Blizzard of '99 12 yrs ago

**ja!mz** · January-03-11, 02:47 PM

What were you doing 12 yrs ago today if you lived in this area? you were digging out from a foot of snow...

**kenp** · January-03-11, 02:55 PM

My wife was just talking about this yesterday. I actually drove to work that morning and it was during a state of emergency. Though it was only 2 miles I had to park about a half mile away from the office because the snow was to deep in our industrial park. Still can figure out how I got out of the driveway. I also recall it was a snow day for the kids and it was the first day back after xmas vacation.

FoxyScholar10 · January-03-11, 03:01 PM

I was two days into a 10-day birthday trip to Hawaii! Oahu, Kauai, and Maui! Saw the blizzard on CNN.... Part of me wanted to be home because that was the farthest and the longest I'd ever been away from home. But then I walked out onto that beach of the bluest ocean my fluttering almond-shaped dark brown eyes ever did see and I said, Nah... I'll stay right here in Maui....

**1KielsonDrive** · January-03-11, 03:01 PM

I was happily living and being drizzled on in SF, while watching images of Detroit's woes on teevees.

**gazhekwe** · January-03-11, 03:03 PM

We had a blizzard then?

**Johnnny5** · January-03-11, 03:04 PM

Plowing snow for multiple days with hardly any sleep! At that time I handled the snow removal for a large office complex in Southfield. We had 2 trucks running that lot for 36 straight hours!

**trotwood** · January-03-11, 03:11 PM

I was living off East Grand Blvd near the New Center that year. There was a post office just 3 blocks from my place. We didn't get mail that day. My neighbor told me the post office said if we wanted mail we'd have to go get ourselves. I thought he was lying. I called and was told the conditions were too bad for delivery. Snow was so high it took me more than 45 mins to dig the car out. Driving round the corner to the post office seemed like it took forever. When I got inside I saw the longest line I'd ever seen. It went from the counter to the front door. It was chaos lol. Finally a woman came out and told everyone to have license and/or id out if we wanted to collect mail. Then she began calling out names. It was like something out the movies I'd seen where people are standing in old Russia. Over the next couple of days I saw snow piled up along Woodward&Grand Blvd that seem to be almost as tall as the State Bldg. I'd never seen so much snow in my life. I'll never forget that as long as I live.

**DetroitHabitater** · January-03-11, 03:11 PM

went down to COBO to see Ford Debut the 2002 Thunderbird, barely made it. Cobo Arena was empty. Some guys drove a snow plow from toledo just to see it.

**EastsideQT** · January-03-11, 03:19 PM

I will never forget the Blizzard of '99...it was my first winter back in Detroit since I moved to California in 1972....I said it would be my last...but guess what? I'm still here...:-)

**iheartthed** · January-03-11, 04:04 PM

It was much more than a foot of snow by the time it was all said and done... I was just thinking about that blizzard last week in the aftermath of the Christmas blizzard that hit the East Coast. The snow totals for the Christmas blizzard -- as well as the post storm political fallout -- were very similar to what happened in Detroit in '99.

**stasu1213** · January-03-11, 04:17 PM

I was living in the Harper/E Outer Drive area. I had went to Pro Clean laundrymat on that saturday morning when the wind started picking up and the snow was beginning to blow in. By the next morning I had tried to get my car out of the garage which I had to go through the alley to parking in, only to find out that the snow was too deep for me to pull my car out of the garage. So much for Sunday worship. That was the beginning of snow plows going down the side residential streets in the inner city. Before that time we had to shovel the snow from the middle of the street. You have to give it to Archer; he was pressured into starting the side street plowing. There was a major blizzard in Detroit in February of 1992. It was thundering and lightning during that one. Does anyone remembers that one?

muskie1 · January-03-11, 04:43 PM

I was selling cars at a local dealership. Snow days always sucked,we had about 200 cars in stock and they all had to be cleaned and moved. The great thing is the salespeople usually get do do this, and it if there was any car that did not have the one of the fuses pulled the batteries would die all the time. I think we had about 10 people at the time and it took a couple of days of jumping,cleaning and moving cars.
The highlight of the adveture was when the sales manager parked the plow truck against the building and a huge ice column fell and hit the truck. It actually ripped a hole through the side and bed of the truck. We were kind of use to holes in vehicles, we were located right outside of Brightmoor and every so often you woul have a vehicle with a hole in the roof from a what goes up must come down bullet. I sure do miss those days and our collection of slugs we kept.

**DetroitTeacher** · January-03-11, 04:53 PM

DPS was open and I was at work...'nuff said.

**English** · January-03-11, 05:02 PM

It was our first Christmas and New Year's without Dad. Somehow, I remember having a great time in spite of all the grief. I was provisionally hired by DPS for '99 and did an internship at one of my former schools. I had been hoping for snow all vacation long, because I knew I wouldn't see any again until December 2000 if it didn't happen.

But there was no snow. Christmas came and went, and so did the New Year. I kept telling everyone how much I wanted to see snow. I had to go back down South for my last semester of college, and I had senioritis big time.

Then it began to snow. I remember going outside to play in it. Yes, I was a old college senior, playing in the snow. My younger sibs thought I was nuts. I remember I played until it was nearly a foot tall and then went inside for some food and a warm-up.

My flight to Florida was the next day. They didn't cancel it, and I didn't have a car. My brave, beautiful but very neurotic mom got up extra early, stuck to the main roads only, and got me on that plane.

The Floridians [[roommates & friends) were astounded I'd made it. They had seen the blizzard on TV and didn't think they'd seen me for weeks. [[They felt the same way about blizzards that I feel about hurricanes -- incomprehensibly scary.)

