Massive Storm Buries US East Coast In Snow and Ice 290
First time accepted submitter anthonycarlson writes "The second wintry storm in two weeks to hit the normally balmy south U.S. has encrusted highways, trees and power lines in ice, knocking out electricity to nearly a half-million homes and businesses." Kids are out of school, and houses are out of power, in much of a region that normally gets much rarer and lighter snowfall. If you're socked in, or if you're in the East Coast storm zone but have to venture out anyhow, what's been your experience? Some of the pictures are pretty impressive. Update: 02/13 17:24 GMT by T : Google Maps has a handy guide to weather alerts, shelters, and traffic info for those affected by the storm. (Hat tip to Chris DiBona.)
Wow has it come to this (Score:4, Insightful)
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Kids making snowmen is considered geeky
Apparently even news for nerds is boycotting the Beta.
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Dad you're fucked you need to speak to my financial adviser
*Slits Wrist*
Peace and quiet. (Score:5, Insightful)
Kids making snowmen is considered geeky
It's considered human.
Storms on this scale test infrastructure to the limits --- and it is interesting to see how and why things break. Burying power lines not always the answer [cnn.com]
As for beta boycotts and related matters: the comments posted to Slashdot may be fewer, but, on the whole, appear to me saner and more focused than any I've seen here in quite some time. I intend to enjoy this while I can.
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I like AGW! It's given us cheery snowmen!
Re:Peace and quiet. (Score:5, Interesting)
The problem with burying power lines is you can't completely seal them up. You need to be able to get access to them for junction points to connect the feeders to service entries for homes and buildings. Water, dirt and salt are the main enemies of underground service. Then you have contractors digging up wires either via negligence or from reading improperly marked prints. Its a tradeoff between the two really. Overhead lines are easier and cheaper to string up but can be taken out by vehicle crashes, trees (the main enemy of overheads) and ice. Plus they don't look as nice.
On christmas day a family friends block was torn up and full of construction equipment after the manholes went up in flames. His wife had a video of flames shooting up about 2 meters high from the manhole in front of their house. Turns out salt had corroded the splices to the point where there was enough resistance to heat up, arc and start a fire. Smoke also made its way through the conduits into the homes closest to the manholes and they had the be evacuated while the fire department inspected them. This happened at 4AM and they didn't have power until 3PM albeit via temporary service lines.
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We've lived in a neighborhood (Fairfax VA) with all buried utility wires since 2002. In that time, our power has gone out several times, including once for three days. We've also lost cable/internet (Cox) numerous times. The vast majority of these outages were very local issues. So, for us, the only advantage has been missing the eyesore of wires strung everywhere. On the downside, whenever a neighbor wants to dig for something in their yard, all the utility companies come through to spray paint on our
Re:Peace and quiet. (Score:4, Funny)
No problems with that down here in New Orleans, everything is above ground here.
Hell, we don't even bury out DEAD here.
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I've only ever lived in neighbourhoods that have had all-buried utilities for decades and decades, and none of it has ever exploded. I can't remember a power cut lasting longer than a couple of hours; normally there's a brief interruption (seconds to ~10 minutes) every two-three years or less.
However, I don't live in the US, and probably pay 2-3x what you do for electricity.
Re:Peace and quiet. (Score:4, Insightful)
Overhead lines are easier and cheaper to string up but can be taken out by vehicle crashes, trees (the main enemy of overheads) and ice. Plus they don't look as nice.
Raised in the country, I always found the poles and overhead lines reassuring and with a kind of rhythm to them.
Rose City Road [wordpress.com]
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You never read Calvin & Hobbes, did you?
meh (Score:2)
It's not the same (Score:5, Insightful)
I lived through 14 Minnesota winters, and after a similar period in the South, I can say they're really not similar.
Southern pines are spectacular, much taller than those typical in Minnesota, because they can grow for years without being beaten down by the weather. When once in a decade or so they get coated with ice, the result is chaos -- whole trees snapping five feet above ground, crashing through attics into living rooms, tearing down power lines along the way. It sounds like cannon fire echoing through the woods.
The problems of winter hitting the South are not limited to lack of equipment, preparation, or winter driving skills. Nature just isn't ready for it.
