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When Wilmington was under a Hurricane Watch, the stores would empty of everything, too. Heaven help you if you couldn't get to a grocer's until after 5:00 p.m. There wouldn't be a gallon of milk, bottled water, or a loaf of bread to be found.
The hardware stores would sell out of batteries, flashlights, duct tape, plywood, plastic tarps, and anything else you can imagine. Generators would sell out just as soon as stores could re-open, and people could get there to buy them, and you might be one of a lucky few to get one. Whole trucks would bring them in by the load-full. Then, stores started shipping them in prior to big storm announcements, and people would buy those out. My father-in-law had a whole house generator put in after Floyd (or was it Fran)? After awhile, they seem to blend together.
Anybody recall the New Millenium scare? My silly husband got caught-up in that, and we had bottled water, and ate canned fish, for months.
Here's an environmental perspective on the entire issue: salting is soooo damaging to the surrounding area that if you don't need it, be glad it's not done...up here in NY, they salt at the drop of a hat (or snowflake) and there's nothing uglier than following behind a plow and have the whirlgig thingy spraying salt into piles for your mortgaged car to drive through
I wish they would consider using sand more often but considering the properties of both, salt wins the snow/ice melting contest....
Here's some advice from a northerner : when it snows, stay inside, play some board games with the family, watch the snow fall, take a walk in it when the sun comes out and look at how it glistens like diamonds. Now build the biggest snowman you can, take some pictures of it and the kids as they make snow angels. When done, run inside for some hot cocoa with marshmallows and remember: this too shall pass (:
Last edited by Fallingwater79; 02-05-2010 at 03:49 PM..
I missed the debate following the snow here but here's my simple view. A lot of people complained. Yet I am 200% sure those same people have chosen not to install winter tires. So not one of them has any place complaining. Nobody should have been on the road after the snow and ice without winter tires. If you personally dont think it's worth forking out $1,000 a year for 1 or 2 days bad weather, why should the city fork out millions?
We've lived here about 4 years now and had 3 days of snow, resulting in maybe 5-6 lost days of school. Big deal
Something else to keep in mind about DC is that the traffic situation is a much much much bigger deal than it is in the Triangle. Even on a good day commuting is a lot of work for a lot of people, and maintaining flow of traffic is critical there. I know it is hard to believe if you've never experienced it.
In the case of 20 inches of snow, it is probably much less expensive to close the federal govt. for a day than it is to wait for people to try to go to work, then create havoc.
DC did not do such a great job cleaning up after the last big storm. When I visited my parents at Christmas time there were still big chunks of ice in the streets. It had been like three weeks or something.
Here in NY we also have a run on bread and milk before a storm. Personally, I buy chili ingredients and hot cocoa mix.
Something else to keep in mind about DC is that the traffic situation is a much much much bigger deal than it is in the Triangle. Even on a good day commuting is a lot of work for a lot of people, and maintaining flow of traffic is critical there. I know it is hard to believe if you've never experienced it.
In the case of 20 inches of snow, it is probably much less expensive to close the federal govt. for a day than it is to wait for people to try to go to work, then create havoc.
DC did not do such a great job cleaning up after the last big storm. When I visited my parents at Christmas time there were still big chunks of ice in the streets. It had been like three weeks or something.
Here in NY we also have a run on bread and milk before a storm. Personally, I buy chili ingredients and hot cocoa mix.
I also visited my parents in DC at CHristmas and the roads were fine. The other big storm they got was Dec. 19th, so it was only 6 days before Christmas, not 3 weeks. There was still plenty of snow on the ground, but the streets looked perfect.
20 inches of snow is very different than 5 inches of ICE!!! Snow I have plowed, you just push it out of the way put some salt and sand down and poof move on roads get passable within a day. ICE like we had last week with NO SALT or or very little salt and NO PLOWS well its a whole different animal. The 5 inches of sleet compacted and then 15 degree temps froze it SOLID!!!
You cannot compare the DC storm yesterday with our situation.
Oh by Monday am it will still be snowy on the roads BUT there will be very little compacted sheets of ice there and you will be able to navigate the streets. But finding a parking space is a whole nother story!!
I also visited my parents in DC at CHristmas and the roads were fine. The other big storm they got was Dec. 19th, so it was only 6 days before Christmas, not 3 weeks. There was still plenty of snow on the ground, but the streets looked perfect.
Well, three weeks or one week...not all roads in the DC metro area are created equal (or cleaned). My parents still have those ice chunks in their street and they are now covered with a LOT of show.
When a snow plow hits that, it must feel like hitting a pig!
I also visited my parents in DC at CHristmas and the roads were fine. The other big storm they got was Dec. 19th, so it was only 6 days before Christmas, not 3 weeks. There was still plenty of snow on the ground, but the streets looked perfect.
I second that I drove from Raleigh the NH thru the heart of DC in the early morning hours of the 20th and the streets were great.
I'm currently in DC for meetings, which will likely be cancelled. It is an absolute mess here. We've just received another 10 inches on top of the previous 25 inches and it's still snowing. The winds are nasty - I just read that the winds have made it too dangerious to plow many areas with all the downed limbs and such. On the upside, they're expecting an encore of the 1000+ person snowball fight in DuPont Circle just outside my hotel. I've got to go limber up my arm.
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, they salt at the drop of a hat (or snowflake) and there's nothing uglier than following behind a plow and have the whirlgig thingy spraying salt into piles for your mortgaged car to drive through 
: when it snows, stay inside, play some board games with the family, watch the snow fall, take a walk in it when the sun comes out and look at how it glistens like diamonds. Now build the biggest snowman you can, take some pictures of it and the kids as they make snow angels. When done, run inside for some hot cocoa with marshmallows and remember: this too shall pass (:
Omg
