Remembering the 1993 Blizzard in Gatlinburg, Tennessee

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  • Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
  • Where were you during the blizzard of 1993? Today we remember the storm that pounded the Smokies 25 years ago today. We are so happy that Ober Gatlinburg could help with rescue and clean up efforts during this time.
    All footage shot by Steve Gehler and Ober Gatlinburg
    Special thanks to Steve Gehler for letting us use the footage from his trip to Gatlinburg during this time. His channel is here:
    / @3shamgar
    Thanks to all who were patient enough to let us interview them including Danny Dixon, Joy & Pete Jucker, Russell & Ursula Gifford, as well as Sam Parker for his voiceover talent. We are also appreciative of the Great Smoky Mountain National Parks Service.
    Thanks to Kyle Granger of WVLT in Knoxville for assisting with audio.
    / kwgrainger
    Other Resources:
    INTO THE MIST by David Brill; this very interesting book is available here: www.amazon.com...
    www.skisoutheas...
    www.weather.go...
    www.wbir.com/ar...
    www.nsp.org/NS...

КОМЕНТАРІ • 47

  • @bluegrassdiggers9030
    @bluegrassdiggers9030 Місяць тому +2

    I miss the snows of the 90s and early 2000s Im not sure if we will see anything like them ever again.

  • @jonathanlawson4667
    @jonathanlawson4667 3 роки тому +17

    Me and my brother was outside throwing snowballs when it first started snowing that night and all of a sudden it lightened and thundered and we took off in the house scared because we had never seen that during a snow storm lol it was amazing we had almost 4 feet and I was 14 years old

  • @jenniferhensley2354
    @jenniferhensley2354 Місяць тому +2

    I remember. I was in Wytheville, Va driving South down 81 at a snails pace. When I reached my exit, I had to pass it due to a jackknifed tractor trailer. I got turned around, heading back North, got to my exit, started up the ramp behind another tractor trailer, and about 1000 feet from the road, that tractor trailer jackknifed. I was stuck on that ramp for 17 hours. I had to walk to a store to buy a gas can so I could get enough gas to keep my car running for heat, and get some food. I was alone, and scared to death, but I made it. If you don’t know what you’re made of, Mother Nature can show you.

  • @nathanbugg3221
    @nathanbugg3221 Місяць тому

    75 degrees cutting wood without a jacket. It was easy to put it in the wood shed, but dad made me load the basement full of the dry from the shed 1st. I'm so glad he did!

  • @TammyThomas-r1j
    @TammyThomas-r1j Місяць тому +1

    I grew in Knoxville it was wild that day

  • @RockyTop603
    @RockyTop603 Місяць тому +1

    Who’s here Dec. 2024… i grew up in Maryville in the outskirts on Six Mile Rd and remember this like it was yesterday… I remember having to go school on Saturdays for a half a day for a few weeks to make up for all the missed days… cause of course everything flooded once all that melted…

  • @Angela-zf8sn
    @Angela-zf8sn 4 роки тому +6

    Thanks for sharing the history of this historic snow storm 😊👍

  • @Matt24_
    @Matt24_ Місяць тому +1

    I will never forget the Friday night it started snowing in Franklin, NC, south of Gatlinburg. It only snowed 18 inches but the heavy snow took out a peach tree and we lost power 7 days having a 1 month old baby we headed for a Motel. We had moved up from Florida 3 years previous. Weather report said flurries in Galtlinburg, maybe blizzard conditions. Try melting snow over a fireplace!

  • @raekay8460
    @raekay8460 3 роки тому +7

    I was on Top O World. Good times, and good neighbors. They don't make neighbors like they used too

    • @RockyTop603
      @RockyTop603 Місяць тому

      You know any Corrells or Allens?

  • @theweakestlink2278
    @theweakestlink2278 5 років тому +7

    Will never forget it. We had around 16 inches in Birmingham. We usually only get 1-3 inches, if it snows at all, in Alabama.

  • @radio1342
    @radio1342 3 роки тому +2

    I was a student at UT and classes were cancelled. We grabbed lunch trays from the cafeteria and tried to use them as sleds. I also remember thunder and lightning while it was snowing. Then we walked to The Strip and and walked around. Fun times.