Re:It's not the same (Score:5, Informative)
I have spent alot of years both in Minneapolis and in Wilkesboro NC. There is nothing similar about the winters. MN does not get icing like they do in the South except on very very rare occasions because its always cold in MN winter. The precip comes down as snow and it stays snow. MN has the interesting property that the snow gets deeper and deeper because it never melts, which cause load problems on roof tops and like but the snow mostly shakes out of trees and finds its way to the ground before it does them any harm.
Both places have their winter weather challenges but they are very different.
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There is nothing similar about the winters.
That makes sense to me. I live in northern Alberta, and while we're all used to driving on ice and snow for 6 months of the year, it's the rare snow in June that does the most damage. We had around 2m of snow between late October and mid January this year, and I can't think of a tree that took damage due to the weight. By contrast, we had one rare snowfall in June last year and trees were snapping all over the place; power went out. It wasn't the snow that got them per se, it was the fact that the snow was
Re:It's not the same (Score:5, Insightful)
This. When the ground temps hover around 40F, the snow melts quite easily. Then the air temps get in the 20's and water refreezes on the road. The ice is much more dangerous than the snow. That's why we close schools, businesses, etc.
And it's not the dusting that we get annually. We can handle that. It's when we get 2-3 inches of precipitation that forms ice on our roads that makes it dangerous. We don't drive with bags of kitty litter in our trunks, or just whip out our chains when it gets dangerous. So we shut down. If its orchestrated well, it's a fun holiday we can all laugh about afterwards (See "The Snow" [mysanantonio.com] from San Antonio, 1985. If it's not orchestrated well, well... [cnn.com]
We can all complain how people in other regions can't handle unconventional weather - Hurricanes in New York (don't build where it floods), 100F+ temps in the Midwest (install air conditioners), Snow in the deep south (buy more snowplows, chains, salt, sand, etc.) Yes, there are solutions that make the situations tenable. No, the capital investment for an event that happens every xx years isn't worth the financial losses from shutting down the city for the time it takes to deal with the situation.
Crazy southern people (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm in Wisconsin. We don't all have 4x4 drive, tire chains are ILLEGAL, I have no kitty litter in my trunk, and ice happens all the time. I drive a shitty little versa with 2 year old all-season tires, most people in Wisconsin drive normal 2 wheel drive cars, I drove into work in snow and white-out this morning and the plows have not even left the county garage yet. Made it in just fine, drove 10 under the speed limit, made sure to keep 5 car lengths away from the car ahead, and looked ahead for anyone slipping out in front of me.
You people down south have this outsized idea of what a snowstorm is, and what we in the north do about it. Sure, a 1 foot overnight dump needs plows, and salt keeps the fender benders down.. However:
In reality, the problem you have with this weather is not the temperature, the amount of ice, or your spending on road crews, amount of experience with snow.
It is YOU.
Almost to a person you don't drive safely even in good weather. I've been down there and even grandmas' tailgate on completely un-crowded roads. You speed to such a degree that when people go the posted speed limit you all totally go bonkers road rage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B-Ox0ZmVIU
Hell, many people think you should be arrested for going the posted speed limit!
I've been down south and saw in one day 10 cars/truck in the ditches because of RAIN. Fucking RAIN. You guys know what that is right? It happens, you know, as weather down there all the time?? Right?
Slow the fuck down, start reducing speed half a block away from the stop sign or curve, look further ahead than your shitty wafflehouse coffee in your hand, stop tailgating, accelerate slowly, don't be Yee-Haww idiots.. Also, did I mention slow the fuck down?
Re:Crazy southern people (Score:4, Interesting)
No problems in this Wisconsin?
Well, you're absolutely 100% right about f-wit drivers around Atlanta.
But as for Wisconsin ...
I look at the web cams at about 10:00AM (Wi time)
Does no one live there, or is there some reason almost no one is on the roads?
http://www.511wi.gov/web/traff... [511wi.gov]
70 car pile-up in the snow?
http://wjbq.com/70-car-pile-up... [wjbq.com]
Wi drivers have no problems driving in the snow?
http://www.navbug.com/article9... [navbug.com]
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No matter who you are, where you're from, or what vehicle you drive, driving on ice is treacherous and dangerous. I will agree with you, though, that many southern drivers aren't merely ignorant about driving in ice and snow, they're downright stupid. The number of people sitting there spinning their tires thinking it would somehow help was ridiculous.... "oh, my tires are spinning... maybe if I push the gas HARDER they'll stop!"
