The 2010 Blizzard in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Seven years ago from yesterday, 17.1 inches of snow fell in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  It was the largest snowfall for the Twin Cities since the 1991 Halloween Blizzard.  Not only is this the largest snowstorm on record for December for the Twin Cities, but this storm is the fifth largest snowfall in a single storm to hit the Twin Cities since 1891.  I remember that day so well, and maybe you do too- it was a crazy day!  Here’s my story of having to be somewhere and getting absolutely no where.

I remember waking up like it was any other day, despite the fact that it had been snowing for a while.  Seven year ago, I was working three jobs— I was an intern at a photo studio, I worked in a restaurant as a sever, and I taught yoga very part time, so I was always on the road, always busy working.

On this particular morning, I was teaching a yoga class, and arrived at the studio pretty easily.  The roads weren’t great, but I gave myself plenty of time.  When I was done teaching, I had a voicemail from my manager saying it was time to shut it down and cancel the rest of the classes.  I hadn’t even had a chance to look out the window, and when I did, I was shocked.  Half of my tires were buried in snow and getting my car out of the parking lot looked grim.

Luckily, I kept a shovel in my car thanks to my past experiences with plows in college at UW Madison, so I started to dig myself out of the lot and further dig the path out to the street.  I couldn’t keep up.  As soon as I got somewhere, my other path had been buried, so it became dig, move the car, dig move the car.  Luckily, a very nice man with a wrinkled forehead and a big white beard saw me struggling and dug me out of the lot with his bobcat.  That couldn’t have come at a better time.  I think he was my guardian angel.

It took me about an hour to get close to home, and I called my boyfriend (now husband) on my way home to see how the side streets were.  He laughed and told me nothing had been plowed and things were getting worse.  I turned onto my street and immediately got stuck in the snow.  I joined the 15 other cars sprawled over a three block radius where people were out of the vehicles helping each other push their cars out of the snow.

My boyfriend and roommates suited up in their snow pants and heavy gear and made their way out to my car.  It’s amazing what the snow in Minnesota does- it truly bands strangers together.  We helped push the stuck cars to the sides of the roads then cleared a path to attempt to get my car into the garage.  My boyfriend and roommate were two strong men and pushed and pulled my car the best they could.  Next to them were two petite girls (my rommie and me) with a combined weight of less than 200 pounds.  We weren’t much help.  The struggle was so real and it took over an hour to get my car the two blocks to the garage, but we did it.

I took a moment to relax then remembered, I was the on call person at my work that night.  There’s no way I could even come in with this weather.  At this point, the buses had shut down and the city was closing down and telling people not to travel.

Before it was time for me to call in, my work was already calling me.  This was not a good sign.  My heart was beating high into my chest, thumping loud.  When I answered, my manager informed me that I was going to need to come in.  They had called off several people on their normal shift because of the weather, but no one could make it in because they couldn’t get to their cars, so I would have to help out.  I thought it was a joke and laughed.  Nope, they were serious.  I asked how I was going to make it in and explained that I had just been on the roads and there was no way my tiny Nissan Altima was going to make it to Uptown.  They told me they would call me back, but I had to come in.

This is when the tears started.  I couldn’t believe that they expected me to show up.  I totally get that as the on call I am subject to work, but it was something about this situation that made my blood boil.  The only way I was going to get there was to walk and that would have taken me about three hours in a blizzard.

The next hour was the longest hour of my life.  I had already told myself I was just going to have to get written up and maybe fired for not being able to make it.  There was nothing I could do and my boyfriend and roommates agreed.

After an hour, I called them back.  They told me not to come in, it was probably going to be slow anyways.  Really?  Slow in a snowstorm?  WTF.

Some good came out of this experience- my roommates made cookies and I ate a lot of them.  My husband threw out his back and started coming to yoga- something he now loves.

I hope we don’t get another blizzard like this, but it’s inevitable.  I think when a blizzard hits, we should all just go home and stay there for a while.  Don’t yiy>

If you have an interesting story from this epic snowfall- I’m all ears!  Reach on out- I’d love to listen!

Sources- http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/climate/journal/101210_11_blizzard.html