About half of Covington lost power in what we now know as the “storm of the century.”
(Never mind we often call bad storms names like those. This one really lived up to it.)
The blizzard that struck the South and really most of the Eastern U.S. in March 1993 was one you’ll never forget if you lived through it.
I recall a week out of school at that great age of 12 - just old enough to have fun out on my own, but not so old to be jaded by everything, as many adolescents get.
That’s good, too, because what a shame it would have been to have been a child in the South and just sat inside playing video games or watched TV when an historic snowfall was right outside the door.
Friends in our neighborhood sledded using whatever we could find. We had snowball fights and ran into snow drifts just because we could.
Even after the infamous “snowpocalypse” in January 2014, the 1993 blizzard remains the gold standard of winter weather in these parts. Some areas of north Georgia saw 3 feet of snow.
Officially Atlanta got just 4.2 inches of snow, which doesn’t even rank in the top five snow events in city history. But it still created a state of emergency across Georgia.
In Covington, 18 city workers braved the inclement weather to try and keep the lights on and the roads clear.
Up to 130 Snapping Shoals Electric Membership Corp. employees worked the weekend of the storm and were joined by 20 workers from around the Southeast who showed up to help
High winds toppled two trees in Academy Springs Park, giving Covington its most visible scars from the storm.
“That might be the city’s biggest loss,” Frank Turner, then the city manager, told The Covington News for its March 18, 1993, issue.
I’m curious as to your memories of the storm. Were they as fun as mine? If not, what were the snow events that brought out the child in you?
(You don’t have to answer with a snow from your childhood either. A storm three years ago this week dumped something like 8 inches where I lived in northeast Alabama. The adults in the neighborhood had more fun than the children, although I thought for a minute my right knee would never recover.)
As we approach the 25th anniversary of the 1993 blizzard next week, I’m curious to see your pictures and hear your memories of this storm or other big ones from Newton County’s past. I’ve got a weather fascination and look forward to hearing more about how it has had an impact on this great community.
Send your stories and photos to me at dclemons@covnews.com, or bring them by the office.
We’ll share the best soon.
David Clemons is the editor and publisher of The Covington News. His email address is dclemons@covnews.com. Twitter: @scoopclemons.
