Storm stories: From snow blower woes to being stranded in Great Bend, a memorable blast

Nov. 26—WATERTOWN — The weather forecast called for lake-effect snow — a few feet of it, nothing us Northern New Yorkers had not seen before. It would be a late-autumn annoyance, we reasoned, but nothing we couldn't deal with.

Lake-effect snow, after all, usually with flakes of low water content, falls light and fluffy. Easy to get rid of.

But last week's storm, although lake-effect in nature, didn't produce typical lake-effect snow. By the end of the day Friday, we were measuring it in feet. It was mushy, heavy and very hard to move, sort of like an annoying Thanksgiving guest who had overstayed a welcome.

Snow blowers clogged. Snow plows got stuck. People cursed.

More snow fell on Saturday and Sunday to add an exclamation atop all the misery. By the end of it all, 61 inches had fallen

Returning to work on Monday first required manual labor to clear vehicles and driveways.

"It was most definitely lake-effect. It was just an earlier season event, so the air wasn't as cold as later in the year," explained Michael J. Fries, warning coordination meteorologist at the Buffalo office of the National Weather Service. "This meant it was a heavier, wetter snow."

But something else fell on us, and quite heavily at times — graupel, or granular snow pellets — and sounding like rain, or perhaps annoying gremlins, knocking on our windows. Mr. Fries also had an explanation for that.

"The graupel showed up because at times, the air was so unstable that the heat flux from the lake actually rimed the flakes with liquid water for times, which resulted in the graupel," he said. "This mostly occurred during the times when lightning was observed."

Yes, we also had to dodge lightning. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association says "thundersnow" occurs where there is relatively strong instability and abundant moisture above the surface of the Earth.

At ground level, instability spread as roads and stores closed, alerts issued and snow-moving muscles cramped. Snow blowers, coming out of summer hibernation, were awakened with an imposing roar across the northland, but puttered out as the wet, heavy snow choked many a machine.

At Burrville Power Equipment on Route 12, phone calls concerning snow blowers were almost nonstop on Monday.

"When it was 75 degrees two weeks ago, and all of a sudden we've got this snow, nobody can be prepared for it," said Burrville Power owner Scott J. Simmons. "But you can be ready for it by having your stuff together and pre-planning for it."

Mr. Simmons said many people in the area became complacent with snowfall over the years.

"A lot of it is that we've had such light winters for so long, that everybody is accustomed to everything being light," he said. "We don't get snow until late, and when the snow that does come, we get a little bit at a time. This is an old north country winter like it used to be. A lot of us who remember it are prepared for this type of storm. I grew up in Copenhagen. This is a normal winter, no big deal. So if you haven't seen it, they may get something to just get by and to get through."

Mr. Simmons said all of his "big stuff" at the shop went quickly "just to get through this snow."

"You might have a unit that's way overkill for what you're looking for the majority of the time, but that one time that you need it, you got it," he said.

The Burrville shop itself needed some help getting dug out, and the community responded.

"We've been real lucky," Mr. Simmons said. "We've got a lot of good friends, and people have come to help us get stuff dug out. Saturday was absolutely insane; people coming up who were unprepared and getting them ready, helping with that and getting blowers out to them."

Perhaps nothing can cheer a snow-weary north country resident more than seeing the delivery of a new or repaired snow blower in times of dire need.

"All of a sudden the sun comes out, and the birds are chirping," Mr. Simmons said with a laugh. "They finally have something that's there."

Black River resident Sean M. Hennessey, who is also interim director of the Great New York State Fair, thought he was quite prepared for the storm.

"I knew the storm was coming, and thankfully, I had purchased a new-snow-blower-to-me from a neighbor," he said. "And I had a backup snow blower that I had for a number of years."

He got out his "new" machine during the height of the storm and first went to work on a neighbor's property, until the snow blower stopped blowing.

"Apparently, I didn't check the oil as closely as I should have," he said. "The engine seized on me. I tried to pull the cord to start the engine again, and it wasn't moving at all."

So Mr. Hennessey started his backup machine.

"And a bolt that attaches to one of the drive tires sheered off," he said.

After consulting with his small engine repairman in Felts Mills, Mr. Hennessey was able to repair his backup machine. But he went a couple of days without a blower.

"It was kind of a crazy snow experience, but thankfully, I had time and a strong back on my side," he said. "I did most of the snow moving by hand, with a shovel. Thankfully, I did have a neighbor with a plow, one of our village trustees, Corey Decillis. He was kind enough to come out and plow and clean out the areas where I had missed. It was a team effort."

