North Carolina prides itself on its temperate climates, and rarely gets enough snow to dust the ground. However, Mother Nature gave us a sobering reminder of just who IS the boss...

We'd already had two minor snowstorms this particular week ("minor" by yankee standards, but the 1-2" on the ground was enough to give most everyone at least one day off), but what little snow that fell was gone by the next day. Monday afternoon the next storm started out as rain, and we all thought we'd dodged another bullet. But by midnight, it was apparent that we were in for The Big One. Near white-out conditions persisted throughout the night and well into Tuesday morning, by which time we had nearly two feet of the white stuff on the ground.

Many of the main roads remained unplowed for several days (there was enough snow on these roads to scrape the bottom of an SUV!), and more than a week after the storm many back roads were still nearly impassable. Wake County schools were closed for nearly two weeks!

Needless to say, this posed quite the challenge for the fire department. Our 4-wheel drive brush truck was the only apparatus that could truly handle the road conditions, and it spent much of the time pulling the ambulances out of the snow drifts! But thanks to the dedication and hard work of our members, we were still able to answer the call of duty through it all.

Luckily Brian Yates who owns his own landscaping business loaned the fire department his tractor. Scooter Carter worked hard to clear our driveway.	Some of our firemen weren't going anywhere anytime soon!
The situation was so bad that Wake County Emergency Management called in the National Guard to supply selected fire departments with personnel and Humvees to assist us in getting to calls!