The "And...You Thought You Had It Bad!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  I guess I should say a cold, winter, ordinary day.  Decided to head to the mailbox to check to see if our mailman might have delivered the mail as of noontime.  In order to get to the mailbox I must cross the street in front of our villa and head about 30 feet to the left in order to get to the mailboxes that service the homes on Rubia Place.  The chill in the air was manageable, but if I had to walk further down the street, I would have had to put a bit more clothing on to keep me from freezing.  I returned home and told my wife I would have to go back later since there was no mail in the mailbox at the time.  Sat on the couch next to her and watched over her shoulder as she pulled up photo after photo on her computer of what appeared to be houses.  I say appear to be houses since they looked more like sand houses someone had made on the beach.

Picture after picture of homes along Lake Erie that were the residences of people in the Fort Erie community.  Seems the waves had been crashing over their homes for many hours during a storm and made them look like sand castles.  Close to a dozen homes looked like they had been made of sand, but in full size.

The community was named Crystal Beach.  Seems the waves  during the storm came crashing over their homes and caused the sides of their homes facing the water to freeze, but not until they were covered with a layer of sand.  The frozen layer went from the top of the home to the beach.  The sheer volume of water coming over the wall to hit the homes and then freeze was incredible.  The homes were encased in sand and ice thrown over them by the recent blizzard.  If I hadn't known better...I would have thought they were sand castles that had just been built by a child.  

The community is west of Erie County, New York.  Seems that as the waves crashed onto the shore, the super-cooled water froze rapidly onto surfaces of the houses which in turn caused the sand to freeze on the side of the house.  Not sure if the houses were wood or made of stone.  A local news station reported that the accumulated ice, which continued for 37 hours on the Crystal Beach homes was at east a foot thick and residents were concerned about damage due to the weight of the ice.

Residents said that they never have had weather like what they are currently experiencing.  Temperatures in the Fort Erie area were expected to climb into the 50s sometime today.  That will hopefully lead to a massive thaw and pooling water.  When my wife first showed me the photos of the homes, I thought they were actually sand houses that had been made by children.  They looked remarkably well made.  But, when she told me they were full-size houses that were covered with ice mixed with the sand, I couldn't believe it.  I only hope that the residents whom have all the ice and sand on their homes have insurance to cover what will need to be done to get their homes back into shape once again.  I must admit they look beautiful with all the sand and ice, but I feel so bad for those who might have major damage on the water side of their homes.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.