Blizzard of '99 12 yrs ago

**Maof** · January-03-11, 07:52 PM

darn, im trying to scan a photo of that snow strom but the "new" printer is a pain in the keester. anyway, i remember it well. kids were small, hubby was laid off and the snow was to the top of the chain link fence. we built several igloos for the kids and a few snowman too.

**detroitbob66** · January-04-11, 12:46 AM

I remember it....vaguely....I believe that I sat around getting stoned because I was so depressed to be confined to the house, that and the fact that in 1999 I was only 18 years old!

**blackmath** · January-04-11, 02:15 AM

I was 17 going on 18. During the storm the heater broke in the house. It took a few days to get a repairman to the house so we sat around getting heat from space heaters. The mornings were the worst, but WOW did you wake up quick.

In another way, those few days are one of my most fond memories. My family had a lot of fun roughing it out those few days and came up with hilarious ways to take our mind off the cold.

I also fondly remember the blackout of 03 for a similar reason, but that's for another thread.

Thanks for reminding me

**Red Devil** · January-04-11, 03:31 AM

I was waiting in line to get to the airport. It must have been backed up a good 3 to 5 miles. Once I got inside the terminal they were making annoucements for people from Detroit to just go home.

**Danny** · January-04-11, 08:50 AM

The Blizzard of January 1999 was a La Nina type winter storm that blew through the entire Great Lakes region dumping up to 1 to 3 ft of snow. Detroit was hit hard with a foot and half of snow. Everyone is trapped in their homes and apts. Our snow removal equipment was poor and ill prepared. Roofs and various homes, apts and stores either leaked or caved in. Churches, businesses and schools were closed. It took about 2 weeks to clean up the mess. A week later we have sub-freezing temperatures. It rained and flooding was overflowing the Rouge River banks making it crest towards suburban neighbohoods. Most basements were flooded and people were blaming our politicians even the Lord for this wild weather.

WORD FROM THE STREET PROPHET

Neda, I miss you so.

Only 706 days left until the end of Ka'tun.

**R8RBOB** · January-04-11, 09:56 AM

12 years old. Have is it been that long? I was talking about this storm recently.

1/2/99, the day of the storm, I went to Discount Computer that morning to buy computer parts to upgrade my computer and I realized I needed an adapter for my keyboard so I jumped in the car and left down my window to clear the snow. Bad mistake because the window wouldn't come and the snow started to pile up in the car. A disaster so I went to a gas station on 8Mile and they charged me 50 bucks to get the window back up but the motor was shot so they used a stick to keep the window up. By this time, the snow made the roads not safe to drive so I couldn't get back to the computer store to get the adapter so I had to return home with no way to get the PC started. I was in for the night and watching the news, I saw how foolish humans were attempting to drive in that mess and either got stuck or their transmission caught on fire and burned up their vehicles.

The next morning which was a Sunday, I went to the Super K that was on 7Mile at the time and I saw cars abandon or burned up. It was surreal seeing the cars left on the road. Strangely, I never got stuck. I tried to help someone out who was stuck but it was no use. There were guys in trucks offering to help push people out for 20 bucks. Later on that day, I finally made it to the store and got my adapter and got my computer up and running. My mother, my sister and my grandmother went up north to gamble so my sis parked her car at Green 8 Shopping Center and I knew they would have hell cleaning the car and getting out of the space so I drove to Green 8 and cleaned off her car and dug a path so the car could get out of the lot. They were grateful that they could just jump in the car and drive off while the other broke travelers had to clean off their cars and dig out.

The blizzard of 99 was wicked.

**aoife** · January-04-11, 10:28 AM

I was 9-months pregnant with my first child and we were living in a flat above a shop. The alley that our garage fed into was totally impassable- there was no way to get out. I remember feeling so clausterphobic being trapped up there and looking out the window at the snow that would not stop- being terrified that the baby would come and we would not be able to get to the hospital. My husband ended up shoveling out half of the alley only to have a plow come by and seal our garage back in. Twice. It was like something out of a terrible Lifetime movie.