People still drove too close, which caused some of the grid lock problems as
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Re:It's not the same (Score:5, Interesting)
I want to echo this sentiment - I'm transplanted from NY, eventually ended up in Atlanta, GA. I drove many winters in NY, and being the youngest of four I learned a lot from my parents and older siblings about driving in the snow. I can tell you that no matter where you grew up, how great a driver you think you are, or what vehicle you have, driving on solid ice is not just difficult, it's treacherous. Add in all the hills we have around here, and you're really screwed.
Now; first "snowpocalypse" from two weeks ago: it started snowing mid-morning. Around noon, people realized they'd better start getting home. By 12:30, the roads were ICY (not snowy); it's very hilly around here and many vehicles couldn't make it up hills. This caused massive gridlock; even people with 4WD, AWD, and yes, FWD that could have made it were stuck in the gridlock anyway. This all happened before the local and state governments could react... there were vehicles out salting and sanding, but they didn't get a chance to hit even a fraction of the roads. The traffic map on the GA511 website went from green to black in a half hour. Yes, I largely blame ignorant drivers who don't know what to do... all those mid-level pickups and sports and luxury cars with rear wheel drive, just sitting there spinning their tires (they didn't realize after a few seconds it just wasn't working? Unbelievable). The number of idiots trying the same things over and over again, getting worse and worse results was baffling. Once I got past a few gridlocked areas I made it home just fine with my FWD car... but the way I get out of the city is largely level once I'm away from the mid town area. Other interstates aren't so "lucky," virtually everywhere there was a hill there was gridlock. And yes, while I blame the drivers, the "pros" were no better - the biggest problems I encountered were buses and trucks which, when they spun out, blocked the entire road.
Fast forward to this time, and all the gun-shy drivers just stayed home. Up in North Carolina they experienced the same problem this time that GA felt last time, and I won't belittle them about it. In GA, with everyone warned to stay home, the service vehicles are able to salt and sand the major roads. I want to make this clear - people didn't know last time how bad it would be, the storm was supposed to pass to the south and it shifted north. Even when it started snowing it was not icy, it was just snow... it just didn't last long. Everyone from schools, to private and government employees all left at the same time, when they realized it wasn't going to let up. A lot of people blame the government... I don't. They had trucks ready, it was just a bad confluence of events and eventualities that led to a bad situation. There was really nothing they could do. Even the supposed idea of staggered release times (first schools, then private businesses, then government) is ridiculous - and it's the fault of the people, not the government, because as soon as schools get released, everyone tries to rush home to beat the traffic, it's just the way people are (not all of us, obviously, I waited until late evening to even try to leave).
The other BIG difference between this and last time - and this is how it usually is - the problems didn't start until Tuesday NIGHT, which means most people were already home from work. When it hits mid-day, people are already at work and screwed. Usually these accumulations happen over night, we wake up, and say "snow day!"
It's like any other weather event; they can be unpredictable and catch people off guard. It's just the way it is sometimes... sometimes the best laid plans work, sometimes they don't.
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....tearing down power lines along the way....
This is something I don't understand. The USA - the technically most advanced country - still is not able to put powerlines underground. Why??? I can understand that this is too expensive over long distances, but in cities and small towns?
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Re:meh (Score:4, Funny)
but typically avoid most of the ice
Not to mention the Southerners... (sorry, Moreh-san; it needed to be said). :p
Eastern Ontario - sunny and clear (Score:3)
Up here where the US cold comes from it is nice and sunny and clear. Cold, but clear beautiful days.
For you Yanks, here is the Canadian Forecast, temperatures in celsius
http://weather.gc.ca/canada_e.... [weather.gc.ca]
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Forecast is for +5C here in Sunny Alberta ...
I do sympathize with the southerners, though... This is how we commute, 6 months of the year so we're used to it ... Our 'school closing' weather events are far more severe but it's all relative to what people are used to... I'm used to automotive fluids turning to butter at -40C... I'll walk around outside in a t-shirt if it's above -5C and sunny ...
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I also know what it means, but where the hell are you supposed to find bananas in the middle of a snow storm?
Ok (And Crazy) In Alabama (Score:2)
I think everyone here learned from the Snowpocalypse last week. Most people stayed off the roads.
Awesome satelite photos (Score:5, Informative)
Average -20C day in Canada (Score:2)
-30C with the wind chill.