I hear it was a mess for a while afterward. But since I flew out of it, and was in Florida until mid-May, I can't speak to road conditions, school closures, etc.

**bike4beer** · January-03-11, 05:17 PM

I was apartment sitting for a friend down at the Millender Center. I had to drive down 75 from Madison Heights which was probably the worst drive I have ever had to do. My girlfriend at the time [[now my wife) and I ended up walking to Lafayette Coney Island that night and had to walk in the street since it was a bit easier to get through the snow. When we got married a year later we stopped LCI for some pre-reception snacks

**iheartthed** · January-03-11, 05:21 PM

Originally Posted by DetroitTeacher

DPS was open and I was at work...'nuff said.

DPS was not open. The storm hit on the Sunday before DPS was to return from Christmas break. DPS didn't reopen until that Friday, only to close down again that next week [[I believe on Tuesday) and not reopen until the week after.

bartock · January-03-11, 05:24 PM

I'll never forget it. I was going to WSU and living at Forest Arms Apartments. My father had to come downtown for some meeting. The storm had left my car completely buried in snow in what was then a dirt "lot" just to the south of FA. Anyway, my father decided to trudge up Woodward rather than take the expressway, called me, and I met him and a buddy of mine at Union Street for an early dinner. It was awesome.

**DetroitTeacher** · January-03-11, 06:04 PM

Originally Posted by iheartthed

DPS was not open. The storm hit on the Sunday before DPS was to return from Christmas break. DPS didn't reopen until that Friday, only to close down again that next week [[I believe on Tuesday) and not reopen until the week after.

What the heck storm am I thinking of then? It was the storm right before all the streets began getting plowed in the city. Ack, now I know...I made it to work before they called the snow day. That was the storm where the little girl was waist high in snow [[shown on the media), walking to school...right? I might be thinking of a different storm, though. It took me 2 hours to get to work, I do remember that! It had to be 1999 because it was before I was in my house and that was 2000...but it could have been a totally different day that I am thinking of, who knows anymore! I;m pretty sure I got there and then an hour later they called the snow day. I remember being pissed I drove all that way only to be told to go home.

**rooms222** · January-03-11, 06:22 PM

We had just moved from Ann Arbor to our first house on Dec. 31/Jan. 1. The house was not quite fixed up and I remember going to Best Buy in Dearborn that morning to get something. Then, boom, all that snow.....

**Meddle** · January-03-11, 06:28 PM

Originally Posted by trotwood

I was living off East Grand Blvd near the New Center that year. There was a post office just 3 blocks from my place.

Snow was so high it took me more than 45 mins to dig the car out. Driving round the corner to the post office seemed like it took forever.

Huh? You DROVE 3 blocks?

I don't know, I guess you might be elderly or disabled.

**Gistok** · January-03-11, 06:37 PM

Yes that snow storm gave Mayor Archer a lot of grief from his constituents...

I was working in Ann Arbor at the time, so I worked the 11AM-8PM shift... just so I wouldn't spend 3 hours per day in traffic each way.

My car required some maintenance, but the hood war frozen shut... so I had to borrow one of my parents car for about 2 weeks. In early 1999 both parents wer ill [[Dad had a stroke, and wouldn't survive the year... Mom had the first of 5 cancers that she fought valiantly for 11 years, finally succumbing in July 2010 at age 88).

So 1999 was the worst winter in living memory....

**dtowncitylover** · January-03-11, 06:43 PM

I do believe this was the storm I built a snow slide down that curved around tree that used to be on the grass curb at our house. I had loads of fun, as I watched my dad shovel...

**Meddle** · January-03-11, 06:54 PM

Missed this one. I left in the fall of '98, but I remember the one in '77-'78. I was driving a '68 Fury III that would plow through just about anything.

**313WX** · January-03-11, 07:00 PM

Originally Posted by iheartthed

It was much more than a foot of snow by the time it was all said and done... I was just thinking about that blizzard last week in the aftermath of the Christmas blizzard that hit the East Coast. The snow totals for the Christmas blizzard -- as well as the post storm political fallout -- were very similar to what happened in Detroit in '99.

It was 12" exactly [[at least officially).

The strangest part about this storm was that the low pressure center itself tracked west of here [[over Lansing). which made it an even more unique event. Normally a track like the Janaury '99 storm would produce rain here and not snow.

Supposedly there was widespread thundersnow and Monroe County did swtich over to freezing rain for a time.

**iheartthed** · January-03-11, 07:07 PM

Originally Posted by DetroitTeacher

What the heck storm am I thinking of then? It was the storm right before all the streets began getting plowed in the city. Ack, now I know...I made it to work before they called the snow day. That was the storm where the little girl was waist high in snow [[shown on the media), walking to school...right? I might be thinking of a different storm, though. It took me 2 hours to get to work, I do remember that! It had to be 1999 because it was before I was in my house and that was 2000...but it could have been a totally different day that I am thinking of, who knows anymore! I;m pretty sure I got there and then an hour later they called the snow day. I remember being pissed I drove all that way only to be told to go home.

They closed DPS that Sunday evening. But there were two [[or three) storms that hit during that week... At the end of it all the total accumulation was a little above 30 inches, if I recall correctly. I can't remember the timing in detail of the following storms, but I do remember the timeline of the first one that set off the hysteria. It's possible that you're thinking of one of the days later in the week, since the district was canceling on a day to day. It wasn't until they reopened and then closed again that they closed all schools "until further notice".