There’s no doubt February’s record-breaking snowfall is stacking up as one of the most memorable winters for people in Harford County.

Larger-than-life snow piles from “Snowmageddon,” which slammed the county with more than 40 inches in a week, still linger as ever-present reminders this was one for the record books.

From young to old, everyone has a story to tell this winter.

For local teachers and students, February’s blizzards were an early spring break, but with multiple feet of snow instead of an abundance of sunshine.

Ashley Battersby, of Bel Air, is a fourth-grade teacher for Baltimore County Public Schools and enjoyed her unforeseen vacation after grading some papers first.

“For the first two days, I actually worked nonstop grading and writing report card comments, because report cards were due the next week,” Battersby said.

When part two of the double blizzards hit last week, Battersby relaxed.

“I knocked a few movies off of my ‘I-want-to-see-this-movie’ list and slept in late,” she said. “It’s been a wonderfully unexpected break.”

During the break between the storms, Battersby visited Amazing Glaze in the Festival at Bel Air shopping center and painted pottery with her friends.

“We really needed to get out of the house,” she said.

Then Battersby took a trip to Ocean City to visit her family’s beach house.

“They actually got snow down there, too, which is very rare for them,” she said. “We couldn’t bear to shovel again, so we just parked our cars at the end of our driveway because we refused to shovel — too much snow.”

When Battersby returns to school, she said she may have to have a discussion with her students about how to behave.

“I’m guessing that school for my students will be crazy tomorrow [Tuesday] — a lot of them didn’t even come to school on Friday, Feb. 5, so this will be almost two weeks off for them,” she said. “...And I’ll definitely let them write about what they did over the break, because otherwise they’ll just spend the whole day talking about it instead of working.”

Two North Harford students were spending their Sunday at Harford Mall, glad to finally be out of the house.

“I want to go to school,” Phylicia Scotten, 15, of Street, said.

Phylicia thought she might be one of the few who wants to go back to school after more than a week off. She is not looking forward to making up work in the summer.

Phylicia said if her home is any sign, they may not have school Tuesday. She said her house is back in the woods and estimated it was about a mile and a half from the bus stop.

“It’s a lot of snow to shovel,” she said.

Phylicia was also ready to go back to school because her little sisters started to get on her nerves.

After being cooped up in the house for days, she finally got out of the house Thursday.

Chenoa Wilkins, 15, of Pylesville, was also trapped in the snow.

Chenoa said she is the only child in her family and her shoveling services were needed during the snow. She said she was responsible for the back porch and her grandfather handled the driveway.

Chenoa said she tried to go for a walk, but the road was too icy and just getting across her yard was slow going. Instead, she spent a lot of time inside sleeping out the storm.

She said her mom’s dogs love to jump in the snow and that was one of the bright spots amid the storm.

“It’s fun to watch,” Chenoa said.

She was not ready Sunday to go back to school, but feared the school year stretching too far into June may get in the way of her driving. She is eligible to get her learner’s permit in June.

While most students and teachers were able to enjoy the snow in the comfort of their homes, a handful of students were stuck in Florida.

The Delta Epsilon Chi Club at Patterson Mill High School, aimed at students interested in marketing, management and entrepreneurship, spent an extra four days in Orlando, Fla., after the blizzard hit Maryland during the group’s field trip to a national sports marketing conference.

The seven students, together with business teacher Jason Bellamy and health teacher, Jessica Smith, left for Florida on Feb. 3 for the National DECA Sports and Entertainment Marketing Conference.

They were busy meeting with the marketing teams of organizations such as the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the NBA’s Orlando Magic and were scheduled to come back Feb. 7.

The weather, however, had other plans for them. After the blizzard struck on Feb. 5, the DECA club’s flight back to Bel Air was canceled three times.

“The kids and I had no complaints,” Bellamy said with a chuckle. “They really enjoyed the trip.”

The group stayed in touch with Patterson Mill’s principal every day and got to stay at The Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort, thanks to one of the student’s fathers, who is in the hotel industry.

“We knew there was some talk of some snow when we left,” Bellamy said. “We had no idea the extent of it and certainly didn’t know it was going to end up keeping us for four or five extra days.”

By the time the students and chaperones got back Thursday, the roads were relatively clear and they had missed most of the insanity.

“You could certainly see the mounds of snow were quite impressive. It was quite a difference from the warm weather in Orlando,” he said.

Lindsay Neville, 24, of Norrisville, was also unable to spend the Blizzard of 2010 at home; she was stranded at work for more than 72 hours last week.