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Average -20C day in Canada
Yes. But it is a "dry cold."
Re: Average -20C day in Canada (Score:3)
Knock it off
Meanwhile in Finland (Score:4, Informative)
Loading ad interstatial... (Score:2)
Looks like Slashdot's newest experiment is to pop an ad before you get to the article. Looks like I'll have that disabled in 5...4...3..
Rare? (Score:4, Informative)
Some real winners there (Score:2)
Kathy Davies Muzzey of Wilmington, N.C., said she hid the car keys from her husband, John, on Tuesday night because he was thinking about driving to Chapel Hill for the Duke-UNC basketball game. He has missed only two games between the rivals since he left school in the late 1960s.
Yeah, driving in a snow storm for a fucking college basketball game. Good to see people's priorities are straight!
Soo Keith of Raleigh left work about a little after noon, thinking she would have plenty of time to get home before the worst of the snow hit.
Instead, Keith, who is three months pregnant, drove a few miles in about two hours and decided to park and start walking, wearing dress shoes and a coat that wouldn’t zip over her belly.
Do people not read the news or weather forecasts or something?
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Do people not read the news or weather forecasts or something?
Unfortunately, some people's jobs force them to go in, even in a blizzard.
Here in Baltimore (Score:2)
We got a light, dry snow over night. Its now lightly raining, packing the top layer. If you haven't started shoveling, do it now before it gets too heavy. I've got about 14" and the top 3 are as heavy as than the bottom 11.
No ice yet, though its 31.
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Re:Here in Baltimore (Score:4, Insightful)
Silver Spring, here. Shovel now, like you suggest, and you'll have ice directly on the sidewalk and the car. Have fun with that! I'm waiting until it's over so the ice is on top of the snow where it's easy to remove.
Important note (Score:2)
Take it weasy. Shoveling snow causes e lot of heart attacks every yeah. Shovel lightly, shovel often.
In Wisconsin... (Score:2)
As for the power outage from a tiny amount of snow? Umm...you built it wrong.
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I live in New York, where it was also about -5F yesterday. And if we get two inches of snow before the plows get out, some people start driving 5MPH and thus slowing ALL traffic. And these are people who have lived in these conditions their entire lives. There's also the matter of southerners not having experience driving in snow any more than northerners are well prepared for going out in 115 degree summer heat.
As another poster mentioned, the power outages are sometimes caused by nature - in his example,
Ironically (Score:2)
While my parents moved to NC to avoid the winters, they are getting hit hard and in upstate NY we are barely getting a dusting.
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While my parents moved to NC to avoid the winters, they are getting hit hard and in upstate NY we are barely getting a dusting.
That's OK. It's been around 80 in Miami the last few weeks.
No, 80 is NOT normal even in Miami. There's almost a hard border somewhere just north of Daytona where the temperatures have been pretty consistently cold while the southern and central parts of the state are practically breaking out the swimsuits. Go north of that line and you drop 10 degrees before you hit Georgia, and then the temperature REALLY starts to fall.
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Yes, but the other 70000 times since they moved you were the one who got hammered.
I didn't know what snow squall was until I lived in Syracuse.
SPRING, WHERE ARE YOU! (Score:3)
Dear Mother Nature,
You win at winter. Now please give us spring and win that one even better.
How cute... (Score:3)
They call that "massive snow"...
I have 6 feet of it in my front yard, and that is not massive. Houghton,MI I have seen 12 feet on the ground. THAT is massive.
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Massive Snow
http://www.strangecosmos.com/i... [strangecosmos.com]
Flight (Score:2)
I'm in California (Score:2)
But I'm working on a project with our DC team at work... I don't think much is going to get done on that project this week, as their internet is not the most reliable at the moment. >.>
Schools and roads closed? (Score:2)
I work from home you insensitive clod!
Oblig. New Yorker post (Score:2)
http://www.newyorker.com/onlin... [newyorker.com]
Missed New York City (Score:2)
It must've missed New York City. I live in Manhattan and commuted to Brooklyn, but I didn't see anything I'd call a "massive storm". Just a light touch of snow...
Still, I wish we'd get this snow on the weekends instead of the work days, I'd really like the opportunity to go out and enjoy it.
nothing massive, nor out of the ordinary (Score:2)
and it isn't about not having "removal equipment". This type of weather happens all the time, especially in the NE.