That team effort — a village working together — impressed Mr. Hennessey.

"We've still got a lot of snow in the village of Black River," Mr. Hennessey said Monday. "People are still out trying to get folks out of their homes. It's neighbor helping neighbor. Maybe people have a snow rake and they're going out and shoveling people's roofs off for them. Or, if somebody has a snow blower, it's helping a neighbor. We saw a lot of that. It's very homey and a good feeling to live in a village where people do come together to help each other out."

Safe haven in Great Bend

That sense of neighbors helping neighbors played out for several hours last Friday night and into the early hours of Saturday morning at the Great Bend Stewart's Shops location at 32720 Route 3.

Store assistant manager Whitney J. Elliott, who has worked for Stewart's for nearly 15 years, arrived at the Great Bend store from her home in Rutland at 8 a.m., scheduled to work just a few hours, doing a few audits and other matters.

But heavy snow began to fall. Nervous employees voiced concern about remaining at work. Ms. Elliott said they could go home.

"I like to think we have a great family situation with the crew in Great Bend," Ms. Elliott said. "I was thinking, 'I don't want them on the road.'"

She also messaged other workers, telling them not to report to work.

Staying behind with Ms. Elliott was co-worker Brittany Trevett of Deferiet, originally scheduled to work 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

"She and I were like, 'We might as well stay. We're clearly not getting home anytime soon,'" Ms. Elliott said.

Ms. Elliott asked Ms. Trevett if she could close up with her. "She was like, 'Let's do this!'" Ms. Elliott said.

The store normally closes at midnight, opening back up at 4:30 a.m.. But there would be no closing this night.

"The next thing I knew, we've got pretty much every road around Great Bend closed with all the accidents and stuff," Ms. Elliott said. "They were turning people around."

Drivers pulled into the Stewart's parking lot, seeking refuge. Many of those drivers got stuck.

"We had young guys out there pushing vehicles out of our parking lot and helping dig," Ms. Elliott said. "Some people were helping us shovel. It was a stressful night, but it felt really good with all the humanity and stuff. It restored my faith in humanity."

First responders were placed at the intersection of Route 3 and Route 26. Both roads were closed.

"At one point we had, between people sitting out in our parking lot and people inside getting coffee, 20 to 25 people stranded," Ms. Elliott said.

Some of those stranded at the shop had to park at Stefano's Pizzeria, across the road from Stewart's on Route 26, and walked to the shop.

"I was like, 'Feel free to sit. Hang out with us, grab some coffee,'" Ms. Elliott said.

She ran boxes of coffee and doughnuts out to first responders at the intersection.

"I told them, 'You guys have it worse than us. We get to sit in a warm store.'"

The snow was falling so fast, a strategy was needed.

"It got to the point where it was, 'Let's keep the door clear,'" Ms. Elliott said. "As long as we can keep the door clear and people can get in, we're fine with that."

At one point, Ms. Elliott shoveled enough to get blankets out of her car. "We just hunkered down and kept the shop open and kept the food and coffee going," Ms. Elliott said.

The store also welcomed a steady stream of customers who weren't stuck, but rather walked through the storm from home to the store.

"I don't know if they didn't have groceries or whatnot, but we had soldiers from Drum walking up to get groceries," Ms. Elliott said. "I took quite a few orders from locals who were walking to get pizza."

Bread remained abundant, but milk dwindled.

"They were coming in and buying gallons — like two or three gallons at a rip," Ms. Elliott said.

But in general, Ms. Elliott wasn't worried about running out of food.

"The manager (Mike O'Connor) is really good in keeping the back stocked," she said. "We're one of the few shops where our customer base changes almost daily. We can go from having 20 to 30 people an hour to 100 to 150 because of National Guard on Drum. I wasn't worried about running out of staples like coffee and knew we had a ton of pastries in the back."

Ms. Elliott finally got off her shift at 7 a.m. Saturday.

"But it took them another hour or two to get our vehicles out," she said.

Meanwhile, Ms. Elliott called home, checking storm and road conditions. She reached home at 11 a.m., but not before picking up her husband at her uncle's residence.

"We then went over and helped my grandparents out," she said. "I wasn't actually physically sitting my butt down to relax until 3 p.m. on Saturday."

Walking, working

By Monday, people could walk, although gingerly, on most sidewalks again on Public Square in Watertown. Elsewhere in the city it's a different story as snow-clogged sidewalks are still forcing people to walk on roadways, with vigilance.

