Who else is braving this hellish northeastern storm? Any stories to tell? I've got a pretty horrific one.
So I'm going to college at the University of Southern Maine, and am living on the Gorham campus (for the record Gorham was the town that was hit the heaviest out of all the other towns and cities in Maine). I was spending last night at my girlfriend's room when we were woken up at 3AM by the dorm's fire alarm. After a moment of wondering what the heck was going on, we quickly rushed to the dorm lobby where all the other residents had gathered wondering where to go. We were then shouted at to go to the student center which made everyone rush out the doors to get there. Now try and picture this if you can: The route from the dorm to the student center has no formal roads except for a small walking path, so no plow trucks had been clearing a path. Outside there were great winds going at speeds I couldn't even comprehend, and the snow in the air made it so you couldn't see more than 5-10 feet in front of you. Did I also mention that the distance between the two buildings is approximately 1/4 a mile? Now, couple that with the fact that most of the students had just gotten up from their beds and wern't expecting to go for a walk like that, and you can pretty much imagine what it was like. If not, it was exactly like (and I sh** you not) this:
! Though there was more snow, more wind, and it was dark out
!
Anyways, our group of near 300 students was forced to make this trek thought the snow to the student center. I luckily had some decent cloths on for the weather, but others weren't so lucky. Some were only wearing shorts, others only bathrobes. The wind was blowing at us in full force, stinging every part of our exposed skin with snow to the point where it felt like it was ripping it to pieces. The moving was slow due not only to the wind, but due to the fact that the path was so narrow and that there were snowbanks in our way. I was lucky for those who were further back in the line, as the ones up front were the ones pushing snow out of the way (and again, some weren't properly dressed). There was one point where we had to go single file though an area due to snowbanks making the road only wide enough to fit one person forward each time, and everybody started going even slower. At this point people were tripping in the snow, crying from the pain, or just blindly moving forward. It didn't help that there were a couple of jerks who were running around everyone and even pushing them out of the way. Many of us were holding strong though, including me and my girlfriend who only had a bathrobe, coat, and sneakers (she's a true blooded Mainer :wub:). One point ill never forget is right before we reached the student center. I could see a group of students huddled in front of the doors of the center but not going in because they hadn't been unlocked. There were some stairs covered in snow that we had to go down to reach the center, and I was just heading down when all of the sudden I heard this wail right behind me. I turn around and there was this girl standing there wearing a coat, shorts, and BAREFOOT!!! She was hysterical and crying upon seeing that the doors were lock, screaming something along the lines of "What am I going to do?!!!". I'm not very strong and I knew there was nothing I could do, but luckily a guy much stronger than me scooped her up and started carrying her down the stairs. We both started shouting at the people in front of us to get out of the way he rushed here to the eves of the student center where the doors were. Luckily we only had to wait a few minutes after I arrived, and then we were let in. Once I had checked on my girlfriend and gathered my barings, I surveyed the crowd of people around me. All of us were bright red from frostbite, and snow was so deeply ingrained in our hair it was like they had fused together. Many student's were holed up in the bathrooms either stripping off their frozen clothes or getting hot water. Everyone looked miserable. We later found out that someone had set off a fire extinguisher on the third floor, causing the alarms to be tripped. Luckily the guy was caught, so hopefully he'll be expelled (or at least suspended). Eventually we had to leave the student center, though everone ended up either getting rides or going to dorms closer by, so no one had to suffer more of the storm. All in all, this was a horrible night and I never want to experience anything like this again.