[MrSilver]

But my 335i made it through the storm.

This is the first time I've had power since Thursday, but I'm not at my house.

3/4s of the city is still without power, and it will remain that way for probably another week.

100 year old+ trees have been destroyed.

My digital camera had no power, but I bought a throw away one. I'll get the pictures put on disk asap and post them.

Go Sabres!!.

[Pedal2Floor]

Mr Silver

Did you have snow tires or did you have slip and slide in summer tires like many I heard about in the news?

If you did have snow tires, what did you end up getting?

[Nikki]

Man that stinks. I hate the snow, that's why I moved down here. Hopefully you'll get a heat wave to make up for it before the real winter sets in.

[just4kickz]

we get earthquakes here

[Brunotheboxer]

and i thought boston winters were bad. good luck in buffalo and tell us how the 335i is in the snow if you got your winter tires.

[MrSilver]

I don't have my winter tires on the car.

I was finally able to get it up my driveway.

Thankfully it didn't get hit by a fallen tree.

90% of all trees in Buffalo have been damaged by the storm. Many destroyed. I think there have been 6 storm related deaths now, but that number is going up because people are killing themselves with their generators.

It has been almost 5 days now since I've had power, and 3/4s of the city is pretty much in the same boat as I.

I'm going to the Sabres game tonight, so hopefully I'll have something to cheer about.

[txusa03]

you have to deal with snow, we texans had to deal with rain and flood and dallas cowboys beating up on us during this past weekend. I left the office at 3:20 pm yesterday and did not get home until 7:40 pm on a 22 miles trip. I was stranded out on beltway 8 waiting for floods water to receed. What a way to start a monday.

[knight]

Originally Posted by txusa03

you have to deal with snow, we texans had to deal with rain and flood and dallas cowboys beating up on us during this past weekend. I left the office at 3:20 pm yesterday and did not get home until 7:40 pm on a 22 miles trip. I was stranded out on beltway 8 waiting for floods water to receed. What a way to start a monday.

yea, i remember coming home from school on 59, speed limit was like 60, doing 35-40 just because it was so hard to see...what was worse, was that it was at night..bad news is, i think it's suppose to rain the rest of the week too.

just be careful when you all drive and to ppl in houston, don't get flooded

[txusa03]

I dont want to admit it but I drove down the wrong way to escape the flood...HPD was doing the same thing . Sorry Mr.silver for the thread hijack...

[MrSilver]

Here is an email I just received:

The last several days have been a remarkable experience here in the Buffalo/Niagara region of Upstate New York. A week that started in summer with temps in the 70s, ended in winter with 22.3" of snow in less than 24-hours. Massive, widespread power outages caused by falling tree limbs - still with all their leaves - became impossibly weighted down by the heavy, wet snow to the point of collapse, throwing the entire region back 100 years, to the time my own house was built.

Conditions are slowly improving, though. Most of the snow has now melted and cleanup efforts are well underway - though hampered slightly by today's rain. More than 120,000 homes and businesses remain without electrical service and according to National Grid, many may remain so until next Monday morning due to the extensive and widespread devastation caused by the storm that has locally become known as "the October Surprise."

Indeed, the aftermath of the storm will be evident long after the full restoration of power, phone, cable and data utilities are complete.

At last report, more than 70% of the trees throughout the region impacted by the storm were either severely pruned, or dying. The beautiful, old-tree-lined streets - Lafayette Ave. and Delaware Ave, up to our Olmstead-designed jewel Delaware Park - are now timber graveyards. Those trees that are still standing - including the 100-year-old Norway Maple in my own backyard - are a shadow of their former selves, most of their boughs stripped away and lying at the curb, awaiting the shredder at some future date.

Yet through it all, help and hope come from the communities we all cultivate professionally and personally, here in this "City of Good Neighbors" that we call home.

[txusa03]

I am surprised that the article did not mention flooding due to the snow melting. That is a very high possibility with the added rain.

[findtom]

In for pics...

[MrSilver]

I'll get some pics up ASAP

[knight]

man, crazy weather

just be careful mr. silver

[MrSilver]

They say that 90% of all of the trees in Buffalo have been damaged. I have old school rolls of film that are being developed atm, but here are some of the few photos I took with my digital after I was able to get batteries for my camera.