**jackie5275** · January-04-11, 10:33 AM

I remember it starting to snow on Saturday, probably late morning. There were tons of weather advisories and stories about how bad it was going to be, you shouldn't be out unless you need to be, snow emergency get your car off the street, etc. As I remember it, they started predicting it on Christmas Eve and had been talking about it the whole week leading up to it. My husband & I prepared for it by getting about 100 lbs of salt & 2 new shovels. After digging out by shoveling for 2 days, I vowed to never again shovel snow. No more time to be cheap, bought a snow blower, and have upgraded it three times since.
But there is one incident that really sticks out in my mind about that storm. Despite the media blitz of forecasts & warnings and despite the intense, rapid snowfall of that day, a lady who lived about 3 doors down from us had a female guest who arrived in the morning and parked in the street. We kept watching her car get buried deeper & deeper in the snow. We couldn't figure out why she stayed so long at the neighbor's house with all this snow falling. We knew the neighbor wasn't sick, so we figured it was a social visit. The guest didn't leave until early evening. I remember it was already dark when she tried to leave. Needless to say, she got stuck. A tow truck came to get her out. The tow truck got stuck. A big rig tow truck had to come & get them both out. This episode went on for about 3 hours. It was amazing to watch this "damsel in distress" in the snow. I wondered if she ever made it home okay.

**Russix** · January-04-11, 01:17 PM

I was 18. Some buddies of mine piled into my '90 Grand Marquis and we drove around the sub until the engine overheated at 3am. So much snow had piled up in front of the car that it was coming over the hood as we drove.

**English** · January-04-11, 01:18 PM

Originally Posted by Red Devil

I was waiting in line to get to the airport. It must have been backed up a good 3 to 5 miles. Once I got inside the terminal they were making annoucements for people from Detroit to just go home.

Which day did you try to fly? I think I left that Sunday morning.

**trotwood** · January-04-11, 05:20 PM

Originally Posted by Meddle

Huh? You DROVE 3 blocks?

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

Yes. I drove THREE BLOCKS.

**Downrivergal** · January-05-11, 12:45 AM

That was also the day BK was debuting their "new Fries" and they were gonna give them away for FREE!! My husband and neighbor were very excited, too bad BK was probably closed and I was quite keen about getting the ice dam off the roof

**Al Publican** · January-05-11, 12:58 AM

My wife and I were at a suburban restaurant when the storm began. The streets were bare in late afternoon. By around 8pm we were barely able to get up the Howard St exit on the Lodge Freeway downtown. We struggled to get down Bagley to where we lived taking turns getting out to push the car while one of us steered.

Out of nowhere a good samaritan with a shovel appeared like an apparition in the blowing snow. He helped me to shovel out a curbside revetment to park my car in. I offered him $20. for his labor. When he refused, I insisted that he take at least $10. He politely took the money, and I'm sorry to say, I never saw him again.

I also remember Detroit's second worse snowfall of 30 Nov-1 Dec 74, something like 19 inches. I was going to Wayne State and my '64 Chevy Impala's snow tires got me through the blizzard, barely.

**EastsideAl** · January-05-11, 01:52 AM

I was supposed to leave that day to go back to NYC, where I was living then, after spending the holidays with my family. With the snow falling heavily outside their window, I had no choice but to just sit around and watch the football games while using up the last of the Calder Dairy eggnog. However, I had to be back in NYC by Monday morning, so I waited around as long as I could on Sunday, waiting for the roads to be as clear as possible, and took off in the late afternoon dreading how long the trip was going to take me.

The local streets weren't really cleared much at all, and the snow was blowing around pretty good. I even got stuck for a little while trying to come out of a gas station. There was only a single lane fully cleared on 75, so the going was slow for a while. But as I was going downriver things began to gradually open up. By the time I got to the south side of Toledo there was pretty much no snow at all and the road was dry and clear. The rest of the trip was a snap.