  • @ArsPraestigium
    @ArsPraestigium 3 роки тому +4

    My wife (who was, at the time, seven months pregnant) and I attended the annual "Winter Carnival of Magic" in Gatlinburg on the weekend when the snow began to fall. When we got to town late in the evening, the flurries were just beginning, and we thought nothing of it. I grew up in the Rocky Mountains, and she in West Virginia, so snow wasn't a big deal (we have, however, both lived in South Carolina for nearly 50 years now). The hotel, convention center, and most other businesses lost power on the afternoon of the second day, but most were able to function with backup generators. The food supply to restaurants, however, quickly became an issue. At one point, you could get pancakes, or eat nothing. Our planned two-day event ended up being five full days, and part of a sixth, as the highways were closed. The event was fun, in retrospect, but I wouldn't want to do it again. Local news was, at the time, reporting care packages being dropped to homeowners in the mountains by helicopter, and it had to be scary for many. We ended up having to go west to Chattanooga, before circling back south through Atlanta to get back to South Caroline, because all of the eastern highways were still closed. The title "Winter Carnival" had, up to that point, been something of a joke, as the Gatlinburg usually had temperatures in the 70s by March, but it lived up to the name this memorable year.

  • @marcellamcduffie8218
    @marcellamcduffie8218 3 роки тому +2

    I remember when me and my family went up into the smokey mountains we had a blast of a time we spent the night up there it was awesome !!!!!!.thanks for sharing this upload what a memorable moment in time great memories.😘😊

  • @DonnaFoster-p3j
    @DonnaFoster-p3j Місяць тому +2

    I remember the Blizzard of 93. I worked at the hospital in Johnson city, TN. The National Guard had to come and pick me up. It was hard.
    .

  • @lucyterrier7905
    @lucyterrier7905 Місяць тому +1

    Tennessee gets 3 feet of snow, life stops. Up north Michigan gets 3 feet of snow, it's just another day. 😅

    • @dawncurtis583
      @dawncurtis583 Місяць тому

      I lived in Michigan for 50 years, moved to Tennessee 3 years ago. You are right.

    • @tracekornegay3790
      @tracekornegay3790 Місяць тому

      Tennessee gets snow like this once in a lifetime

  • @BadgerCheese94
    @BadgerCheese94 3 роки тому +2

    I grew up in Miami. First place I ever saw snow was beautiful old Gatlinburg, TN on January 2, 2010.
    I now live in Minnesota. Go figure! We hit 100 degrees today. Always enjoy when winter comes back lol.

  • @mariascheer1154
    @mariascheer1154 3 роки тому +1

    I remember... I was there! Beautiful and yet extremely dangerous if you have never lived in the cold.

  • @rainwellwisher7075
    @rainwellwisher7075 4 роки тому +2

    Storm of the Century

  • @redburban1394
    @redburban1394 Місяць тому

    Ober Mountain: that’s a good story,I’m from New England and enjoy a good snow storm & blizzard. My old husky and I would have had a blast in the weather.

  • @wallacebell4311
    @wallacebell4311 Місяць тому +7

    The winter storm started on Friday 3/12/93 and was over the next morning. Radio station WIVK in Knoxville, TN. asked for anyone with a spare propane tank to bring it to them because the electricity was out and the station was on a back up generator powered by propane. My family had moved into our second home back on Father’s Day June of 1992 and the house had a one hundred pound propane tank. Since I had a four wheel drive Toyota station wagon I attempted to drive the eight miles to deliver the tank. The snow was in places ten to twelve inches high and my vehicle only had eight and one half inches ground clearance so snow would pile up in front of my car and I would have to stop, back up and go around the snow to proceed. When I finally got to WIVK I knocked on the door for 15-20 minutes until finally a guy opened the door and wanted to know why I was at the door. I told I had brought a 100 pound propane tank and the guy said they didn’t need it now because the electric power had been restored. I left the tank beside the door and drove on home. In hindsight I should have just gone home and kept my propane tank because now the same tank costs $200.00 plus the cost to fill the tank with propane. Oh well.

    • @Thomas.3698
      @Thomas.3698 Місяць тому

      I too like to quietly walk away from money

    • @abunchahooey
      @abunchahooey Місяць тому +1

      Oh wow!! Bless you for trying to help out. Didn’t seem they were very grateful to you.

  • @RicknShortysAdventures
    @RicknShortysAdventures Місяць тому +1

    I’ve been going to Gatlinburg the first and or second week of March for the past 10 years and have only seen it snow one time there and that was up top of the national park, not in town.

  • @crystalweeks2873
    @crystalweeks2873 Місяць тому

    My parents went on a trip to Gatlinburg TN to stay in a cabin. And they got stuck in the snow the next morning they couldn't get there vehicle out to go to the local store. So they took to walking and my mom fell 3 times and my dad fell 2 times and broke his wrist and arm. They got to the visitors center and a policeman couldn't take them to the hospital nor could the ambulance because they got stuck also. But they called a cab and luckily the cab made it to the road where they were and was able to get them to the nearest medical center.

