What is up with towns shutting down because a tiny bit of snow? (university, organic)

[roneb]

Originally Posted by Minervah

I don't think you will still find it comical after living through a few winters here though.

I don't know... I've lived in Portland all my adult life (nearly 30 years) and I STILL find it comical!

[Squidlo]

Think about that first rain of fall. We know how (a lot of us anyway) slick the roads are. Watch the news. 26 going into downtown always a few pile ups right before the tunnel. Like clockwork every year. Its an annual event yet it catches people unaware just like it did last year. The fact that Portland can go snow-less for a year or two makes it even harder to have the city and the people prepared.

[davemess10]

Originally Posted by PNW-type-gal

I don't think that the people who live here take it that way - I think the news stations, trying to generate eyeballs on the screen, push the ridiculous "storm of the century" thing by sending news anchors out in their conspicuously labeled Columbia Sportswear with news station logo to stand on overpasses and shiver and talk up the weather.

Lol, that still apparently makes me cranky and I haven't lived in Portland in over 5 years.....

True there is a certain level of media hype. But then it seems like there's a lot of people buying into it. We had people at Fred Meyer's asking us on Sat. if we were "stocking up for the storm". No we were just grocery shopping like normal. And it seems like that's all anyone wants to talk about at most job sites.
Though the weather does get a disproportional amount of talk time in this area compared to others anyhow.

[hamellr]

Originally Posted by jefffla01

They have the plans and provisions to deal with the snow and its effects instanteously-----the roads get salted rapidly and plowed regularly.

We don't use salt in Oregon (or Washington,) just "sand" which is actually 1/4 inch gravel. Salt runs into the streams and rivers and destroys salmon spawning habitat.

[Minervah]

Damned if you don't; damned if you do. Some complain about too much fuss and some are complain about not enough.

The announcements for preparedness for snow coming from ODOT were they were going to be prepared in case of a heavy snowfall. Likewise TriMet. So they knew there was a chance we would not have a big snow but were ready just in case.

Last year we had a fast and heavy snowfall no one saw coming. What has been predicted was an underestimation. TriMet buses didn't have time to get chained. That resulted in my No. 14 bus driver dumping out passengers because she couldn't make it up the slope between 22nd and 23rd or thereabouts going East.

People didn't have time to prepare. So I think it's better to be safe and be prepared than not.

I lived through many a Chicago snowstorm and they are nothing like the conditions Portland gets with the same level of storm. I never heard of black ice or sliver thaw until I moved here. They create a greater danger than the snowstorms back East or Midwest.

[Isotope-C14]

Originally Posted by hamellr

We don't use salt in Oregon (or Washington,) just "sand" which is actually 1/4 inch gravel. Salt runs into the streams and rivers and destroys salmon spawning habitat.

Yes, I'm sure salting once or twice a year will result in the absolute destruction of the salmon spawning habitat. Since salmon never spend time in salt water, they will get confused on which way the ocean is and get lost.

After all, calculating the square footage of road space and the millimeter of salt over the surface, and the assumed instant salt mobility since soil doesn't prevent/diffuse or slow any kind of leaching will result in nearly ocean like quantities of salt in the Willamette!!!

I'm glad we have wise environmental chemists out there since the fools here in the midwest have turned Lake Michigan into a briny coral reef with all their evil corporate road salting scams.

Lulz

[EnricoV]

Is that Lake Michigan, where you can't eat the fish (if there are any left)?

One of the things that astounded me the most the first time I was back in the mid-west years and years ago, were all the cars with rusted-out and corroding bottoms. I'd never seen that before.

Hey, wait. Maybe that was Detroit's corporate plan to sell more cars by their evil road salting scams!

[Isotope-C14]

Originally Posted by EnricoV

Is that Lake Michigan, where you can't eat the fish (if there are any left)?

One of the things that astounded me the most the first time I was back in the mid-west years and years ago, were all the cars with rusted-out and corroding bottoms. I'd never seen that before.

Hey, wait. Maybe that was Detroit's corporate plan to sell more cars by their evil road salting scams!

I was just driving a 1990 Taurus last weekend that had a rusty bottom. I felt real stupid driving a 22 year old car around that should have dissolved from the salt after the car lived all its life in Illinois. I could just see all the other drivers gawking at the car that had three small rusty patches around the drivers side door, how embarrassing. Oh wait, A car is for getting from point A to point B, unless you are making up for something else...

Facts about contaminants in IL fish:

Fish Advisories in Illinois

2010 meal suggestions (In other words don't eat carp):

http://www.ifishillinois.org/pdf/2010consumption.pdf

Seriously Enrico, I know out west there are no pollutants, or any radioactives from everyone's favorite Hanaford site. And of course, if you are a true liberal, you have a weaker cytochrome p450 and have to take care of yourself MORE because it is healthier!

Double lulz, next apologist?

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by EnricoV

Is that Lake Michigan, where you can't eat the fish (if there are any left)?

You can't eat the fish??

I remember the days when I lived in Chicago when my dad and my sisters and I used to go fishing off "the rocks" at the lakefront and catching perch, trout and sometimes catfish. All good eatin'.


One of the things that astounded me the most the first time I was back in the mid-west years and years ago, were all the cars with rusted-out and corroding bottoms. I'd never seen that before.

The first time my dad came out to visit me here he was astonished at all the old cars in great shape. He asked me if everyone had garages. He was used to cars rusting out on the bottom back in Chicago after a few winters on the salted roads.

I told him that they didn't salt the roads here and that was why car bodies lasted so long without rusting out. He was pretty astounded too.

Hey, wait. Maybe that was Detroit's corporate plan to sell more cars by their evil road salting scams!

Gotta put something here or the post won't go through.

[wanderbygrace]

You definitely see fewer cars in Ohio with significant rust, than in years past. No question about that. I think there are two main reasons for that: (1) most cars now have plastic bumpers & bottom boards that obviously don't rust, and (2) people seem to be getting newer cars faster than before.