[AccessD] OT Friday: Ice Adventure!

Elam, Debbie DElam at jenkens.com
Fri Feb 28 18:06:00 CST 2003


Since it is Friday, I thought all of you might be entertained by my ice
storm mishaps.

As many of you probably heard, Monday night the DFW area was hit with a
winter mix storm.  This one was almost entirely sleet, but enough freezing
rain to weld it together and give it a slick crust.

I have a VBA training class this week.  The trainer came into town for this
week only so there was no way to make the class up.  I was determined then
to make it in to work despite the ice.

Tuesday morning was not bad in spite of the layer of ice on the streets.
Only a few spots were so slippery that driving slow was not enough to
compensate.  I drove to the park and ride and got on the bus and made it in
just about double normal driving time.  Coming home was a different story.

First, I arrived at the bus stop around 5:00.  Another woman had been
waiting since 4:00, but no busses had come by.  She called Dart (Dallas Area
Rapid Transit) and discovered there were fewer than normal busses due to
driver absences and the first bus had gotten stuck on another street.
Eventually the bus after showed up.  We got stuck with the wheels spinning a
couple of times in downtown, but the driver managed to get us started again
in a few minutes.

On the freeway home, 3 18 wheelers had slid slightly sideways and one after
the other blocking the entire freeway.  Forced to exit we got stuck on the
service road.  A roving band of helpful men were walking the area with
shovels and broke the ice under the wheels of our bus and other stuck
vehicles.  We were on the way again.  

We stopped again when the driver realized the side street she had chosen ran
through a large gully.  The bus would never had made it up the other side.
Turning around was hampered by drivers going ahead of the bus then behind
it, then ahead.  Because of this we were stuck across several lanes or
traffic when letting us go would have gotten us out of everyone's way in 5
minutes if traffic had stopped for us.

Once turned around we make good progress for awhile.  Then about 2 miles
from the park and ride we come upon a handicap bus stuck near the top of a
low incline.  Breaking our momentum was deadly we got stuck at the bottom.
I considered walking to the park and ride, but did not get desperate enough
to do it until we had been there for nearly 2 hours.  At this point my
normally less than 1 hour bus ride had taken over 5 hours.

I bailed from the bus, intending to walk to the park and ride and get my
truck.  It was slippery enough I chose to walk in the grass.  It was harder
and I had to stomp a little to break through the ice crust, but I only fell
down twice.

On the walk I encountered cars that had either slid into drainage ditches,
or were unable to get enough traction to move every 200 yards or so.  This
was demoralizing enough that I decided, if I tried to drive home, I would
end up abandoning the truck or sleeping in it.  The park and ride was a much
better place to abandon and I decided to try to walk the rest of the way
home.  Unfortunately this is another 5 miles.  Do-able, but tough.  

I called Hunter to tell him of my decision.  He talked about coming to get
me, but we discarded that idea since he would likely just end up abandoning
or wrecking our other car too.  Then he realized we have an ATV that could
make the short trip if anything could.  We agreed to meet partway.  He had
one bad spot getting to me.  He yielded to a truck coming the other
direction (it needed the momentum a lot more than the ATV) and ended up
sliding into a ditch that was deep enough to have liquid water in it.  So
Hunter, rather wet and cold by that time, finds me at the agreed meeting
place.  I get on the back of the ATV, hold on tight and see a blur because
my helmet visor fogs up.  we make it home with no more incident, just a few
slightly slippery corners.  We made it home about 1:00 AM.

To top all of this off, I had lost my voice due to the crud going around,
and I was hacking up some really disgusting stuff.  Everyone was very
concerned that I had gotten too cold while walking, but actually I was too
hot.  The stomping gait was so energetic that I was sweating for much of the
walk.  The only really cold part was on the ATV.  For the most part, the
drive just cooled me down to normal.  There was ice on the back of the seat
from the storm and my rear melted it during the drive.  Needless to say this
got my rear soaked and THAT was cold.

I did not even attempt to leave the house until 5:00 PM the next day when we
could finally see the road where the 34 degree temperatures and a little
traffic had melted it.  The driveway still nearly trapped us though.

I found out yesterday that the bus never made it to the park and ride.  They
got out of the spot where they were stuck, but had to turn around and only
got a little closer before they gave up at 11:00.  A few brave souls gave
the others rides the rest of the way to the park and ride.  everyone I spoke
to had not made it home in their cars.  They had to abandon them along the
way as they got stuck too.  One woman nearly slid into a creek, and
abandoned the car rather than take the chance of sliding off the bridge
while she tried to get unstuck.  She had a tow-truck pull it to a melted
spot late Wednesday and drove it home then.

Debbie


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