New Snow Record! Blizzard Hits! Acoustically Perfect Barn Falls!

The Snow Record for Maine had stood since 1955 at 181 inches. As I had mentioned earlier this winter, I was pretty sure it would be broken and it has been shattered by the last snowfall which moved the winter total to 185.7 inches. It is just March 23rd and we have a very good chance of moving the record up to 200 inches and even more by the end of snowfall in the month of April.

Here is a photo of Nadiene and the pugs in front of the downstairs entrance to the art department. We have no more room to pile snow and really need a thaw right now!

Many buildings large and small are in danger of collapsing as everyone is struggling to remove snow from rooftops all over the Aroostook County area of Northern Maine. As you can imagine, there is very little space left to pile snow and driveways and roads are becoming very dangerous and narrow to drive on.

On the first day of spring, March 19th, a blizzard alert was posted and we were hit with a foot of heavy wet ice and hail followed by a blizzard and heavy winds. Barns with animals inside collapsed and left beef cows and horses outside in the subzero winds with no protection. Many animals were buried under the barn they were in and still more have frozen outside. Every effort has been made to save the animals, but many are stranded in areas away from main roads and cannot be reach quickly.

Many commercial buildings have collapsed and private homes have had to be abandoned for a safer place, because the ice is frozen like granite to the roofs and the weight is too heavy for the buildings to remain safe. Camps at St.Froid Lake are reported to have snow in excess of twelve feet on top of them and there is no access to them until the weather breaks.

Nadiene and I were fast asleep with the pugs when the blizzard moved in and had no idea that it was like a tornado outside. The house is heavily insulated and almost sound proof to outside noise, so we had no inkling of what was transpiring in the dooryard.

The Acoustically Perfect Barn was hit by a heavy wind shear in the peak of the building due to high snow banks all around it. Apparently the gable end in the back cracked on the peak seam and started a chain reaction that eventually pushed the front of the barn out. When I took a look out the upstairs window in the morning, the barn was down and laying flat on its face. The blizzard and snow were starting to fill up the center of the barn and the ridge pole was resting on the tops of the Mazda and Nissan SUVs. The Bass Tracker boat was completely smashed and a piece of beam was down and laying across the Kioti diesel. Most of the woodworking equipment was completely destroyed including a large cabinet saw and the 21" bandsaw.

We are very lucky there was no fire and I was able to get the power shut off in the building (by reaching through what was left of the front wall) and tripping the circuit breaker. We got in a call to the insurance agent and a couple of friends before our neighbors started to call and show up. Marilee Smith called first and said she was calling her brother Carl Winslow to plow out the driveway and then she would be down. Sure enough, Carl was there in ten minutes with a plow and got the driveway open and right behind came Marilee to the rescue! She stayed all day and helped Nadiene do phone calls,get a rental vehicle, and do the mail and errands. We even shipped a couple of whistles that were due to go!

The roads were all but impassable, but neighbors showed up to see what they could do and by evening we had even located someone to take down the rest of the barn before it got any more dangerous. Marilee's husband Sid, had snow blown the driveway five or six times until it finally went into a stage of submission. It sure isn't pleasant to have a disaster happen, but it is really great to have good neighbors that show up to help.

The past two days, many folks have called to lament the passing of the Acoustically Perfect Barn and it will be sadly missed as it was a true Stradivarius of buildings. We will be making arrangements to have a Bar- B- Q on the slab when the weather gets warm and the mess gets cleaned up!

Here is a collage of photos to give you an idea of what the blizzard dished up! The Weather Channel has never has mentioned this storm or any other storms in Northern Maine in recent memory. This area would be declared a disaster area if this storm had happened in any other part of the country. Oh yeah! We are due for a big North Easter storm by Wednesday with another foot of snow.