Photo:

Hodges Photography

Before Tuesday it is highly likely that most New Orleanians believed there was a better chance that they’d cross paths with the Rougarou than experience a blizzard in the Bayou. The unthinkable reared its ugly head on Tuesday, and it wasn’t in the form of a mythical swamp monster.

“It is safe to say Tuesday’s southeast Louisiana snowstorm immediately became legendary,” WDSU meteorologist and avid horseplayer Jim Syoen said. “It’s the largest snowstorm in this century, and even the previous century. It was a metrological combination of superb timing that included the coldest air of the season rushing down from Canada, and moisture approaching from the West – moisture that 99 times out of a hundred, would have just been rain.”

Reading the tea leaves early in the week, Fair Grounds’ management transferred Thursday’s scheduled racing card to Monday. To resume live racing on Friday as planned/hoped, track superintendent Pedro Zavala had a major challenge in front of him.

“As the snowstorm was moving toward New Orleans, the temperatures quickly dropped to record levels which caused mechanical issues to our entire fleet of track maintenance tractors,” Fair Grounds’ senior director of racing Jason Boulet said.

“Snow is never a weather situation that we are prepared for in our city, so dealing with freezing temperatures in addition to clearing snow forced Pedro and his team to accomplish what was seemingly impossible. In a matter of 48 hours, they had our track ready for training and racing with the use of one only one tractor. A process that usually would take two hours became an all-night marathon to assure we stayed on schedule. Track maintenance can be a thankless job at times, but words can’t express the appreciation and admiration that we all have for Pedro and his team.”

According to Syoen, the ten inches of snow officially recorded at Louis Armstrong International, the French Quarter, Metairie, and the Fair Grounds neighborhood “set, or possibly tied a record”.  It was a snowstorm that would have made even the track maintenance crews at Hawthorne in suburban Chicago and Aqueduct in New York quiver.

“Many have seen the pictures that are available at the local museums, historical societies, and even the internet of the great New Orleans snowfall of 1895,” Syoen explained. “Ten inches of snow was also officially reported on that occasion, but there is a little skepticism regarding the measuring tactics of the day. The only other snowstorm of note since then occurred on Dec. 31, 1963, when the airport received 2.7 inches.”

A member of the Fair Grounds track maintenance crew for 16 years, Zavala admittedly had no experience combating snowy conditions. He reached out to fellow trackmen Javier Barajas and Jim Pendergest for advice, and he and his crew got to work.

“There were some headaches with the equipment, and we put in some long shifts,” Zavala said. “My crew and I haven’t gotten much sleep. Mother Nature will push you to the limit, but we never lost our determination to do what needed to be done.”

Friday’s eight-race program went off without a hitch and live racing resumes on Saturday with a first post of 1:45 p.m. EDT. All turf racing scheduled through Monday has been called off, but Zavala is hopeful grass racing will proceed as scheduled on Thursday.