Mike Elwell’s 6:30 a.m. alarm blared Thursday morning to the sounds of Don Dubuc’s fishing show. It might be the day to lure in the big one, he said.

Mother Nature, however, had a different idea.

A white blanket of snow fell on St. Tammany Thursday and shuttered hundreds of businesses, sent parents scrambling to pick up thousands of kids from school and sent a shock wave throughout the area.

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“There’s nothing like this. It’s like we’re in a different state,” Elwell said, standing in the white powder as snowflakes peppered his black cap. “It’s a different experience for us here in Louisiana.”

Instead of catching a big one, Elwell, his wife, Jennifer, and two children, Emily, 10, and Anthony, 6, scattered around his yard tossing snow balls at each other and making a snow man.

“We’re from Louisiana. We had to look up how to do this on the Internet,” he said joking as he and Emily rolled giant balls of snow to stack on top of each other.

The Elwells, who live in Crestwood Estates near Covington, represent hundreds from infants to seniors who fished out gloves, scarves and hats to brave the snow.

Many, like Melissa Doucet, stood outside laughing in amazement, sticking out their tongues to catch the flakes in the picturesque setting.

Doucet, 23, was awaken in the early morning hours by her stepmom who “pulled me out of bed” to say it was snowing.

Doucet, who heard weather predictions that snow may fall Thursday, expected a few flakes.

Instead, she saw a snow blanket.

“I’m 23, and I’ve never seen snow like this in my life,” she said.

Doucet, who recently moved to St. Tammany from Houma, spent the early morning hours calling friends and taking pictures. One friend, Ken Overmyer, 28, from the West Bank, drove over to see for himself. At about 9 a.m. he said the greater New Orleans area was untouched. But when he drove onto the Causeway, a sheet of snow slammed down.

“It was so white,” he said. “I was like, ‘Wow!’”

About 10:30 a.m. he and Doucet had met up and rolled snowballs into a snowman, Doucet occasionally smashing snow in Overmyer’s face.

Meanwhile, a neighbor kid called out to his friends, “let’s make ours bigger than theirs.”

Doucet laughed. “I feel like I’m 5 years old,” she said. “I love this.”