I was watching the History Channel last night. There was a show about blizzards in the US and it mentioned the blizzard of ' 93 that swept the South. They said that Birmingham received 13 inches of snow in one day and that was more than the city receives all year! Thirteen inches is more than Birmingham receives in 13 years!! Those folks need to get their facts straight.
Snow in Alabama
- Thread starter J. T.
- Start date
Help Support CattleToday:
Nowland Farms
Well-known member
Ahhhhhhh,
The Blizzard of '93.... I live an hours drive east of Birmingham on Interstate 20 in Oxford. We had between 15 & 16 inches when we woke up that morning. We never lost power but friends did. My wife called them to tell them I was coming in the Chevy 4x4 to get them. Most gathered their sleeping bags and extra food. All told we had about 16 friends (adults & kids) over for 3 days.
The Kids wanted to play in the snow but as kids do, they were tracking the snow in & out of the house. When I saw that this was not going over too well with the wife, I knew I had to do something. I got a bright idea to go out in the back yard and cleared out a 20 foot wide circlein the snow. Built a good camp fire from the firewood stack. Gathered all the lounge chairs we could find and some square bales. The adults set outside around the fire and had a good time catching up on each other. The kids played in the snow until the were cold. They would come to the fire, warm up and then off again.
When I went back to work 3 days later (after they opened the roads) I was sunburnt from the reflection off the snow. A few days later my face even peeled.
A lot of folks around here have bad memories of the 93 storm because they were without power for a couple of weeks or so. I only have great memories because because of the fellowship
I had with friends and family.
Now someday remind me and I'll tell you how my 2 brother-in-laws and I rescued a family off the mountain by using canoe in the snow. This action made the local news in Birmingham.......
The Blizzard of '93.... I live an hours drive east of Birmingham on Interstate 20 in Oxford. We had between 15 & 16 inches when we woke up that morning. We never lost power but friends did. My wife called them to tell them I was coming in the Chevy 4x4 to get them. Most gathered their sleeping bags and extra food. All told we had about 16 friends (adults & kids) over for 3 days.
The Kids wanted to play in the snow but as kids do, they were tracking the snow in & out of the house. When I saw that this was not going over too well with the wife, I knew I had to do something. I got a bright idea to go out in the back yard and cleared out a 20 foot wide circlein the snow. Built a good camp fire from the firewood stack. Gathered all the lounge chairs we could find and some square bales. The adults set outside around the fire and had a good time catching up on each other. The kids played in the snow until the were cold. They would come to the fire, warm up and then off again.
When I went back to work 3 days later (after they opened the roads) I was sunburnt from the reflection off the snow. A few days later my face even peeled.
A lot of folks around here have bad memories of the 93 storm because they were without power for a couple of weeks or so. I only have great memories because because of the fellowship
I had with friends and family.
Now someday remind me and I'll tell you how my 2 brother-in-laws and I rescued a family off the mountain by using canoe in the snow. This action made the local news in Birmingham.......
CKC1586
Well-known member
Okay so lets hear that story!!
Nowland Farms
Well-known member
Ok, remember, you asked.
I said we 15-16 inches of fresh snow on the ground. My wife called one young family we go to church with to check on them. They were OK, but had no power and house was getting colder. This family consisted of:
4 yr old boy
2 yr old boy
Pregnant Mom
Dad with injured knee (ACL) from basketball game the day before
67 Grandmother
I jumped in the truck and headed over to their place to see if I could make it up to their house. This family lived about 1/2 mile up a long steep drive up on the side of the mountain. Each side of the drive had about 2-3 foot deep ditches on each side. I made a couple of runs at trying to get up the truck up the drive but between pushing snow with the axles and being afraid of sliding into the ditches, I decided there had to be another way.
I drove down to my brother-in-laws (BIL) house down the road and his BIL was there. We discussed how we could get up the drive. We knew we could walk in but we didn't think we could tote them out unless we had no other choice. We looked around and saw the 14' flat bottom aluminum boat and though about pulling it up the drive to the house and sliding them down but decided to use my 16' canoe that my BIL had "borrowed" several months before. We felt that the canoe would slide better on the snow. We loaded up the canoe and headed back up to the drive. We tied a rope to the front of the canoe and tied 3 leads to us so that we could each hike up the drive while pulling the canoe. Man was that a hard hike. Knee deep snow pulling that canoe uphill !!!!!