Neville, a nurse in the neurosciences unit at John Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, went to work on Tuesday and was unable to return home to Harford County until Friday evening.

“I got stuck there,” she said. “They couldn’t bring people in. I was just proud to be a part of it; that is what I signed up for when I wanted to be a nurse.”

Although Neville said she was prepared to stay at work and had brought along toiletries and a change of clothes, she said she still missed the comforts of home.

“You really take stuff for granted when you are stuck somewhere without your own things,” Neville said.

But, she said, missing the comforts of home is trivial when compared to what others in the world have faced.

Putting things into perspective, Neville said what Maryland was faced with last week does not compare to the devastation people in New Orleans and Haiti have endured.

“We had it made,” Neville said. “We felt overworked but we definitely felt very appreciated. I would definitely do it again.”

Neville, and others in her unit and at the hospital, were definitely needed during the Blizzard of 2010, and even though they were hard at work, they still managed to make the best of it.

“We had fun with it,” she said. “We bonded and stuff. We were also treated really well.”

For one young Conowingo man, the snow brought loss of work and refreshing community support.

David Vaughn, 21, said he works two jobs and the snow seriously hindered his work schedule.

“I missed out on a lot of work,” Vaughn said.

Now he is trying to make up for lost time, taking any hours he can get.

Although the snow kept him from work, Vaughn said he still kept busy.

“I got stuck shoveling snow for six days,” Vaughn said.

He also took his 3-year-old nephew out to play in the snow.

“We didn’t go out for long because he kept sinking,” Vaughn said.

Vaughn’s sister is pregnant and he and his family were worried she would go into labor while they were trapped by the snow.

Thankfully, his family and neighbors worked together to clear a path for their SUV, just in case.

“It’s a shame that it takes something like that to bring people together, but it was a good thing,” Vaughn said.

Vaughn noted the records the back-to-back snowstorms broke, but wasn’t hoping for more.

“I don’t hate the snow but I’m definitely over it, I’m ready for spring,” Vaughn said.

This month’s snowstorm has also been difficult for local horse owners, such as Barry and Pat Smith, owners of Friendship Farm Riding Academy in Street.

“We had a really interesting time in the blizzard,” Pat Smith said. “We got them all in [the barn] a day before the blizzard and they all settled down on Thursday [Feb. 4]. On Friday, they were fine and quiet. They were happy to be there.”

Now, one week after the first of the two-part blizzard hit Harford County, all 29 horses and ponies remain under one roof inside the barn.

“They’re still in. We can’t get them out to the fields,” Smith said. “They’ve been in really ever since then.”

Smith said they’ve shoveled a path to the indoor arena, where they take the horses and ponies to exercise them.

“We’ve had quite an adventure with them,” Smith said. “They’ve been really happy. We feed them three times a day and water them every day.”

Smith also said she brought a generator to the barn to make sure the animals have water.

“They’ve actually been very good this time,” Smith said. “It’s like they understand that something’s wrong outside.”

Taking care of all the horses has not been easy.

“It’s a lot of work, but they are happy and they’re anxious,” Smith said. “Getting them out will be fun.”

But Smith doesn’t know exactly when she will get a chance to take the horses outside as freezing temperatures keep the snow from melting and more snow is in the forecast.

“I don’t think mine are going to get out for a while,” Smith said. “My neighbor has some of theirs out, but some of my ponies are little. It would be over their heads. They can’t get through some of the snow drifts.”

Some of the farm’s snowdrifts are higher than the fences, Smith said.

“It’s still that way. We’re still pretty much snowed in,” Smith said. “The ponies are snowed in, but they’re really good ... They can’t go out. They’d get lost.”

The double blizzards also left quite an impact on Smith’s barn.

“All the snow on the one barn put a lot of weight on the barn,” Smith said. “We had to dig all that snow off. There was four feet of snow on top of the barn. We saved the barn, fortunately.”

The inclement weather has temporarily postponed riding lessons at the private farm.

“We do teach riding lessons, but we haven’t done that because of the snow because people haven’t been able to get in and out,” Smith said.

But once things return to normal, Smith said she would begin training the horses for shows.

“The ponies know their jobs really well,” Smith said. “They know what they have to do. We start conditioning this week. Then we’ll start three times a week and move up to more and more to get ready for our first show in April.”

Smith also had some advice for fellow horse owners.

“The most important thing is that they have salt number one and that they don’t dehydrate,” Smith said. “A lot of people don’t think about putting salt in stalls. We give them mineral salt and they get the things they really need.”

Staff writers Kirsten Dize, Rachel Konopacki, L’Oreal Thompson and Bryna Zumer reported and wrote this article.

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