The really thing we learn from this is that cars have reached a level of sophistication/tech that we all think we can travel in any weather. In reality, that's not true, we can be safer in any weather, but not capable. So the same rule of the last 50yrs still applies: 4+ of snow== stay at home. Walmart can wait. Let the crews do their job.
I'm here in Poolesville, Maryland .... (Score:3)
Poolesville is a small town about an hour outside of Washington D.C. Our population is only about 5,500 and it's basically a farm community that grew into more of a distant bedroom community for DC metro area employees in the last decade or two.
Around here, they've been very efficient at clearing a path through the snow, even though we've got about 11-12 inches of it this morning (and expect 2 more in a second wave late this afternoon).
I've noticed with many of the more rural Maryland communities, they seem to do better job plowing snow and keeping the roads clear than the bigger cities do. I'm sure the fact we have a lot fewer roads to clear is a big part of it, but some of the towns like Brunswick are very hilly, so you'd think they'd be a difficult challenge. Nonetheless, they seem to have workers who have a real commitment to doing the job well, and perhaps the more rural upbringing makes them more adept at handling heavy equipment like snowplows and dump trucks? (I'm sure many of them know their way around large tractors and other farm equipment.)
Re:Where I live, that's normal weather (Score:5, Insightful)
Americans need to toughen up. Cancelling work and school because of a bit of ice and snow? Oi, your forefathers who blazed the trails to the west and through the mountains must be spinning like tops in their graves.
How well is your local government set up to handle hurricanes? Oh, they aren't, because you never get hit by hurricanes?
Well, that's basically the issue in the South right now; perhaps you should go ahead and knock that chip of your shoulder.
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How earthquake prepared is your city?
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I don't know if it means anything, but in my city, even the insurance forms have Godzilla clauses.
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. However, I do look in amazement at scenes of the roadside carnage in the south caused by what I perceive as a dusting of snow.
That is a dusting of snow normally on black from the freezing/thaw the night before. Folks here in the south do not normally, if ever, drive with these types of conditions. These are the people that live by "Hey, Bubba, watch this?". These are people that feel no guvmunt is going to tell them to not drive by God...thus we get carnage.
As an ex-pat northern I know better and stay safe in my home (I'd say warm, but the heat pump stops working well when the temps stay 30 for three days.). By this afternoon
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I do look in amazement at scenes of the roadside carnage in the south caused by what I perceive as a dusting of snow.
That's your problem right there. It wasn't "a dusting of snow." It was wintry mix, complete with 1/4 thick sheets of solid ice on all the roads that formed as people were trying to get home.
Plus, honestly, if 80% of the people in Atlanta had panicked and jumped on the roads in the same half hour in good driving conditions, you'd have had hours long snarls anyway. The ice that trapped us in transit made it much, much worse, but it would have been bad without it. Probably not, "abandon your car and walk h
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Hurricane Irene trashed half the bridges in Vermont two years ago, washed entire houses off their foundations, and washed away many miles of road. By the time the ski season started, all the roads had been rebuilt, sometimes involving adding sixteen feet tall fill for miles. The bridges hadn't been rebuilt, but we'd put in temporary bridges so traffic could pass. The big problem was and remains housing, but local government has done a lot to ameliorate the situation.
There was a pretty good article rec
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You're comparing apples to oranges. Bridges flooding out and getting fixed in time for ski season is a different effort then then immediate issues of snow/ice covered roads and little to no DOT equipment to handle it. The NE is prepared for snow because it is always there, each winter. The last two years we went sans snow all winter. Why pay for what you don't need.
I will give props to our local DOT this round for they really did respond better and the roads are much better and more important, people di
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As another poster said, this isn't fair. Lots of us drive with winter tires, I doubt anyone down there has even heard of them.
We (most Canadians) have the equipment and machinery to clear snow, maintain highways, and the experience to get around in these conditions. They don't.
Snow competency increases with distance north (Score:2)
As another poster said, this isn't fair. Lots of us drive with winter tires, I doubt anyone down there has even heard of them.
We (most Canadians) have the equipment and machinery to clear snow, maintain highways, and the experience to get around in these conditions. They don't.
DC is generally comic in snow, mostly because the drivers just don't know how to drive in it. I remember seeing a UPS truck try to get unstuck for an hour with no progress.
