Strong Winds Turn Homes Along Lake Erie Into Ice Sculptures

Last weekend, people living along the coast of Lake Erie got a little surprise from mother nature. Thanks to the gale that caused 15-foot waves to form on the lake, the local residents’ houses got covered in a layer of ice as thick as 3 inches, essentially turning the homes into murky ice sculptures. And while it may look amazing in the pictures, they’re a real nightmare to actually live in.

In an interview with CNN, Ed Mis, a local resident said that there was no ice in his yard on Thursday but by Friday morning his and the neighboring homes were covered in a layer of ice. “It looks fake, it looks unreal,” said the man. “It’s dark on the inside of my house. It can be a little eerie, a little frightening.”

“On Wednesday, February 26th, a blizzard warning and lakeshore flood warning were issued for the eastern shoreline of Lake Erie in New York state, including the Hoover Beach area,” said meteorologist Elyse Smith in an interview with Bored Panda. “These warnings came ahead of a winter storm that would impact Western New York on February 27th and 28th.”

According to Elyse, the storm brought gale-force winds and heavy snow that ravaged the shores for two days. She says the biggest problem was that the lake wasn’t frozen over. “This allowed waves to crash onshore (the waves were 10-to-14 feet high). Some waves even reached 18 feet,” said the meteorologist. “So, these ice homes developed as lake water continuously crashed on shore, carried by winds gusting up to 55 mph with temperatures well below freezing, allowing for ice to develop and amass along the shoreline.”

Image credits: elysesmithwx

Elyse says that the homes at Hoover Beach take on a little ice each year but this was by far the most extreme ice there has ever been in the area. “The ice kept amassing as waves crashed onshore and the strong winds carried excess water further inland,” said the meteorologist.

Even though you might be tempted to go and explore the newly-formed ice sculpture park if you live nearby, the police are warning you not to. “Not only is the ice extremely unsafe and unstable, [but the majority is also] in areas which are private property,” said Town of Hamburg Police.

Image credits: AP

Ed Mis worries about the integrity of the homes and Sean Crotty, Hamburg’s emergency manager confirmed that the melting ice could indeed damage some of the buildings. “The community has been seeing more than their fair share of situations between wind damage and the Halloween storm and an ice shove at the end of February,” said the emergency manager. “In the last year, they’ve endured probably a half dozen really heavy-duty storms that have caused damage to their homes, seawalls and private property.”