There are trees like this on every street in the city.

Many people have lost all of their trees, most of which have survived 100+ years of harsh Buffalo winters.

This storm has altered the face of our city for generations.

It is really a shame.

[txusa03]

wow!

[knight]

insane

[MrSilver]

Funny thing is that 3 days later we had no snow left.

[Jay_328]

Originally Posted by MrSilver

Funny thing is that 3 days later we had no snow left.

When I saw the report on the news I was immediately reminded of you and your car. Funny how this site has united some of the BMW community.

I'm sure you're enjoying your new ride.

[MrSilver]

Early snowstorm battered Buffalo's historic parks, trees
Updated 10/20/2006 4:43 PM

BUFFALO (AP) — Heavy, lake-saturated snow was falling like never before in Buffalo, at least not so early in the fall, piling up on a citywide canopy of maple, ash and oak trees still lush with leaves.

Strobes of lightning and bursts of thunder punctuated the overnight storm. And there was another sound, an eerie popping like gunshots from all directions. It was the sound of tree limbs cracking under the weight of the snow and leaves.

Karen and Clem Arrison rushed from tree to tree in their yard and the parkway where they live trying to shake off the pummeling snow, but the morning light showed the futility of their efforts.

The surprise storm, with its nearly two feet of snow, devastated the city's trees, damaging virtually every one.

"I felt like I was out there watching my old friends die," Karen Arrison said.

In Buffalo's treasured system of interconnected parks, parkways and circles envisioned in 1868 by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, an estimated 90% of the trees will need care.

"This system is as unique and means as much to Buffalo as Central Park means to New York City," said Johnathan Holifield, chief executive of the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, the not-for-profit group that oversees the system and its 11,000 trees.

The countless other trees shading streets and homes outside the system also suffered.

State environmental officials say trees are resilient. With proper pruning when dormant, the odds of survival are good. But many are clearly beyond hope, split down the middle, uprooted or snapped at the trunk. A giant willow tree believed to have been planted in 1899 for the Pan-American Exposition, lay on a driveway in one Buffalo neighborhood.

With the snow now melted away, in every park and along most every residential street, rise mounds of leafy branches and limbs, dragged curbside in the cleanup to be hauled away.

In the 350-acre Delaware Park, the city's largest, huge limbs dangle precariously toward the ground and twigs form a carpet over the soggy earth. It and all the parks were closed this week because of the danger overhead. Sections of pine trees, some big enough to be Christmas trees, were strewn about. Many tree tops looked like they had been stepped on.

"It really was a shock," said Holifield, who is faced with the daunting task of overseeing the restoration. "These were full green trees. They were at their most robust and that also contributed to retaining greater weight from the snow."

Even if most trees survive, experts say it will be a generation, maybe more, before the landscape returns to what it was.

Dwayne Scaife walked in Delaware Park with his 5- and 10-year-old sons this week. A firefighter, Scaife was on duty during the storm, dodging falling branches and power lines with every call.

"It's sad," he said of the aftermath. "I grew up in this park and to see all these trees gone like this, it's just sad. There's not much else you can say."

Holifield said his foundation hopes to enlist other not-for-profits, the business community and local government to collaborate on restoring — even improving — the parks. He has yet to begin tallying the costs.

"This is not a fleeting moment. This is an enduring challenge," Holifield said, "and we need some patience, a lot of progressive thinking and we will need an infusion of investment to help us restore this."

The Arrisons, who are conservancy trustees, quickly mobilized others in the foundation and delivered a gift of nearly $35,000 on Thursday. The money will keep seasonal grounds crews, who were nearing the end of their assignment, on the payroll for another month.

"One of the defining pieces of our city is our parks and parkways," Karen Arrison said. "It is one of our jewels."

The system of six parks, nine circles, eight parkways and several smaller spaces was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

The snow began Oct. 12, setting a record for the "snowiest" October day in Buffalo in recorded history when 8.6 inches fell. The record lasted for one day, until 14 inches of snow fell on the 13th. The previous record of 6 inches was set Oct. 31, 1917.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[MrSilver]

Just got my film back...

Here are some more pictures of my street the day after the storm.

[Jay_328]

Wow your car is buried. Man that sucks. Thanks for sharing the pics.