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Well those places not only have more experience with this kind of weather but they have lots of equipment to deal with it. It's not economically feasible for us to buy that much equipment.
They also have salt and lots of it. I think this is the missing piece is the salt, also very costly.
but when it's 7 degrees difficult for the salt to melt anything.
The other missing link for you folks is probably the man power. The road crews up north work tons of overtime during a storm, round the clock they are out plowing and salting and they have extra folks to call in to help out.
There have been some storms where the crews from other areas will come in to help. southern VT area had a huge ice storm many years back, crews from northern VT went down to help. Sounds costly though. But what's the cost of schools/businesses being shut down for days on end?
Guess what, the same thing happens in northern climes and they don't close all frickin winter. Does anyone here really think the road are crystal clear in Boston, Syracuse, Buffalo or Portland, ME a day or two after it snows, and it snows in those places ALL THE TIME.
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It's the norm there. And people have snow tires on their cars, not all season tires. Besides the ice/snow hazard on the road there's also the other-driver hazard here.
Well, I have to say, it does seem like they could have gotten away with a delay this morning. I seem to remember when I was in school in the 80's, going in conditions pretty similar to what I see on the news today. Seems like they even said that the few places that were still really bad, they ran the bus to the top of the street and schools were giving kids excused absences and helping them make up work if they had to (seems like with internet resources, this would be even easier now). May have been a school by school thing though. On the other hand, as soon as a bus flips into a ditch, there will be hell to pay I am sure.
As far as breaking the county up into separate districts, I can see some logic in that, especially for this type of thing. Wake is one of the largest districts in the US by population too. But, in reality I doubt it will ever happen because you would have a pretty huge disparity in average income in the various areas that would geographically make sense. No way that gets past any type of judicial review given the current climate and I'm not even sure its a good idea.
Well those places not only have more experience with this kind of weather but they have lots of equipment to deal with it. It's not economically feasible for us to buy that much equipment.
What equipment do they have to scrape up snow and ice? At some point you just have to deal with it. It's NOT OKAY to close school when 80% of the roads are fine. This whole week has been a complete debacle and you're going to hear about it all over again in the spring now that people are losing two days off the break and the day after Easter as well. I think a lot of people haven't put that two-and-two together yet. The only good thing is that the quarter ends the day before break so most of the work will be wrapped up by then....if they ever go back.
I guess everyone thinks it's OK that if the temp was going to stay in the 20s this weekend we'd be off next week too. You can only play "yup we're a bunch of southern wusses yuk yuk yuk" card so many times. And all we hear is how the place is overrun with northern transplants, so can't at least half the population drive on roads that are MOSTLY clear?
I guess we will have to agree to disagree - no one is going to convince me that missing 4 days of school, and parents missing days of pay and taking vacation days, was the way to go this week. We do realize some people only get paid if they work?? Luckily this is only a once in a few years occurrence I guess.
By the way the Catholic school my kids would go to follows WCPSS - the blind leading the blind. Cardinal Gibbons was on a delay and has kids coming from all over the county...even from other counties! *gasp*. HOW did they ever get there (faint).
What equipment do they have to scrape up snow and ice? At some point you just have to deal with it. It's NOT OKAY to close school when 80% of the roads are fine. This whole week has been a complete debacle and you're going to hear about it all over again in the spring now that people are losing two days off the break and the day after Easter as well. I think a lot of people haven't put that two-and-two together yet. The only good thing is that the quarter ends the day before break so most of the work will be wrapped up by then....if they ever go back.
I guess everyone thinks it's OK that if the temp was going to stay in the 20s this weekend we'd be off next week too. You can only play "yup we're a bunch of southern wusses yuk yuk yuk" card so many times. And all we hear is how the place is overrun with northern transplants, so can't at least half the population drive on roads that are MOSTLY clear?
I guess we will have to agree to disagree - no one is going to convince me that missing 4 days of school, and parents missing days of pay and taking vacation days, was the way to go this week. We do realize some people only get paid if they work?? Luckily this is only a once in a few years occurrence I guess.
By the way the Catholic school my kids would go to follows WCPSS - the blind leading the blind. Cardinal Gibbons was on a delay and has kids coming from all over the county...even from other counties! *gasp*. HOW did they ever get there (faint).
