The Blizzard of 2000

January 2000

We flew to Colorado January 19 for dental work as well as work work (Susan spoke to several homeschool groups). We returned to a mess! In our absence, nearly 10 feet of snow fell in places, causing avalanches that closed many roads and cut off electricity to large areas of the state. Hurricane-force winds topped a large spruce tree just upwind of our house. The branches punched holes in our brand new roof but did surprisingly little real damage, considering how bad it could have been. The top half of the tree rolled off the roof, missing a deck as well as two fences on its way to a safe landing in the dog pen.

Dennis' airplane was at Girdwood at the time, about 30 miles south of Anchorage near Alyeska ski resort. A friend had volunteered to keep the wings shoveled if it snowed, but there was too much snow for him to get to the plane. The road remained closed for days due to avalanche danger. A heavy equipment operator attempting to clear an avalanche from the road was swept into Turnagain Arm by a fresh avalanche and drowned. Additional work was halted until conditions improved.

We were afraid we'd find our airplane wings collapsed under the weight. When we finally reached the plane, we were greatly relieved that the wonderful folks at Alpine Air Alaska in Girdwood kept the wings shoveled for us, to our great relief (photo). We had to look down at the plane from atop a snow berm!