OT: Snow day down south!!!

Submitted by j.o.s.e maizenblue on

Well, down here in NC its a complete mess and many of us will have a couple of snow days to enjoy! What are your plans for the next couple of days?

mdaddio110

February 12th, 2014 at 4:55 PM ^

2 inches here in Raleigh is comparable to 12 inches in Michigan or worse..no plows or salt trucks anywhere. I've had a few friends abandon their cars and try to walk home since traffic isn't moving. I don't know why they haven't cancelled this Duke game yet, it seems foolish to try and play it during a state of Emergency.

bronxblue

February 12th, 2014 at 3:06 PM ^

Here in NY they are talking about up to a foot of fresh snow by Friday, which given the paucity of salt available because everyone decided to carpet-bomb the sidewalks in December, it should be interesting.  NYers seem to handle the idea of snow better, but they still don't quite understand how it works in reality.

GoBlueInNYC

February 12th, 2014 at 3:15 PM ^

I'm getting pretty sick of these winter storms hitting the city. Some of these sidewalks are getting tough to navigate, with a lot of them having like a 6 inch wide clearing surrounded by piles of old snow that's been trampled into a bumpy ice sheet. Yesterday I was walking around and hit a few blocks that clearly have had no snow removal all winter; it made for some slow, gingerly, and certainly silly looking walks.

m1jjb00

February 12th, 2014 at 5:18 PM ^

had a guy standing on the corner warning people of the ice that developed on an otherwise clear sidewalk.  Now on a packed Acela headed to DC.  (Running towards the trouble?)  Not quite the last days of Saigon; Penn Station was civilized for once.  (Perhaps due to the lack of a Ranger game that night.)

StephenRKass

February 12th, 2014 at 3:36 PM ^

IIRC, Houston was gridlocked a few years ago with Hurricane evacuations. Some people wait too long to leave. And when you put too many people on the road, you have a recipe for disaster.

However, being from Chicago, which has been in the midst of a brutal winter, I'm a bit confused. We have close to 10 million people in the metropolitan area. This comprises a seven county area, with more than 200 suburbs surrounding the city proper. Even with the need for each different governing body to take care of snow removal, salting of roads, etc., they seem to manage. What is the difference between this area and Atlanta? Obviously, there are more resources to deal with snow and ice here (than in Atlanta.) Still, you would think that Atlanta could figure this out better then they did.

GoBlueInNYC

February 12th, 2014 at 3:57 PM ^

I remember that Houston gridlock. People were abandoning their cars on the highway as they ran out of gas from idling for too long. What a mess.

I'm not sure why metro Atlanta is so bad at coordinating amongst all the different towns. Maybe because they just generally don't have to very often. Also, I don't know about Chicago, but I believe Atlanta is notorious for being really poorly laid out and having terrible traffic/transit even in good weather.

maizenbluenc

February 12th, 2014 at 3:22 PM ^

Living here in the Concentrated Area of Relocated Yankees (and foreign tech workers) aka Cary, we get along OK until some real Southerner (or aforementioned foreign tech worker) comes flying through an intersection or across the road into you. That said the roads have 2" on them in the past two hours even though they salted.

Unfortunately someone invented the internet and telecommuting, so I still have work to get done. Otherwise I'd hop in the Jeep, drive up to Boone, and go skiing. As it is the kids have dusted off sleds and will head out to the hills.

Beyond that, there are Olympics to watch with hot cocoa in hand while DMV figures out how to use those snow plowy things or the sun just melts it off over the weekend.

 

Brown Bear

February 12th, 2014 at 3:11 PM ^

I am currently attempting to escape from Jacksonville,Florida. Most flights from Jax go through Atlanta, my flights for tomorrow were cancelled but luckily I snagged a nonstop to Chicago for this evening. Dumb ice storms.

GoBlueInNYC

February 12th, 2014 at 3:55 PM ^

I think at least parts of this storm is more like inches of ice, rather than ices of snow, which is significantly worse, southerner or not.

