New thread about the weather Down South....

[mrlynn]

Back in the early '60s, I was in Chapel Hill, NC, when they experienced a light snowfall and subfreezing temperatures. Since they had no plows, the Fire Department tried washing off the snow with fire hoses. Needless to say. . .

/Mr Lynn

[Carnos Jax]

It is just ridiculous to blame anyone in Atlanta (and any other affected areas in the south) for the lack of salt trucks or plows...for such a rare event.

[Speedy]

Carnos Jax wrote:
It is just ridiculous to blame anyone in Atlanta (and any other affected areas in the south) for the lack of salt trucks or plows...for such a rare event.

Yup, cheaper for the taxpayer to stay home than pay for trucks (which can be multipurposed) to keep roads passable.

[Will Collier]

Carnos Jax wrote:
It is just ridiculous to blame anyone in Atlanta (and any other affected areas in the south) for the lack of salt trucks or plows...for such a rare event.

That's right. For all the flaws the city government has around here (and they are numerous), griping because there isn't a fleet of snow trucks that would only get used every 5-10 years (there was zero snow accumulation here in 2012-2013) isn't close to the top of the list.

Now, where they really screwed up was not making a push to get everybody (especially school kids) home and off the roads before this started yesterday. I left my office as soon as I saw snow was falling in the northern 'burbs, and had no trouble at all. Obviously an awful lot of other people didn't get that option, and the place is a disaster as a result...

[OWC Jamie]

Similar happened a few years ago in Rhode Island when everyone decided to go home at the same time, vehicles packing down rapid snowfall making roads impassable.
Poor driving conditions and a sudden crush of traffic is not a good combination.
It's not just poor drivers, although some of the antics and faults may be frustratingly comical and even deadly - all the physics involved just isn't conducive to the smooth and orderly flow of vehicular movement.

The blame will still get spread like so much butter though.

[OWC Jamie]

vernal equinox is March 20

may your not too distant future be filled with warm peach blossoms

[PeterB]

I wasn't blaming the lack of snow plows. I was more thinking of pre-planning of telling people to stay home, etc. But then, I don't live there, and I don't know exactly how this went down. If people were silly enough to venture out when they were told not to, then of course it's on them.

[Carnos Jax]

I'm sorry, my comments (which I should've clarified) resulted from watching the news reports on TV.

[Gutenberg]

The forecasters blew it, and admitted as much this morning on NPR. So the municipal managers and corporate bosses couldn't tell anyone to stay home because they didn't know.

[Numo]

Snowpocalypse!