Mention the Blizzard of 1993, and a particular set of memories fall on those who lived through it, like a thick blanket of snow.

Shasta Edge was an RN at UAB Hospital, snowed in once 13 inches of flakes fell on the Magic City.

“The same four ladies were working the cafeteria for the next three days,” she recounted. “The first day, you could pick what you wanted to eat from multiple choices. By the second day, there were fewer choices. On the third day, you took whatever she gave you to eat, and you dared not complain or even frown at her.

“Also, a clean pair of underwear were selling at a premium among the staff,” she remembered.

It was described at the time as “a monster with the heart of a blizzard and the soul of a hurricane.” From March 12 through 13, 1993, a confluence of gulf moisture, arctic cold and brutal winds gave Alabama a memorable taste of winter. Nationally, it was the third-worst U.S. storm of the 20th century, and killed 270.

In North Alabama, 45 mph winds piled snow into drifts up to six feet high.

At Dauphin Island, winds that Friday night measured 77 mph, sinking a tugboat on the Intracoastal Waterway in Baldwin County.

Huntsville police reported 41 traffic accidents and 74 assists to stranded motorists in 12 hours the day after the storm hit, with countless cars abandoned.

The storm was blamed for 16 deaths in state, millions of dollars in damage, and paralyzed cities. All 67 counties in Alabama reported snow cover. Jackson County tallied up to 11 inches of snow in the valley and 18 inches in the mountains. There were areas with snow drifts as deep as three feet.

The cold wiped out about 90 percent of Chilton County’s peach crop for a $5 million loss. Nearly 100 chicken houses were partially or totally collapsed by the weight of ice and blasts of wind from the blizzard, including 78 broiler houses.

At one point, 404,000 Alabamians were without power. Five days after the storm, nearly 150,000 Alabama Power customers remained in the dark.

Alabamians made do. Extension cords stretched across roads and in some areas as some without power borrowed electricity from their more fortunate neighbors. In other areas, people with trucks helped with getting others to hospitals, transporting firewood, and basic necessities.

Ann Vise of Cleburne County, for example, remembered the rancid taste of coffee cooked on a grill. Palmerdale’s Lynda Underwood melted snow on a gas grill for a bath. Ten-year-old Kaylee Warren of Pell City played her Nintendo Game Boy by the light of a fireplace and helped her mother cook on a kerosene heater.

And for many, the winter eruption provided a host of happy memories. Susan Trawick and her husband Steve were living in the Merry Fox Farms subdivision in Alabaster at the time. Before the weather arrived, they laid in a supply of food before watching the thunder snow and putting the children to bed.

“We woke to a beautiful glistening snowscape and we had power,” Susan remembered. And then, the power went away for a week, thanks to a driver who hit a power pole.

“So we melted snow on the gas grill to flush toilets, cooked in our fireplace and grill, and all slept in the den by the fireplace with blankets covering the doorways to keep the heat in,” she said. “Yes, it got old pretty quickly, but when we look back on it, there were some magical moments.”

And within days, temperatures were back in the 60s.