Around New York, you get a lot of people who basically know how to deal with it, but they don't always do it very intelligently. The left and right turn lanes on United States Route 1 in New Rochelle, for example, have been covered in snow for a week and they don't bother to plow them, instead just keeping the main lanes clear and letti
Re:Where I live, that's normal weather (Score:4, Informative)
When I was living down south, I usually ran my tires down to the wires as you can mostly get away with that down there. A good set of new all-season radials goes a long way toward making those crappy roads passable, even with rear wheel drive. Other problem down there is they're not really set up to clear the roads at all, so you get a lot more ice and snow on the road than you do in northern regions. Where I live now I swap my tires out a lot more often and they put some stuff down that keeps the roads more-or-less melted. Though a few days ago I drove in to work on top of a 2" thick layer of ice and didn't have a problem with it. Well... other than the huge temptation to do donuts in the parking lot on top of 2 inches of ice...
Having had 5 days of power outages in the last 4 years, I'm pretty much over expecting the power company to deliver power when I need it most. A backup generator is high on my list of priorities.
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Five days of power outages in four years? I envy you. Where I grew up, it wasn't unusual to lose power several times in the summer to lightning and once or twice in the winter to ice. Since moving to the suburbs, we haven't had an outage last more than few seconds in the last four years but I still keep flashlights in every room and a stock of lanterns in the basement. I'm also equipped to run the essentials off of the car if necessary, although odds are I'll never have to.
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In a nutshell, it's just a power inverter connected directly to the battery - cig lighter inverters have a max draw of about 15A before they blow the fuse on most cars, so you'll either want a permanently wired solution (like I did) or just use alligator clips that come with most 400+ watt inverters. You just need to make sure it can provide as power as you expect to draw. Items like a refrigerator or freezer only need to run once or twice a day to maintain sufficient cold (as long as you open them sparingl
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"so you get a lot more ice and snow on the road than you do in northern regions."
Ive been driving on 6 inches of ice and snow in the roads for the past month. Yes this is plowed roads. I have 8 inches of it hard packed in my driveway.
Re:Where I live, that's normal weather (Score:5, Insightful)
Right, because places which have palm trees and warmer climates are entirely prepared for stuff like this.
Hell, I go to Myrtle Beach in the middle of winter to get away from winter here ... and I can assure you, snow and ice would happen infrequently enough to cause complete havoc, because it's a place where the golf courses are open year round.
Not so long ago (1999) Toronto called in the army because they had a lot of snow -- if a Canadian city which normally gets winter can be crippled by it, imagine a place where snow and ice is a rare and exceptional event.
Never underestimate just how much of a mess what we call a small amount of snow can cause in a place which doesn't normally have to deal with it.
If you have alligators and palm trees, it doesn't take much to really throw stuff into disarray.
Seriously, don't be a douche.
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...and what kind of road congestion does Canada have?
The whole nation of Canada has 35m people. Metro Boston has around 5m. Metro NYC has 20m.
In Boston on a good day the roads are jam packed and your commute takes way longer than it should. Throw in an accident along the way and your commute can be a major pain.
Now consider dramatically slower travel speeds, a mere handful of fender benders. That commute is just not worth it. What's the point of having your 1hour commute turn into 2 or 3? each way.
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Maybe, but as we all learned from South Park, Canada only has one road for all those 35 million Canadians.
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your forefathers who blazed the trails to the west and through the mountains must be spinning like tops in their graves
I've always admired the way our forefathers dealt with this sort of thing - like the Donner party.
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New York City uses garbage trucks as snowplows. There are ways of making it work.
Re:You southerns are a bunch of wimps. (Score:5, Informative)
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But during that week that they were prepared for, they had the chance to order additional salt and grit. At a higher price, of course, but still. While keeping a 2 weeks stock all years may not be worth it, a week (at least down here) would be enough to pull additional stuff from the next step in the supply chain, if forcast indicates so.
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That's what those companies are specialized in.
Few cities could stock the material needed for a normal winter. So re-stocking during a winter is the norm. Only at higher prices (which evens out during warmer winters) and slower than in summer. But that's what you've got your inital stockpile for: Cover for the first week or so until roads are clear enough to get the restocking rolling.
