This is one of the worst snowfalls Josh Padilla and his girlfriend, Stacey White, have ever seen.
“It’s rough,” White told Signal Akron on Monday afternoon. “It’s colder than I thought, and the snow is heavier than I thought.”
White and Padilla are two Akron residents who are working to dig themselves out after the biggest snowfall of the season blanketed the city. The storm system covered nearly half the country, with about 34 states impacted by heavy snow and ice, according to The Weather Channel.
White, who moved to Akron from Tallahassee, Florida, and Padilla, who moved from Tampa, were trying to dig themselves out of their Firestone Park driveway so they could make their way to the airport later this week. They’ve been in Ohio less than a year and have gotten a wintry introduction to Lake Effect Snow.
Their destination? Florida, of course. The couple hoped the extreme weather wouldn’t interrupt their long-scheduled travel plans. Their escape to the Sunshine State couldn’t have come at a better time for them.
“I expected it,” White said. “I just didn’t expect it to look the way that it looks.”
The couple had no plans to play in the heavy snow. Sled riding is not on their agenda.
“Absolutely not,” White said with a laugh. “That does not sound appealing.”
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Through rain, snow and shine, Rubber City Reuse is ready to go
The work never stops for Ben McMillan, the owner and founder of Rubber City Reuse.
On Tuesday afternoon, he was busy shoveling his trucks out of the snow at the company’s headquarters near Bounce Innovation Hub in downtown’s Canal Place complex. While there weren’t any pickups Monday of compostable scraps with the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank closed, he still had to get ready for the rest of the week.
“This is the worst,” McMillan said. “Well, last year we had a pretty good one too.”
The snowstorms last year prompted him to move Rubber City Reuse’s base of operations to downtown Akron from Mogadore. The problem with the old location? He had to shut down whenever there was a heavy snowfall, given the old facility’s gravel and dirt driveways.
“Mondays are busy days, because this is the start of the week,” McMillan said.
On a normal Monday, he and his employees make the rounds picking up food scraps from places like Whole Foods — he services four across the region — before taking them to a compost company near the Akron-Canton Airport.
McMillan, who is studying environmental sciences and urban planning at Cleveland State University in addition to running his fast-growing business, said snow like this might be a temporary inconvenience, but it offers some benefits in the summer months.
“This is good for our environment,” he said. “It helps knock back invasive species, like plants and insects that might be able to deal with some cold, but not this. … Plus, we need snow just like we need rain in the summertime, man. This stuff helps rebuild our aquifers.”
Leave it to Akron’s compost king to find the silver lining under a foot of snow.
Snow days mean sledding at Cascade Valley Metro Park
It was grandma’s idea to get the boys off their video games and outside in the snow at Cascade Valley Metro Park.
Owen Davis and Aaron Sladen, both 8 years old, were playing Roblox together when Sladen’s grandmother, Cathie Hilston, asked them if they wanted to go sledding. The answer, of course, was yes.
“Actually, when I was a kid, we didn’t really go to any real hills,” Hilston said. “We just made our own hills. So it’s nice that they have real hills for kids now.”
Owen and his buddy Aaron weren’t the only ones taking advantage of the day off at the park. There were more than a dozen sled riders on the hill, many with their parents perched at the top.
Tyler Jodon, 36, brought his two boys, Emmitt and Everett, 9 and 12 years old, respectively, to the hill. They had snowboards and sleds in tow. Later, he said, he’ll take his oldest to Brandywine to snowboard.
There, they’ll at least have access to ski lifts and tow ropes. The hill gets harder to walk up with age, Tyler Jodon said.
“I quit smoking cigarettes, thank God,” Tyler said. “It’s so much easier without smoking cigarettes, but it’s still a pain.”
The hill didn’t seem like too much trouble for his boys, as one hit a jump at the bottom of the hill going backwards.
“This is one of the better locations, though,” Tyler said. “It’s a great hill.”
