to help me fix the van. We got back to the van and fought with the belt in the crappy weather for a good half hour. We were about ready to give up when I had a brain-wave of how the belt went on, tried it, and had it work We then hopped in the van to warm up and hoped that the battery had enough juice to start again and drive us over to the gas station.

When the van wouldn?t start we ended up walking back over the gas station. By the time we got back we were both drenched (well my upper body wasn?t because of my good jacket, but my pants and feet were drenched) The women inside on cash took pity on me and tried giving me coffee, but before they did I managed to get another guy in a big 3 /4 ton truck to drive me over to the van and give me a boost. This truck was amazing, where he wanted to go he went. We went through the drift that Gary was stuck in at the stop sign like it was an inch tall, snow braking over the windshield, and this thing hardly slowed down. The tires were amazing. Anyways, the guy jumped me and I was able to drive the van over to the gas station where I parked it and went inside for my free coffee.

Gary was still inside warming up and insisted that he buy me lunch. He wouldn?t take no for an answer and the girls at the counter said that if I didn?t go with he they would force food into me, so away I went.

After eating a nice bowl of soup and most of a chicken burger Gary and I went back out to his truck as it was warmer in there than inside the Irving. There we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening, Going back inside every once and a while to use the washroom, grab some food, make some phone calls, and stretch our legs. From inside the warm truck we watched the storm get better, get worse, better, worse, and just generally dump it?s 3ft of snow on us, as well as drift it everywhere. There were 2 trucks and a tractor that constantly plowed the lot at the Big Stop. At times they couldn?t keep ahead of it, and they never stopped into the night. There were about 20 big rigs all parked in at this Big Stop and none of us were moving until day.

At one point late in the evening the R.C.M.P. came by and told us all to stay put. That they had 2 cars off the road and that there was an ambulance off the road between the airport and Halifax. We were just not allowed on the roads, and none of us really wanted to try.

I talked to Gary about everything from 4x4s and cars, to good places to eat and recipes, to about engineering and schooling. When I left for work earlier that day I never imagined I?d be discussing any of the above with a trucker. Gary was a good laugh, had a couple kids of his own all a bit older than me, and we knew some of the same people around. I ended up falling asleep in his truck and camped out the night in a horrible seat on the passenger?s side of the truck. The truck we were in had a timer on it so it wasn?t able to sit there idling and making heat for any more than 10 or 15 minutes at a time. Sleep wasn?t all that great as you?d just get nodded off to sleep and the truck would shut off. A lot of the time I would wake up not because the truck had shut off, but because of the lack of heat from the truck shutting down. This meant that Gary had also fallen asleep ? the poor guy had been up 36 or so hours. He was also on the side of the truck that wasn?t in the wind, so he didn?t have as much of a draft to wake him up.

I figure I got about 5 or 6 hours of sleep and around 6:00 the next morning I woke up just to see a snow plow and a tractor with a plow go down over the edge of the onramp to the highway towards the airport. According to Gary nothing had moved since about 2:00am. I made good use of the opportunity, thanked Gary and took off for my van. I got the van cleaned off, fortunately it hadn?t drifted in and I was able to just get in it and leave.

Down the highway I went and was able to get to the off ramp for the airport where I met a line of 6 or 7 cars and 1 truck. Apparently they had plowed part way up the off ramp, but had to stop because of several abandoned cars. Someone had also tried plowing down the on ramp, but again had to stop because of abandoned cars. One of the guys had a few shovels on his truck, and a couple more people had shovels, so we dug a path between the on and the off ramp for us to get through. Once through I was able to make it as far as the Tim Horton?s before we were told it wasn?t plowed any farther. I parked my van in at the Tim Horton?s, put my back-pack with my lunch I had packed the day before and my work uniform and headed out walking towards the terminal. It was now 7:00am, day 2.

Along my walk I saw where there were cars in our lot drifted in almost solid with the roof, and that there was a lot of snow down all over the lot. Not only was there a lot of snow over our Lot, but in the Long-Term parking there were cars that were not visible. I am fortunate that I only weigh 140 lbs so I was able to walk over a good deal of the drifts and through the long term parking with only going about to my shins in snow. In one spot I hit something hard and looked down and I was on top of a car in the Long Term parking section, it had been parked behind a van, and was small and had drifted in solid.

By the time I made it to the airport terminal my pant legs were cold and wet again. My feet had never actually completely dried out but they were very wet again. I headed right to the Avis counter inside the airport, and into our office out back, where I fired up the space heater, dried out my boots and socks, changed out of my wet clothes and into my uniform, hung my stuff up to dry, and made a few phone calls. From that point on I was answering phones myself until about 10:00 when a girl I work with that lives very close was able to make it. Apparently at that time they were still using the make shift ramp we had made up to get off the highway.

I worked inside at the counter from 7:30 ? 2:30 or 3:00 when a couple of managers and another woman showed up. They relieved us for a lunch break and then the 2 managers went outside to shovel snow. I still answered phones until about 4 or 5:00 then went outside with the managers. The husband of the woman that had come in later was driving a truck with a plow on it and we conned him into plowing out our cars so we could rent again as people were extremely desperate for cars. Flights had been completely cancelled for almost 24 hours before they started flying again, and people just wanted to get out of the airport.

At around 10:00pm I managed to leave the airport for home. Highways were in good condition then and I had smooth sailing home. In conversing with my family at home our road had 2 snow plows stuck on it at one point in the day. My father got tired of waiting and took out 1954 John Deere Tractor out and plowed our road from our place to the end of the road so as we could get out for gas and food.