**cmubryan** · January-05-11, 01:57 PM

I was 16 and a junior at West Bloomfield High, school was closed for a couple of days. To this day it was the largest snow storm I ever remember. I remember the offical number being 14 inches. At least that is the number I have been using for the past 12 years whenever I compare any storm.

**13074Glenfield** · January-05-11, 03:23 PM

I had been back in Detroit visiting family over the holidays. My plan had been to spend New Year's weekend with them and fly back on Sunday but, because I was flying on miles, I had to leave on January 1st. I took a flight that left at something like 11 pm to get out before midnight. That weekend I saw that everyone who was planning to leave the next day was still stuck at DTW. Close call.

**SMRJim** · January-05-11, 06:23 PM

If that's the year I'm thinking of, we had another big storm soon after and had about 2 feet of snow on the ground altogether [[on the lawns, etc). I can't remember anything specific about that particular storm, I may be mixing it up with another year towards the end of the 90s. But the time I'm talking about, I ended up with some sort of ice jam above my bedroom window. I kept hearing this noise in my room, couldn't figure out what it was at first, turned out it was water dripping through the window! This was soon after the 2nd storm, after we got some sun. Whichever year it was, I do distinctly remember walking through the snow with my ladder to clear up the ice, and the snow was up to my knees or a little higher!

Come to think of it, 99 may have been the year where they kept predicitng huge storms, and other than that one, they kept staying just south or east of us. I clearly remember hearing all the media fuss about one storm - we were going to get 10-12 inches, they ended up announcing the closing of all the schools that night, weather kept coming on TV talking about this terrible blizzard. I woke up the next morning extra early to avoid all the traffic, and there was NO SNOW!!

**hubbardfarmer** · January-05-11, 06:57 PM

My ex and I were renting a place in Hubbard Farms. After several days of shoveling ourselves out the best we could, we and our neighbors were roused out of bed at about 3 a.m. by police and snow plow drivers ordering us to move our cars so they could plow Bagley. We were told that, during a snow emergency, we weren't allowed to park on the street. But for many of us there was nowhere else to park. I also remember seeing dump trucks full of snow heading toward the river to dump their loads.

**jackie5275** · January-06-11, 11:05 AM

Originally Posted by SMRJim

If that's the year I'm thinking of, we had another big storm soon after and had about 2 feet of snow on the ground altogether [[on the lawns, etc).

You're right. We got hit with the first big blast that Saturday. Then it snowed again on Monday with about another foot of snow.

**JBMcB** · January-06-11, 03:12 PM

I didn't live downtown, but I commuted in from the east side to WSU. I remember the streets were somewhat plowed - Woodward was in good shape, but the side-streets had a half-foot of frozen snow that you were driving on that made the potholes deadly to ball joints.

I only had two classes, film appreciation and electronics. There were, maybe, a dozen students in each one, but both professors showed up.

Afterwards I visited my friend who rented over by Trumbull and Forrest and helped him, and the rest of the neighborhood, dig out. It was street parking only over there, and I remember neighborhood sentries protecting the spots they had cleared out for their own houses from other people trying to park there. One scofflaw got his car buried under several feet of snow after parking down the street from his own house in a cleared spot.

**detroitbob66** · January-07-11, 01:07 AM

Originally Posted by jackie5275

You're right. We got hit with the first big blast that Saturday. Then it snowed again on Monday with about another foot of snow.

AHH HA! YES, I REMEMBER THIS NOW! OMG!

**Danny** · January-07-11, 08:58 AM

2011 will be a La Nina type Winter, There will be upcoming blizzard warnings anywhere in Northwest, The Western States, The Great Lakes Region and New England areas. So for The New England areas had been affected with 1 to 4ft of snow. New York City was having a hard time digging out. Millions of New Yorkers were trapped like New York Rats in their homes and apts. Michigan will be next in La Nina Blizzard path. I will be surprised that Detroit and the suburbs will get over 5 to 7ft of snow.

Be prepared for a long 13 week winter.