I grew up living in Upstate New York. From the Watertown area on the Tug Hill Plateau, in the thick of the Adirondacks, to the Capital District Area in Gloversville, to the Southerntier in Delhi, to the Rochester Area in Lima/Avon.
I know winter. I am very experienced in winter driving. I took my drivers license test in a foot of snow in the middle of April.
I now live in Alabama.
I find it funny when my friends half a nation away think they know better than everyone here. They like to say that we should have KNOWN that all hell was going to break loose because the National News said that hell was coming.
Here is a newsflash. Here in Alabama, we tend to be staunch right leaning people that have learned to ignore the National News. We tend to focus more on what the local news is saying.
The public DID NOT KNOW anything other than the fact that it was supposed to get cold. Local news talked about cold, they did not talk about ice, expect on bridges, or snow.
We don't have the equipment, nor the materials, nor the ability to distribute the materials to treat the roads like I'm familiar with up north. No salt, no trucks with the ability to distribute the salt. No sand or the ability to distribute it. No embers nor the ability to distribute the embers. Hell, we don't even usually have 4 season or snow tires available for our cars.
Hell, is snows here about once a decade so it's an absolute waste to put the money into that equipment and material. Instead, we're smart enough to know that we don't have that available to us here, so instead, we close up shop and stay off the roads.
Crossfireoops was right. the management of this was a catastrophe. There were conflicting weather reports as to what was going to happen. So, they screwed up by assuming that it was not going to have precipitation, but instead was only going to be cold.
All that set the stage for a perfect nightmare. Nothing was closed, so people went to work, and kids went to school. They drove in the cold, and on the ice, and did okay, not great, but okay. As well as could be expected from people that only see snow or ice maybe once a decade and lack the tires, or road treatment to help.
While at their schools, and at their jobs, the precipitation began to accumulate, catching everyone off guard. The word went out that things were getting bad, so schools let out, and jobs sent people home....... all at the exact same time!
Grid lock happened. That would have happened the same way on a perfectly hot summer day if everyone tried to get on the road at the same time.
With the gridlock came the ice. Hills are everywhere, and as somebody pointed out, physics still works. Cars standing perfectly still, would slide into another car, or off the road.
Have that happen at several intersections across a city, and then the gridlock grows. and the weather begins to take it's toll. Cars run out of gas, batteries that are not bought with cold cranking amps quit, etc.
Now you have a scenario where nobody can move, kids can't get home, or even off the bus that was stuck in gridlock while returning home, parents can't get home, emergency workers are stuck in traffic on the way to rescue or save a life.
And this is what a bunch of arrogant, ignorant yankee's want to mock.....
Classy folks....classy.
