Snowed "in" or "out"?

Photo 1...What I walked through to get into my townhouse. #2...between my garage and the neighbors garage...looking at the street.
#3...between my garage and my townhouse.

Ok. After a snowstorm, most people would say that they are snowed in, right? Well, why aren't they snowed out? I'll get to my point in a moment. When I left for work this morning at 4:00am, there was a thin layer of slush on the ground. However, the forecast was calling for a pretty major snowstorm to move in and bring us significant amounts of snow. At 5:00am-as I was just starting work, freezing rain started to fall. And in less than 30 minutes, it was a full-blown (pardon the pun) snowstorm. The wind was howling from the north and blowing the snow horizontally in a southerly direction. I'm not even sure that conveys just how strong the wind was.

Anyway, I wish that I had my camera at work to show you just how miserable it was. Our 4 airplanes that overnight each night in Omaha were literally covered by the slush layer, snow layer and finally ice to top them off! We had a hard time getting around with our bag tugs because of the slush under the snow. Not to mention the weight we were trying to pull around behind us--meaning all the bags in carts that we tow. Thank goodness it wasn't very cold. In fact, I was sweating under my rain gear from working in the bag room until it was time to take the bags out to each flight. They all ultimately cancelled because of the conditions.

That was my job for the day. Working in the bag room sorting bags for each flight into bag carts as people checked in. THEN.....as flights cancelled, we (the other guy helping me) ended up carrying most of the bags back to the ticket counter as people came back to re-claim their bags. We even had our own "customer service line" as ramp agents-just helping reunite the them with their own luggage. Quite the workout going back and forth between the counter and our bag room with luggage in hand.

Before I left work at 1:30pm, our dispatch department had cancelled the rest of our flights for the entire day due to airport conditions. The plows couldn't keep the runways cleared off to keep up with the drifting.

My drive home was another story. I tried to help people that were stuck and happened to be in front of me but it was to no avail. I was able to get past one car thanks to my front wheel drive. But as soon as I got to my own driveway....I was doomed. After rocking my van back and forth for several minutes, I decided that I would have to go back up the hill and park there for the night. Once I walked back down and realized just how deep it was, I decided that shoveling was out of the question. My complex has a bobcat to remove snow from our driveways. So guess what.....I'll let them!!!! It was almost to my knees because of how it drifted into my driveway. No wonder my van couldn't go through! And there were numerous other folks stuck on the road into and out of my complex. So I feel fortunate to at least be able to drive my vehicle! Now, back to my point of being snowed out. I believe that on my drive home, someone had me almost snowed "out" of my own home!

Last thought...the photos just don't show that we had approximately 7-10 inches fall in some areas. Other places right in our metro got 12 inches. Sheesh!