Surviving a Bomb Cyclone: Tales from the US Office
Our Head of US Operations Paula Klockner had a difficult day in the office...find out what happened, and get a glimpse of how dedicated the Hello Bio team really is.
Here is her story...
You may be wondering what it’s like to go through a Bomb Cyclone or Bombogenisis. Needless to say, it is quite interesting. I learned a lot!
I never heard those words until this week. I thought it’s going to be like a regular Nor’easter. That’s when the wind blows in a counter-clockwise direction. I didn’t think it would be that bad since the snow accumulation was supposed to be less than 8 inches.
During a Bomb Cyclone the snow blows horizontally. It’s like driving in a dense fog. I got to work only about 5 minutes later than my usual commute. I was happy about that. I take mostly backroads to get to work. Speed limits are slower, but there is less traffic. Roads were snowy and there were stretches of miles with absolutely no one else in sight. “Cowards” I thought. I was glad they stayed off the roads if they didn’t know how to drive in snow. I maintain a speed consistent with road conditions. I’ve driven in snow all my life. No big deal.
The winds blew so hard that my eyeballs burned when I had to go outside to the FedEx box. I wrapped a scarf around my face, like you see the explores of the Arctic do.
From my window I could watch the snow in the parking lots and field. I noticed the parking lot across Wall Street only had one car. It’s normally full. Odd, I thought, - no one else has made it in - then I went about what I needed to do.
During my sojourn to the FedEx box I ran into one of the workers from the Land Rover dealer. He told me that the State was shutting down at 11:00. It was after 10:00 when he told me this, so naturally, I turned on the local news radio to hear the announcement for myself. I never heard the announcement and proceeded to go about working intending to stay the full day.
Periodically I would look at the window and watch the snow accumulating around a car in the parking lot. It was getting deep, but still didn’t alarm me. One of my FedEx delivery drivers called to ask if Wall St had been plowed. No, it hadn’t at that point and I told him UPS had gotten through so it must be okay. About 30 minutes later I heard the plows. I called our Fedex driver and told him the road was clear. This was after 10:30AM. He told me the roads were bad and he would be here when he got here. He finally made it here around 12:30.
I noticed, that with the exception of the guys downstairs, myself and one car across the street, all the other parking lots were empty. The contractors had come and shoveled off the walk. I peeked at my car. Yes, there was snow all over it and snow drifting along the side. Manageable. The plows were doing the empty lots and hadn’t come to do this one. Forty-five minutes later when I went outside, the walks were snow covered from the blowing winds and a drift had formed in the plantings that was almost knee high. “Not good” I thought. But I was enjoying the quiet and trying to figure out Xero.
I glanced out the window in the afternoon and saw the car in the parking lot now had snow halfway up its door. By then it was almost 1:30 and I decided to leave.
My car had snow up to the bumpers. I made an important discovery. I have all-wheel drive (AWD) on demand in my car. But wait! AWD on demand does not work in reverse. All these years of having the car, I never had to try AWD in reverse. I hadn’t thought things through when I came in and didn’t back into the parking space. Needless to say I got stuck in the parking lot. Trying to rock the car out didn’t work. I also didn’t think to put a shovel in my trunk. I started kicking the snow away from the tires so I could find a spot and get traction. I called Dave, the site supervisor. He was already home. He had left at noon. Luckily, he called the plow guys. They came out and plowed a path around my car. More rocking it, forward, reverse, forward, reverse, finally freed me from the deep stuff. The plow guy plowed me a path, to drive in, from my parking space all the way to the traffic light on Rt. 206. I was very happy.
I lucked out by being a few cars behind the plows on Rt. 206. If you aren’t familiar with the way plows work during big storms, they travel in packs of three. The first will plow at the center line and shift the snow to the right. The next plows that snow and once again shifts it to the right. The final plow, plows the snow from the other two and shoves it to the shoulder of the road. The road was clear as I traveled. In some areas I could almost see the blacktop. There is a drawback to being behind snow plows. I don’t think they ever got out of 1st gear. I drove home at top speed of 10MPH, less than 20KPH, and had to do a lot of braking. I still had to use AWD for stops and turns. I got home just before 3:30. The snow had slowed to light flurries, but the wind was still bad. AWD did allow me to get into my driveway without sliding into the trees.
The salt trucks and plows had been down my road and I knew I had to get out there and shovel before it froze. So, it was run in the house real quick & put on more layers so I could go out and shovel. My husband got home around the same time and got out the snow blower. I never realized that thing has a headlight on it. Good thing because it was dark by the time we finished shoveling and blowing out the drive. By the time we were done, the temp with Windchill was below 0 F or -18C. Windchill today is 0. Tonight we will have temps of 0 to -5F without the Windchill. With Windchill it will be -15F or -28.889C.
I don’t think I have a long drive until I have to shovel. One section is 50’x15’, then the area where we park is 60 ’x30’. My husband decided we are getting too old for this and wants to get a 4 wheel drive truck so he can attach a plow to it and be done with the drive in 10 minutes.
So, what’s the moral of the story?
Next time the weather man says we are getting a Bomb Cyclone or Bombogenisis, I am staying home.