  • @missmable6015
    @missmable6015 4 роки тому +3

    I was in Tucson Az. In 85 degrees sunny weather. I missed the blizzard. Thank goodness.

  • @Utoober729
    @Utoober729 3 роки тому +3

    Upstate NY we get wet snow all the time due to Lake Effect. My car was buried up to the roof. It took me 2 days to shovel out my car and the driveway.

  • @boboneil6479
    @boboneil6479 Місяць тому

    Was there, had studded snow tires. Wanted to go up to Mt Laconte but was not allowed. Had to have chains, had passed several trucks with chains stuck!

  • @J.Wick.
    @J.Wick. Місяць тому

    i was 9-10. greeneville got hit hard also. i remember vbeing out of school for a full week. most snow ive ever been around at one time. my dad had just moved into a new house. had furniture, but no cable yet. he had 2-3 movies on VHS lol. one was a vhs he bought from mcdonalds with a meal a few days -weeks before. it was dances with wolves. i bet i watched that movie 4-5 times that week lol.

  • @dg1019
    @dg1019 Місяць тому

    In North Mississippi we had a monster ice storm that took out power for nearly a month.

  • @florforever1
    @florforever1 Місяць тому

    I deal with this every year in Colorado mountains 😮

    • @rockymtnsteeze1815
      @rockymtnsteeze1815 Місяць тому

      This was a normal amount of snow when I lived in Leadville. For Tennessee this is insanity and their infrastructure can not handle it. In 1993 I was a child in Georgia and this blizzard impacted Georgia. It snowed more than a foot where I lived in Georgia. It was a big deal for the South. It shut down Georgia for like a week.

  • @lauracrane1465
    @lauracrane1465 3 роки тому +3

    We had 21 inches and NO power in Chattanooga for 4 days. We had thunder snow the night that it hit.

  • @chasityjordan6310
    @chasityjordan6310 3 роки тому +2

    I was only 2 years old and living nearby with my mom in a nearby town called Newport. Only like 30 minutes away. Mom told me about it

    • @Thomas.3698
      @Thomas.3698 Місяць тому

      My son was a baby too. We have picture of us in the blizzard (Atlanta)

  • @TammyThomas-r1j
    @TammyThomas-r1j Місяць тому

    I remember Blizzard 93 i walked in to a snow drift

  • @stacyfowler3673
    @stacyfowler3673 4 роки тому

    I was there and stranded for a week

    • @KaySkywalker
      @KaySkywalker 4 роки тому

      Im originally from Windsor Ontario and we decided to go to Florida during that week. My dad made the decision to come home early. We.left Florida at 6 in the morning and drove until 11 at night. The next morning we left at 5 in the morning. I remember looking at the hotel pool and the heat coming off the pool came off in streams. When we got into Ohio the sky over Kentucky was starting to turn black. We barely made it through before the storm hit.

  • @ILoveOldTWC
    @ILoveOldTWC 3 роки тому +2

    Was there any lightning and thunder with the snow in Gatlinburg, like in Birmingham, Atlanta and Chattanooga?

    • @lauracrane1465
      @lauracrane1465 3 роки тому +1

      Yes,Chattanooga had what they called Thunder snow. It happened when the snow started coming down. We ended up with 21 inches in Chattanooga,Tennessee and no power for 4 days.

    • @handsome-brute2666
      @handsome-brute2666 Рік тому +1

      Yes!..Birmingham had a official 13 inches with ⛈ thundersnow ⚡🌨🌨🌨🌨🌨🌨

  • @robertaltum2884
    @robertaltum2884 4 роки тому

    Snow drift up to four feet. Snow fall of around three feet. Was in it in 1993 I was caught in several white outs that year. A white out is one of the weirdest things that I have ever seen. Well I couldn’t even see my hand 1 inch in front of face. It was wild. Greatest snow I have ever been in. Isn’t Mother Nature awesome....

  • @Marco-bg8jf
    @Marco-bg8jf Місяць тому

    My goat just farted and passed out 😂😂🎉🎉🎉

  • @GaryWoolard-ex6gj
    @GaryWoolard-ex6gj Місяць тому

    I don't see anything in this video to write to momma and grandma about.

  • @MikeDaniels-w6m
    @MikeDaniels-w6m Місяць тому

    In Chattanooga, 1 snowflake hits the road, every fool that CAN'T drive just has to get out and wreck, life in Chattanooga!!!!-