Weathering the Storms

This past Wednesday, the entire state was blanketed with over a foot of snow, closing schools, blocking roads, and shutting down infrastructure in general. With snowfall reaching to over two feet in some areas, many New Jerseyans were given an unpleasant throwback to the similarly damaging 2011 “Snowtober” blizzard (which was bad enough for then-governor Chris Christie to officially cancel the holiday of Halloween for the state). This blizzard came mere days after a large windstorm saturated the ground with water and brought many trees and limbs down.

The first nor’easter that hit New Jersey began early on Friday, March 2nd. It involved heavy rains, a fair coating of sleet, and most importantly, winds up to 50-60 MPH. This caused Oratory to switch its schedule to half-day during first period and initiated the first round of what would prove to be a trying fortnight for the state. The windstorm brought down many limbs, even uprooting entire trees, and knocked out power lines across the state. The town of Basking Ridge alone was forced to close more than three major roads, blocked by live cables and fallen trees. Many customers statewide were without power through the weekend, and Jersey Central Power & Light, NJ’s main power utility corporation, found itself utterly swamped with repair jobs.

The damaged infrastructure had barely finished bandaging itself in time for Wednesday’s onslaught of multiple feet of snow. The ground, still saturated from the windstorm and now taking in melting snow, was in no shape to hold the many trees weighed down by the wet, heavy snow. JCP&L’s nightmares continued as even more houses lost energy, the most unlucky of customers having power for less than a day between storms or never getting it back at all before the blizzard. Oratory was forced to cancel school for two straight days, Wednesday and Thursday. Although Friday had already been called off for an administrative meeting before the storms even formed, it wouldn’t have made much difference – New Jersey was no closer to digging itself out of two-foot snow banks and navigating fallen debris on Friday than it was the two preceding days. By Monday, however, most schools, including OP, had reopened and began lessons again.

All of this was in time for another snow storm which brought a school delay on Tuesday, March 13th.

Photo Credit: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/regionals/south/2013/02/14/much-damage-from-blizzard-blamed-its-high-winds/Rfd6SfU8mFE8TeN8F5oMlI/story.html