I remember when I was living in Austin, there was a storm in which it hovered around freezing and just rained for like 2 days straight. I don't think I've ever seen ice coating that thick before. Plus, with no salt and long stretches of elevated roads, there was nothing to do about it other than just wait for it all to melt over the course of a couple of days.

sammylittle

February 12th, 2014 at 3:56 PM ^

Well, I've had more snow days this week from my job teaching at Mississippi State than I had in four years of high school in Northville.  The ice storm predicted for this area was pretty much a no show.  We are having some lovely sleet at the moment, though.

tsunami42080

February 12th, 2014 at 4:13 PM ^

About 1/2 inch of ice everywhere. MUCH less chaotic than last time bc no one is on the roads. Hope Charlotte learned from our incompetency in dealing w the last storm.

Hope they still play Duke/UNC, go Heels!!

Hoke-ish

February 12th, 2014 at 4:14 PM ^

I live in Durham and my wife works at UNC, it's taking her over three hours to get home from work today (we're both from Michigan, this is definitely about the area not having the infrastructure to deal with this weather).  We talked about trying to make the game, but seems very unlikely (even though tickets are very very cheap).

J.Madrox

February 12th, 2014 at 4:34 PM ^

I live in Durham and take classes at UNC, they shut down the University around noon today, and the bus getting out of campus that usually has 8 to 12 people was packed with people standing everywhere. Then my drive home from the mall that usually takes 5 to 10 minutes took about an hour.

My wife is a nurse and has to go to work tomorrow, I am hoping it clears up somewhat by tomorrow morning or her drive is going to be terrible.

HL2VCTRS

February 12th, 2014 at 4:37 PM ^

I live in NC now, but grew up in Michigan. I make fun of southerners in the snow all the time, but it took me 2 hours to go 21 miles this afternoon. The big difference between the north and the south is that in those 21 miles, I passed one plow.. And that one plow didn't even have its blade down... It was just salting. Between that and the level of panic, it's just a different dynamic in the south when it snows. .

J.Madrox

February 12th, 2014 at 4:56 PM ^

Depsite the terrible conditions on the roads, and the fact that Chapel Hill has shut down all buses and encouraged fans to stay off the roads, the Duke/UNC basketball is still on for tonight. I guess the Duke team is going to take a bunch of snow plows to get from Durham to Chapel Hill. Apparently there are already fans abadoning their cars 2.5 miles from the arena and starting to walk.

HL2VCTRS

February 12th, 2014 at 5:46 PM ^

They just canceled it. The Duke bus can't get there. They were actually encouraging people not to come and were just going to let more students in. They probably should have canceled it hours ago.

leu2500

February 12th, 2014 at 5:27 PM ^

Chicago gets snow every winter.  They either have the equipment to deal with it or nobody goes anywhere for what, 3 months? 

Snow is such an infrequent  occurance down south, more of a once every few years event (even if we've had more than one storm this year) that it isn't economical to invest in much snow equipment.  Plus, after a couple of days the weather returns to normal and the snow melts.

I moved down here from western PA 25 yeas ago.  Maybe 5-7 snow events in N AL in that time?  The worst was it stayed below freezing for about a week before the sun took care of it.  And yes, I'm out of practice driving in the stuff, and no my car's not equipped for it.  so like the locals I stay off the roads.  Besides, the local response to precipitation (snow and rain)  is drive faster!           

 

pinkfloyd2000

February 12th, 2014 at 5:29 PM ^

Anything more than a quarter inch of ice is generally trouble...and it sounds like many places will be WELL above that mark, possibly up to ONE inch. An inch of ice means that power lines and large trees coming down is an inevitability, not just a probability.

MGoGrendel

February 12th, 2014 at 6:22 PM ^

If they go to school on Friday, it's their last day before winter break next week.

We're making and eating a lot of food as there is nothing else to do. Taco's yesterday and pulled pork in the crock pot today. Lot's of beer being kept cold in the garage by the ice cold weather.

Duncan Hines dark fudge brownies are on tap for the evening!

Sopwith

February 12th, 2014 at 7:14 PM ^

We've also been getting hit pretty hard out here in the Silicon Valley area the past week.  We've had a lot of clouds, and a couple of days ago it rained.  This sucks, people are freaking out.  We're all in this together, folks.  

Kermits Blue Key

February 12th, 2014 at 8:04 PM ^

I'm in Raleigh and it is mayhem. I'm orignally from Michigan and was driving a 4wd Jeep and I was still sliding around like crazy, so these people down here don't stand a chance. No infrastructure for events like this.