What is left a month after Snowmaggedon?
The sun is shinning, the temperature is creeping up and slowly but surely, I am finally able to believe that this winter will end.
It has been nearly a month since our back-to-back Washington D.C. metro area blizzards. I still have
huge banks of snow in my front yard where we moved snow from the driveway and sidewalks. It has thawed and frozen so many times since that I expect these snow banks will be with us until May!
Each day, a little bit more snow melts away. We can now see traffic on the main road as we leave the neighborhood (all but the highest set vehicles have been unable to see around the snow banks without creeping in to the intersection) and most of the neighborhood street is visible again.
Everywhere I walk, however, I witness the devastation that these storms left behind. Not a yard is left intact--they are all soggy and most are missing large swaths of grass where shovels hit frozen grass instead of pavement. My hedges, trees and bushes are mangled and broken from weeks buried under heavy snow. My 12 foot pine tree lies across one of my planting beds. We will attempt to stake it and save it, but I suspect that it has been out of the ground for too long.
Municipalities are left with bills that far exceed budgets for annual snow removal. Of course with real estate sales down, so are local revenues. Even those areas who were really on top of 'spend as you go' had no way of anticipating how this winter would devastate the area. We broke a snow fall record which had been in place since the winter of 1898-1899!! The Federal Government remained closed for 4 DAYS!
As you drive around, street signs, street lamps and tree branches are all found lying on their sides waiting for crews to come along and remove or repair them.
In one of my earlier blogs, "What You Can Do To Prevent Snowstorms" I very facetiously stated that the sheer number of people who will stock up on snow blowers and other snow removal supplies will buy us some insurance against another winter of devastating snow storms. If the number of friends and neighbors who are actively purchasing snow blowers is truly insurance against heavy snows, we should be in for a mild winter next year!
I think the only folks who will end up with happy news from the storms of 2009-2010 will be the landscaping companies and tree removal companies who will overwhelmed with contracts and waiting lists for their services. At least someone will benefit!
I am moving on and eagerly anticipating the joy of Spring--eager to put this record breaking winter behind!
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You certainly got hit hard this winter. It's finally 50 going to hit 50 degrees this weekend in Massachusetts, and we can see sort of green on our lawns now. Springtime is just around the corner!
We have snow envy. Being from CT we usually get much more snow than we did this year. Glad to hear that your giant snow mountains are finally melting and hope that there is not a repeat of this years snow for you any time soon.
The heavy snow somehow helps to balance the economics of different areas of work.
with that said .......Bring on spring my plow guys made enough this year
Enjoy your day
Holly, When you don't experience snow of that magnitude, you don't think of what is left behind. Kind of like a hurricane in our part of the country. Here's to spring!
You guys definitely had an abundance of snow this winter. Thankfully, it's most likely over for the year.
Think warm thoughts Holly! Spring is right around the corner!