I happen to believe that the schools probably could have opened with a 2 hour delay today, but to say that schools should be open when 80% of roads are fine--meaning that a fifth of the roads aren't---seems ridiculous.
Why is it that the snow removal crews tend to immediately clean the major roads, but never get around to side and residential streets (in some places). Wouldn't the logical thing would be that once the major roads are clear, to dispatch the crews out to side and residential streets?
Wow, I am a bit surprised at the intensity of this...discussion.
I grew up in SC. But I have lived in CO, OH, TX, and...Ottawa. Yep, Ontario. For a couple of years. And I have driven all over creation going between these places, in all seasons and weather. I learned to drive in snow in CO with a 2WD pickup. I had a 4WD pickup in Ottawa, but I kept it in 2WD most of the time. Kept me from getting too complacent I learned some things...
In CO, the most dangerous snow was the first 1/8" to 1/4". Like driving on graphite. After some fell and got packed, it was fine. Almost no ice - that was mainly in the parking lots. They also have a dry, low-humidity climate - little standing water to freeze. Snow practically sublimates away.
In Ottawa, and the more northern states...yep, they have more equipment, and spend more man-hours dealing with it. Their biggest problem is where to put it all - they haul it around it trucks to big piles. But I noticed that they (the northern areas) don't spend much time swinging up and down around the freezing point. Their snow tends to come down, and mostly STAY down for long periods. Even when there was ice, it was usually a very rough texture - not a sheet. This is critical. You could walk on that. Drive on it. You COULD overdo it. Counter-steering needs to be a reflex. (I learned to "feel" our truck to the point I could cause a rear skid on purpose when approaching an intersection, then counter-steer JUST enough on entering the intersection to damp it out and wind up facing the direction I wanted to go, thus making a real 90-degree turn. My wife absolutely HATED it when I did that But it was fun. Of course, I only did that at empty intersections...)
Then we moved down here...back to the south. The ground is usually above freezing when the snow hits. Temps swing around freezing often. Precip melts, then refreezes...into a solid sheet of ice. Often a thin sheet. Even a plow won't get it all if it's too thin. Only brine/salt helps. I don't care what you are driving; if it doesn't have studded tires, driving on FLAT ice (not the rough stuff that I usually saw up in the north) is unlikely to end well. Freezing rain is even worse. (And there is SOME ice up there - the month before we left Ottawa, a young lady rear-ended me at a stop sign on a side street. I was able to stop. She wasn't. She was a native...oh well...didn't hurt my truck any And I remember Ontario/Quebec having that monster ice storm that took down lots of high-voltage transmission towers. Unusual for them.)
So, we've got discussions about the weather prediction quality (it's hard here, due to real physical reasons), people's ability to drive in the snow/ice, and school/work closing/delaying/opening policies. I think others have covered most of the latter, and I've seen some good posts about NC weather prediction. So there's my two cents about driving. It really is different. Yes, most southerners don't get much practice driving in it (I had a rather extended course due to school and work ). But, hey, what is up north sure seemed to me to be easier to deal with, due to the climatic differences. Heck, I was up there when the schools were closed DUE TO THE COLD WEATHER (94 I think)...but I still had to go to work.
Hope this helps, gives additional perspective, or is at least good for a laugh...
I don't understand....so the people from "Up North" (I'm thinking of Twingles comments) who say they know how to drive in/on this stuff, yet also say what a wonderful job they do "Up there" of clearing the roads, then what experience do you have driving "in it" if it's already cleared before you have to drive on it? So, are you saying you have experience driving on compacted, ice over snow? You do know that many roads still are in this condition here, right?
Like Eric, I think they might have been able to go in later, however, I haven't seen the condition of the roads and land the school are on or are surrounded by. Some, I suspect, are still ice covered and not safe for buses. I drove in on Forestville Rd, thru Knightdale and Raleigh today and it was still compacted snow covered up to Buffaloe Rd Raleigh. This road has many dips and bends, I could see the school transportation folks being nervous about sending buses on a road like this.
I quite judging the school transportation folks years ago when i realized i didn't have all the facts, and wasn't responsible for 144k students' safety this being a litigious society
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I learned some things...