My Sister-in-Law had already called the family to tell them what we were doing so when we made it to the top of the hill they were ready to go and standing on the front porch laughing, snapping pictures and videoing everything.
We loaded all 5 of them in the canoe and started pulling it down the drive. We had only gone about 150 feet when the canoe decided it wanted to pass us so we stopped. Thinking that the last thing we needed was for the canoe to make a fast trip down the drive we told the dad to get out because we had a job for him, he was going to be the anchor. We had another short piece of rope and tied it aroung his waist and then to the back of the canoe. We told him to fall down if the canoe started to pass us. He worked out really well, because of the knee, he was slow.
We made it down the drive to my truck. lLoaded everyone in the truck and headed off.
A couple of days later the local newspaper ran the story of the front page with a picture of us pulling the canoe. The TV stations in Birmingham ran the story on the evenings news a day or so later.
Years later the Mom of the Family sent a copy of the video tape to the Weather Channel and when she heard that they were putting together a 10th anniversary show for the Blizzard of '93. The Weather Channel they sent a film crew over from Atlanta to interview us and get pictures of the canoe and the family. We made it on National TV for a couple of minutes.....
Oh well that's my 15 minutes of fame.....
Sorry but remember, You asked. :lol:
I said we 15-16 inches of fresh snow on the ground. My wife called one young family we go to church with to check on them. They were OK, but had no power and house was getting colder. This family consisted of:
4 yr old boy
2 yr old boy
Pregnant Mom
Dad with injured knee (ACL) from basketball game the day before
67 Grandmother
I jumped in the truck and headed over to their place to see if I could make it up to their house. This family lived about 1/2 mile up a long steep drive up on the side of the mountain. Each side of the drive had about 2-3 foot deep ditches on each side. I made a couple of runs at trying to get up the truck up the drive but between pushing snow with the axles and being afraid of sliding into the ditches, I decided there had to be another way.
I drove down to my brother-in-laws (BIL) house down the road and his BIL was there. We discussed how we could get up the drive. We knew we could walk in but we didn't think we could tote them out unless we had no other choice. We looked around and saw the 14' flat bottom aluminum boat and though about pulling it up the drive to the house and sliding them down but decided to use my 16' canoe that my BIL had "borrowed" several months before. We felt that the canoe would slide better on the snow. We loaded up the canoe and headed back up to the drive. We tied a rope to the front of the canoe and tied 3 leads to us so that we could each hike up the drive while pulling the canoe. Man was that a hard hike. Knee deep snow pulling that canoe uphill !!!!!
My Sister-in-Law had already called the family to tell them what we were doing so when we made it to the top of the hill they were ready to go and standing on the front porch laughing, snapping pictures and videoing everything.
We loaded all 5 of them in the canoe and started pulling it down the drive. We had only gone about 150 feet when the canoe decided it wanted to pass us so we stopped. Thinking that the last thing we needed was for the canoe to make a fast trip down the drive we told the dad to get out because we had a job for him, he was going to be the anchor. We had another short piece of rope and tied it aroung his waist and then to the back of the canoe. We told him to fall down if the canoe started to pass us. He worked out really well, because of the knee, he was slow.
We made it down the drive to my truck. lLoaded everyone in the truck and headed off.
A couple of days later the local newspaper ran the story of the front page with a picture of us pulling the canoe. The TV stations in Birmingham ran the story on the evenings news a day or so later.
Years later the Mom of the Family sent a copy of the video tape to the Weather Channel and when she heard that they were putting together a 10th anniversary show for the Blizzard of '93. The Weather Channel they sent a film crew over from Atlanta to interview us and get pictures of the canoe and the family. We made it on National TV for a couple of minutes.....
Oh well that's my 15 minutes of fame.....
Sorry but remember, You asked. :lol:
CKC1586
Well-known member
What a great story! Thank you for sharing.
