A record-breaking 12.6 inches of snow blanketed the Lansing area and most of the Northeast United States on Saturday.
As local residents began to dig their way out, Brandon Bath was fighting 2-foot-tall snow drifts and yet-unshoveled sidewalks as a delivery person for Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwich Shop, 643 E. Grand River Ave.
Bath said he walked through snow up to his shins, and at one point, his car got stuck as he tried to get up someone's driveway, and it slid back down.
"Everyone said, 'Oh, man, the roads suck,' but they didn't tip anymore than usual," Bath said of his adventures into the snow.
The snowfall translated to .52 inches of liquid precipitation and brought the monthly total up to 4.37 inches - breaking the record for precipitation in the month of January, meteorologists said.
"It's pretty unusual that January sees this much precipitation," said Ernie Ostuno, meteorologist in the National Weather Service Grand Rapids office.
The snow is the result of a storm system which came from southern Canada and stretched through Chicago, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Detroit and on to the East Coast in places such as Boston, Ostuno said.
In Lansing, the storm peaked between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. Saturday, where wind gusts reached about 25 mph and visibility was at a quarter-mile or less, Ostuno said, although it was not enough to qualify the storm as a blizzard. It takes winds at 35 mph and visibility at less than a quarter-mile for three consecutive hours, he said.
Because of the poor conditions Saturday, there were many delays at the Capital City Airport in Lansing as crews worked for almost 23 hours to keep the runways clear, officials said. Extra people had to be called in to help, said Tara Ball, Capital City Airport operations officer. In the end, there were more delays than cancellations, with four arrivals and six departures canceled between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., she said.
"Everybody was pretty understanding," Ball said. "They were probably surprised flights were even going out at all."
As crews worked to keep the roads clear throughout the day, Michigan State Police Lansing Post number 11 logged 12 accidents Saturday, said Sgt. Robert Thornton.
"It wasn't as bad as it could have been because it happened on a weekend," Thornton said. "Had that been Friday afternoon, we would have been in a world of hurt with all the commuter traffic."
In East Lansing, there was a lot less traffic because of the weather, said East Lansing police Sgt. Mark VandeWouwer. There were 11 accidents reported Saturday, but none severe, he said.
"The traffic moved slow out of necessity because there was so much snow," VandeWouwer said.
Most of the East Lansing Police Department used four-wheel drive vehicles to patrol yesterday, he said. The only patrol car used yesterday was rear-ended by a drunken driver who slid into him, VandeWouwer said. The officer suffered whiplash and was transported to Lansing's Sparrow Hospital but was OK, he said.
On campus, crews worked from 4 a.m. to 6 p.m. trying to clear roads and sidewalks, said Gary Parrott, manager of Grounds Maintenance for MSU.
About 40 grounds crew members used many different sizes of equipment, from three large road trucks to lawnmowers with blades on the front, to clear the snow Saturday and Sunday, Parrott said. The workers follow a "snow plan," which is laid out in a systematic way and outlines major zones for workers to focus on, Parrott said.
Predental freshman Aaron Lerg and a few friends used the freshly cleared paths as they braved the weather. He said they tried to keep their balance on the slippery walkways Saturday night to make it to Grand River Avenue to visit friends.
"We took the sidewalks when we could, but sometimes we had to walk in the road," Lerg said. "It was slow going. There were just a few cars out, and Grand River had a lot less (cars) than normally."
