I'm back home!

ThatOwlWoman said:
Gods. How did you stay warm? Do you carry an emergency kit with water, food, blanket, etc.? How many other ppl were stuck there? Glad you're okay. Damn, that's a story for the g-kids.
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I was warm because the truck was running, I used the heat. And I had a blanket that I didn't use except when I tried to sleep. There were about 108 people at the shelter where I was at, and some at the shelter at the other side (a church in our neighborhood). I don't know the total, but there were two roads with the same issue and about the same number of cars stuck, parallel running roads about 8 miles apart CR 166 and CR 194.
 
dammmmn when you were talking about this in the backroom i thought it was like a routine traffic jam or something. holy shit 13 hours i would have gone mental
 
Damocles said:
For those of y'all who didn't know... There was a blizzard in my area of Colorado in which I was stuck in my truck... Whiteout conditions stopped my ability to move, then snow drifting closed around stopping freezing my truck into an inescapable trap. For 13.5 hours I sat in my truck, checking my tailpipes to make sure the snow wouldn't cause Carbon Monoxide to build up in the cabin and kill me... the National Guard finally got to me and got me out. And today, after about 10 minutes of digging with a shovel and one backhoe with a chain my truck was pulled free and I was able to drive home on the newly opened roads.

It was an adventure.

Here was the view from my truck:
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HOLY SHIT!!!! Welcome back!!! :wave:
 
FutureGrind said:
dammmmn when you were talking about this in the backroom i thought it was like a routine traffic jam or something. holy shit 13 hours i would have gone mental
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Yeah, I was out there from about 1 PM until 2:30 AM the following day. There were people ahead of me that I couldn't see and didn't know about that were there from 10:30 AM until even later as I was in the 2nd group they got out of there and they brought back a ton of people. When I first got to the shelter there were a total of 12 people in there, by the end of the night, as I said before, there were over 100. There were a ton of people stuck in a white out with 80 MPH winds. Some of them ran out of gas and were helped by those nearby.

My main goal was to make sure the authorities knew that I was there, knew my name, so that if they found a bunch of people but not me they knew to keep looking. I gave them GPS coordinates and told them where to find me exactly. Likely the reason I was one of the first found.

The backroom stuff I posted from my phone. I hate posting from a phone. My fat thumbs make for very short posts...
 
Phantasmal said:
Do you carry emergency provisions? I had them in my car when I lived in Alaska!
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I'm certainly going to make a better go bag though. I figured with 36 years of driving and never stuck due to snow I was a golden boy. But when it is a true whiteout you will not be able to drive folks. Not even close. I literally had a view of white and windshield wipers... That was it. There was no moving. I moved my truck to the side of the road when I had a flash of a few feet to see in and just decided to sit and wait until I could actually see something. That opportunity did not come. Even when the snow stopped falling, supposedly, the wind still was blowing the snow around me in a whiteout. It didn't get better until 7 AM when the wind slowed down to 30 MPH... It was astounding how little one could see and when I could see the truck wouldn't move. The snow got all around and it was PACKED snow. When I got out to pee and to look at the rear of the truck I walked on top of the snow. It was as hard packed as a dirt road.

I was lucky, the drifting around my truck was like a bowl. It filled in from bottom to top, but it allowed me to open the door and walk outside. Some of the folks were literally frozen into their cars and when help came they had to dig them out so they could exit their vehicles or get them out through an open window. Imagine leaving your vehicle knowing you had opened a window to get out and that it would be filled with snow when you got back!
 
Damocles said:
I'm certainly going to make a better go bag though. I figured with 36 years of driving and never stuck due to snow I was a golden boy. But when it is a true whiteout you will not be able to drive folks. Not even close. I literally had a view of white and windshield wipers... That was it. There was no moving. I moved my truck to the side of the road when I had a flash of a few feet to see in and just decided to sit and wait until I could actually see something. That opportunity did not come. Even when the snow stopped falling, supposedly, the wind still was blowing the snow around me in a whiteout. It didn't get better until 7 AM when the wind slowed down to 30 MPH... It was astounding how little one could see and when I could see the truck wouldn't move. The snow got all around and it was PACKED snow. When I got out to pee and to look at the rear of the truck I walked on top of the snow. It was as hard packed as a dirt road.

I was lucky, the drifting around my truck was like a bowl. It filled in from bottom to top, but it allowed me to open the door and walk outside. Some of the folks were literally frozen into their cars and when help came they had to dig them out so they could exit their vehicles or get them out through an open window. Imagine leaving your vehicle knowing you had opened a window to get out and that it would be filled with snow when you got back!
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I can only imagine how your family felt, even knowing you were OK and just waiting.
 