That's definitly the way how it's handled here, just saw a documentation about it a few weeks ago. Companies can definitly d
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No kidding. Here in FL, that would barely have qualified as a rainstorm
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No kidding. Here in FL, that would barely have qualified as a rainstorm
I've flown out of town in the feeder band of an oncoming hurricane and in the teeth of a Florida thunderstorm. The hurricane was the less turbulent ride.
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Oblig XKCD [xkcd.com]
Re:Sorry... Not a big deal... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm also in NY. I've lived in Central, Upstate and now Western NY. Without the plows and salt trucks, 90% of the people here wouldn't fare much better than those in Georgia. Why don't they have that equipment? You try explaining to taxpayers that they need to buy and maintain millions of dollars worth of equipment for a scenario that might not happen. It's the same reason we don't have a whole lot of equipment to handle hurricanes or earthquakes here. Sure, it could happen, but it's rare enough that it's not worth the money to put in a whole lot of preparation.
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I'm also in NY. I've lived in Central, Upstate and now Western NY. Without the plows and salt trucks, 90% of the people here wouldn't fare much better than those in Georgia. Why don't they have that equipment? You try explaining to taxpayers that they need to buy and maintain millions of dollars worth of equipment for a scenario that might not happen. It's the same reason we don't have a whole lot of equipment to handle hurricanes or earthquakes here. Sure, it could happen, but it's rare enough that it's not worth the money to put in a whole lot of preparation.
Something nobody seems to be taking into consideration. Most equipment will suffer as much or more from not being used as it will from being used. In Atlanta, a fleet of heavy snow equipment would likely as not be half-deteriorated by the time it was next needed. And it's hard to persuade the taxpayers that you need to pay for all that servicing in normal years winter is simply the season when you switch the A/C off.
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In all fairness, it was a *CATEGORY 2* hurricane. Ooooooh! LOL!
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I'd like to see your citation for burying power lines to be a "one time 3k fee". Especially in cities and similar built-up areas that are the most affected. You'd also need to bury the transformers and all of the other gear currently on poles and any other points of failure. And then when you do need to do maintenance on those buried lines, the cost of unburying and reburying them is still significant. The much more economical option is to simply get your own backup source of power, be it a generator, wind
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3k per person is , generally, about right as an overall average.
"he much more economical option is to simply get your own backup source of power,"
not really.
A backup to completely run all appliances as if you had normal power for a week is more then 3 K
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You obviously wouldn't expect a backup to power *everything*. My parents' backup generator is enough to run the main set of lights, and the refrigerator, freezer or dryer (although probably not all at once... but they're rarely all running at once anyway) and some of the more common appliances like the computers or TVs... in other words, all of the essentials and a fair number of luxuries. It was about $1200 and has an expected lifetime of ten to twenty years before it should need any serious maintenance co
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It continuously amazes me that people would easily pay in excess of 50k in order to get the largest SUVs ever, yet they would fight teeth and nails against an one time 3k fee to get their power lines buried. The SUVs have been proven useless during the ice storms, while having electrical power was proven to be priceless.
I can pay to bury my power lines, but I can't control whether the lines are buried beyond my property. My lines are buried at my house. In fact, in the only two extended outages I have ever been involved in, the power lines were buried. At my current house, the lines are buried, but the utilities lines past my house are not, and an ice storm caused branches to come down. Because this was a widespread outage affecting hundred of thousands of people, it took about 3 days to get the power back on.
At my previ
you know you're old when... (Score:4, Funny)
Monster lizard ravages east coast! Mayors in five New England cities have issued emergency requests for federal disaster relief as a result of a giant lizard that descended on the east coast last night! Officials say that this lizard, the worst since '78, has devastated transportation, disrupted communication, and left many hundreds homeless!
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Maybe because this falls squarely under the "stuff that matters" part of the old tagline?
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Re:Global Warming .... Riiiiiight..... (Score:4, Insightful)
Just one warning: when the food supplies collapse due to global warming, we will eat the deniers like you first.
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Shut up.
Either learn the science and put forth something else based on science, or shut up.
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A preemptive strike against the machines, eh?
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if you look at the historic snowfall for NYC, we are in the average zone now
last few years we have had the snowfall in one or two huge storms, but this year its averaged over weeks
go look at the data for the late 1800's pre global warming times. average for NYC is in the 40' for inches of snow. which is what we are at now
the global warming nuts scream catastrophe no matter what kind of weather we have which is why no one listens to them anymore