October surprise

That's the name given to the snowstorm we Buffalonians had to endure during the night of Oct 12 which dumped around 2 feet of snow and paralyzed most of the infrastructure for a week. The university, schools & many offices were closed for a couple of days. Close to 300,000 households were without electricity.

Personally, I'm very disappointed with the nomenclature of the storm. Buffalo is rarely in the limelight and this was a very good oppurtunity to make people take notice of this city (although admittedly, its not the best incident). After Katrina, Rita & Wilma, who's going to give a damn about 'October Surprise'? It should have been named something like 'October Blitzkrieg' or 'Hell freezes over' and suchlike.

Anyway, I'm glad that the US government has finally acknowledged the destruction caused by the storm and has agreed to give some federal aid to Erie county in which Buffalo is located.

How could a snowstorm cause so much destruction? This must be the question foremost in your mind. Fall was not completely over and most of the trees still had leaves on them. When the snow deposited on such leaf-laden trees, they could not bear the weight of the snow and most of the branches started falling. More than 90% of the trees were destroyed. The falling trees and branches took down power, telephone & cable lines with them. This left most of the homes in the dark.

Fortunately, the apartment complex in which I stay was not affected and I & some of my friends made the most of it. The following day (Friday, Oct 13), the storm had subsided, the sky was clear & blue and seemed like a perfect day except for the fact that there was still 2 feet of snow around us. One of my friends came over to my place, we went outside, called another friend & played in the snow for almost 2 hours. I then called some more friends including my roomie & his wife for some more fun. We then went indoors, played some board games, cooked food & ate lunch while watching 'Sholay'. All in all it was a day to remember although I feel sorry for some of my other friends who may have had the most miserable times of their lives.

Here is a collection of some photos. These are some crazy videos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6.

Till then, stay safe!!!