Damocles said:
I was actually able to check them by using my backup camera. The wind created a pocket back there and there was no danger at all of buildup, which was nice. There were some people that had it much worse. One guy didn't do that and was very nearly dead when they got to him. The National Guard came out in snowcats and got us. There was about 57 or so cars stuck on the road in front of me, which was one of the reasons I had to stop. Though most of the night I couldn't see anything and may as well have been alone...
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Ahhh, the backup camera. BRRRRILIANT! I hadn't thought of that. Man 'O Manischewitz, what a harrowing experience. It could've easily turned out badly. Kudos to you for keeping your cool, and using your head. And God Bless the National Guard!
 
Damocles said:
For those of y'all who didn't know... There was a blizzard in my area of Colorado in which I was stuck in my truck... Whiteout conditions stopped my ability to move, then snow drifting closed around stopping freezing my truck into an inescapable trap. For 13.5 hours I sat in my truck, checking my tailpipes to make sure the snow wouldn't cause Carbon Monoxide to build up in the cabin and kill me... the National Guard finally got to me and got me out. And today, after about 10 minutes of digging with a shovel and one backhoe with a chain my truck was pulled free and I was able to drive home on the newly opened roads.

It was an adventure.

Here was the view from my truck:
]
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Terminology has changed while you were away.
Blizzards and whiteouts are now referred to as bomb cyclones. I coined a new word for thunderstorms . Hydro cataclysmic events.
 
anonymoose said:
Terminology has changed while you were away.
Blizzards and whiteouts are now referred to as bomb cyclones. I coined a new word for thunderstorms . Hydro cataclysmic events.
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Actually a bomb cyclone is only when the millibars drop by more than 24 in less than an hour. It makes it so that it was a drizzle that suddenly turned into a miasma in minutes. I've been through blizzards before, that was the first that came that quickly. I am in awe. It was FANTASTIC to watch but not a joy to be out in. LOL
 
So very glad you’re safe Damo. A good lesson for all of us to learn about having an emergency kit in your vehicle. I’m out in winter weather all the time with thin clothes on and no emergency kit. If that had been me and I ran out of gas I’d probably have froze.
 
Damocles said:
For those of y'all who didn't know... There was a blizzard in my area of Colorado in which I was stuck in my truck... Whiteout conditions stopped my ability to move, then snow drifting closed around stopping freezing my truck into an inescapable trap. For 13.5 hours I sat in my truck, checking my tailpipes to make sure the snow wouldn't cause Carbon Monoxide to build up in the cabin and kill me... the National Guard finally got to me and got me out. And today, after about 10 minutes of digging with a shovel and one backhoe with a chain my truck was pulled free and I was able to drive home on the newly opened roads.

It was an adventure.

Here was the view from my truck:

53602123_10213823381681306_5671178257630756864_n.jpg
Click to expand...

Wow, what a hair raising story. Glad you came through ok Damo! It's stories like yours that reaffirm my belief in God.
 
Damocles said:
For those of y'all who didn't know... There was a blizzard in my area of Colorado in which I was stuck in my truck... Whiteout conditions stopped my ability to move, then snow drifting closed around stopping freezing my truck into an inescapable trap. For 13.5 hours I sat in my truck, checking my tailpipes to make sure the snow wouldn't cause Carbon Monoxide to build up in the cabin and kill me... the National Guard finally got to me and got me out. And today, after about 10 minutes of digging with a shovel and one backhoe with a chain my truck was pulled free and I was able to drive home on the newly opened roads.

It was an adventure.

Here was the view from my truck:

53602123_10213823381681306_5671178257630756864_n.jpg
Click to expand...

What if the truck had stalled:eek:
 
MASON said:
Scary though,your life was in the hands of a machine.
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They almost always are. If the power went out at my house my family would have been cold and bored. Truly if the truck stalled I had blankets and time. I would have been less comfortable but most likely alive.
 
Damocles said:
They almost always are. If the power went out at my house my family would have been cold and bored. Truly if the truck stalled I had blankets and time. I would have been less comfortable but most likely alive.
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Last night I was going to take the misses out for dinner. Just before we left the Misses and I had a brief fight. You know the kind? I don’t do enough around the house and when was I going to fix that and do this and show her more respect, etc, etc,. I ended the argument by telling her one day she’d regret nagging me all the time.

When we went to leave I was thinking about what happened to you so I popped open the trunk and tossed in a blanket and a shovel. I closed the trunk and the Misses was standing there with eyes as big as saucers and she said....maybe we should stay home and i’ll Cook you dinner.

Man she cooked me a great steak, turned on my favorite Clint Eastwood movie, snuggled with me all night and even made me a mango flavored cake with vanilla cream icing. So far she hasn’t nagged once while I’ve been doing nothing but watch basketball all day.

Who knew putting a snow emergency kit in the car would be such a great idea?!

Thanks Damo. :)
 
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