Snowed in, quite literally, at Deep Creek Lake

Close to 3 feet of snow fell in western Maryland in the Feb. 5-6 blizzard, and the wind pushed it into drifts like these on the back porch of Hugh and Dolores' condo on Deep Creek Lake.

Hugh writes:
We came to our place at Deep Creek Lake in Garrett County, Maryland on Feb. 4, a Thursday. Long before, we had planned a weekend with our friends from Rehoboth, Nancy and Jerry and their daughter Kristina. They had spent a weekend here with us last winter and had great fun tubing on the ski slopes at Wisp. Kristina is 8 years old, and this year they wanted to get her on skis for the first time.

The weather gurus were all predicting a major winter snowstorm. We knew from experience that the storms that come from the Gulf and ride up the East Coast into a cold front mean bad news. They were expecting 2 feet or more along the coast of Delaware - but only about 15 inches here inland. When Jerry called Thursday night, we both thought that if they got away from Rehoboth by noon on Friday, they would be ahead of the worst of the storm and could enjoy our mere 15 inches on the Wisp slopes.

We were concerned when it began to snow here eight o’clock Friday morning. Nancy called an hour later to say they just did not think it wise to make the trip in the storm. They made a good decision. Thirty-six hours later when the snow stopped falling here, the accumulation was more than twice the predicted 15 inches. As our pictures show, this snowfall made the previous one at New Year's look like a dusting.



Our biggest problem was getting out the front door. The storm door opens out, and snow can block it. We cleared it Friday night before going to bed, but by Saturday morning, the falling and wind-driven snow had piled a 3-foot drift in front of the door. The only way to clear it was to remove the glass panels from the storm door and shovel the snow away through the closed door until we had removed enough to allow the door to open.

On Monday morning, we made the decision to travel back home to Baltimore while there was a window of good weather before the next predicted snowstorm. We hear that the next one will hit New Jersey and the New York area also. It is about time you all up there experienced a little winter too.