During the height of the storm, Jamie L. Paskill, owner of Spokes Craft Beer and Tapas at 81 Public Square, got her share of walking on roads.

"We had a pretty decent night Thursday and planned to open on Friday because many of us are within walking distance," said Ms. Paskill, a Paddock Street resident. "So, we knew that if the snow was bad, we could still probably get there."

Ms. Paskill, on foot, arrived at work at 2:30 p.m. Friday.

"We decided to close on Friday, which is our biggest night of the week," Ms. Paskill said. "And this is a really important time for us, when we go into the slow season, to make what we can. I think most restaurants are like me where the cushion isn't very big. Every night, especially on a Friday, is important."

As snow continued to fall, Ms. Paskill looked out onto Public Square. "Downtown was a disaster," she said. "They couldn't keep the roads cleared on the Square. It was very dangerous and there was no parking to be seen. You couldn't even tell there was parking in front of our building, or even in the back. The J.B. Wise parking lot was completely under snow."

On Saturday, Ms. Paskill laced up her snow boots again and prepared for another walk to work.

"I had given up on my house," she said. "I couldn't keep up with it. If not for my neighbors, there's no way I would have gotten out of my driveway. But I still decided not to drive."

Others, for whatever reason and despite a "no-unnecessary travel advisory" issued Friday, Nov. 18, by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, (lifted at 1 p.m. Sunday) did decide to drive, and were dodged by Ms. Paskill as she traversed Washington Street.

"Cars that shouldn't have been on the road were sliding all over the place, getting stuck in ruts," Ms. Paskill said.

When she reached work, Ms. Paskill was met with a surprise. Spokes bartender Dillon Wood had beat her there, and he was busy shoveling a path, nearly 6 feet high, from the establishment's entrance to the road.

"He knew I was on my way, and wanted to get through the snow before I got there," Ms. Paskill said. "It was like, if he can get here and do this, I can do it too. So, it was just going to be the two of us. I was going to be in the kitchen and he at the bar."

But some other workers also arrived.

"It was amazing," she said. "We had staff members come and they just said, 'If we're going to open, we're going to be here. If you can't pay me, OK — let's just see what we've got.'"

What they got was a surprise.

"It ended up being like a typical Saturday night," Ms. Paskill said. "It was incredible."

She discovered that many people were willing to walk to Spokes, which Ms. Paskill said was one of the few downtown eateries open on Saturday.

"We had people calling," Ms. Paskill said. "It warms my heart that people are looking out for us. There are people, every day, choosing small businesses, and it obviously makes a huge difference."

At 12:30 a.m. Sunday, it was time for Ms. Paskill to walk home. She decided to take a different path: down Stone Street and onto Sherman.

"But there were cars stuck," she said. "People leaving Paddock Club, people going home or whatever they were doing, I have no idea. But they were stuck, trying to pull each other out. It was just a mess."

On Monday afternoon, Robert J. Henderson, a cleaner at Sherman Elementary in Watertown, was cleaning up some of the mess the heavy snow left at the school. Nearby, on the Sherman Street sidewalk in front of the school, custodian Michael Grandjean was operating a mini-tractor with a snow plow attachment.

Mr. Henderson had just finished clearing some steps for students and staff who would not use it for days.

Schools remained closed, snow days, on Monday and Tuesday and into Wednesday, a normal pre-Thanksgiving day off. There was no school Friday.

Mr. Henderson lives on a street off Arsenal Street.

"I just got my car out of the driveway on Monday," he said. "Just yesterday, we pulled out probably four cars."

Preemptive strike on drum

On Fort Drum, post officials reported a total snowfall of 54 inches by the time the storm lifted. Eric Wagenaar, deputy to the garrison commander, said that the sheer heaviness of the snow, combined with a "mix of rain and sleet," made recovery efforts even more difficult for snow crews and residents. Mr. Wagenaar credited the post's public works (PW) team for their "tireless efforts" to plow through the storm.

"They've been performing amazingly, going on four days now," Mr. Wagenarr said in a news release issued Tuesday. "PW immediately made the adjustments and exchanging the equipment with the right capabilities to handle the changes in weather conditions."

On Thursday, Nov. 17, in anticipation of the storm, the garrison commander issued a "Do Not Report" order for the Fort Drum community.

"This gave people a chance to get any supplies they didn't already have or maybe make that one last check on the snow blower," Mr. Wagenaar said. "I think being a little bit pre-emptive on our part helped a lot of families to prepare. And I think the fact that we didn't see any major emergencies is a part of that."