Snowmageddon

We have had a crazy weather week in Kansas City, aka "Snowmageddon".  It started a week and a half ago when we got eight inches of snow, which came down within only a couple of hours thanks to "Thundersnow".  We were both at work when the snow started falling, but fortunately for me the drive home wasn't bad (yay Kansas!).  The roads for Dan were much worse (boo Missouri) and he ended up spending the night at work to ensure he could get everything completed for a deadline the following day.  We then spent most the weekend clearing the driveway and sidewalks in anticipation for the second storm coming our way the following day. 

Snowmageddon Part II started late Monday night and consisted of some ice followed by blowing snow.  We both had already decided to work from home and we were looking forward to a "snow day", but the day didn't go exactly as planned.  Around 5:30 in the morning I awoke to a noise which I originally thought that was the heater clicking off.  I realized that the power was off at that point and woke up Dan.  Dan at first was completely out of it and told me "not to worry about it", but a minute later, once he was actually awake he was in full "Safety Dan" mode.  He was the first to look out the window and discover the reason we didn't have power.  The culprit was actually one of our large trees which had uprooted and fallen across the street and onto the power line.

 

The root ball of the tree is about 8 feet in diameter.

For those of you who aren't familiar with our street, we live on a major thoroughfare that connects a large portion of the suburbs with the plaza and downtown.  The street itself is only two lanes wide, but it is typically pretty busy in the mornings.  This quickly became a problem as a car came down the street, and due to the snow, couldn't stop and ran right into the tree.  A second car following close behind then ran into the first car spinning it around.  The second car was able to back up and go the other direction, but the first car was stuck under the tree.  No one was hurt, but the driver of the first car had to get a ride home from the police.

We spent the rest of the morning making the best of the situation playing games and shoveling the driveway.  KCTV5 came by and requested an interview but we both were not interested in appearing on television in our unshowered pajama look.   http://www.kctv5.com/story/21349938/more-than-10000-without-power-as-winter-storm-blasts-kc

There was one member of the family who thought the whole losing power thing was awesome.  And since the road was closed we let him run around the front yard without a leash.  He was in heaven.

By lunchtime we decided that it was time to take a shower and get warm.  The Kerrs graciously invited us over to their place for the afternoon.  Spending the day with them ended up being the perfect snow day after all because we got to play with Hannah and Olive and Dan even got a nap in. 

We left their house around 8:00 pm and were pleasantly surprised to find KCP&L trucks working on the power when we got home.  The tree was already cut up and they were setting a new pole.  We went to bed prepared with our winter coats on and three extra blankets, but luckily power was back on around 10:30.  Not everyone in the area was as lucky as us, but since we live on a busy street, we were one of the first houses to have power restored.

Since Tuesday the city has picked up a large amount of limbs.  We still have a lot of cleanup ahead of us, but we'll focus on that once some of this snow melts away.