Snowed in

The weather folks have been warning us about this storm for several days now, but I think even they were caught off guard by what has hit today! Denver is SNOWED IN. And I mean that in every possible way--the airport is closed (and not projected to reopen until late tomorrow), I-25 is closed from the Wyoming border to the New Mexico state line, I-70 is closed from Denver to the Kansas border (probably 200 miles) and numerous other roads throughout the state have been shut down all through the day. The Denver Nuggets basketball game that was supposed to be televised was canceled, the US Postal Service pulled the plug at about 2:00 pm, most local malls were closed by 1:00 pm and the few schools that were still in session were closed as well.

The governor has officially declared a Disaster Emergency, which means the National Guard will be mobilized to go pull stranded motorists from their cars. The road that leads from Denver to Boulder was closed off and on today. Currently there are cars stuck on that road where the people have been at a standstill for 4-5 hours. At one point when I-25 was still open, truckers were being required to put on their chains just to drive through town!

I heard a reporter broadcasting from the airport saying that she spoke to some people there who were stuck ON AN AIRPLANE for 8 HOURS. They are from the same suburb as me, so they'd arrived at the airport at 5:30 am for their 7:30 flight. The plane pushed back from the gate and then got stuck in the snow, a mere 100 yards from the gate! Those poor people were stuck on that airplane for all that time, only to be let back into an airport that is closed until who knows when. What a nightmare! No one can even get to the airport to pick up stranded travelers because the only road to and from the airport is closed. The last time the airport was closed like this, all of the restaurants ran out of food. It was not a pretty sight.

Me? Well, I had hoped to run a few errands sometime today but those quickly got canceled. Quin had the day off already and he left early this morning to go on base to PT and get the oil changed on the car. He was back by about 11 am, before things got too hairy. My plans today were to get us packed and ready to go because we had planned to leave tomorrow morning to drive the 9 hours to Salt Lake City to spend a week with our families. However, this storm is supposed to continue throughout the night up until about noon so it's very possible that we will have to move our driving day to Friday while we dig out tomorrow. We can't go anywhere until I-25 is opened anyway, and there's a good 2 feet of drifted snow in our driveway, with more being added by the minute. Just getting out of our neighborhood will be a feat.

Today I've been doing laundry and wrapping presents, interspersed with lots of looking out the windows and checking the growing snowdrift outside the front door. I'm thankful we have plenty of food and a warm house to stay in on this cold, blustery day which will only turn into a colder night. I feel so bad for those poor people stuck in the airport! Our plans may be delayed, but at least we have a warm, cozy house (and way too many holiday goodies) to enjoy! Let it Snow!