Hurricane Madness

[fearfaoin]

I grew up in New England, so I think nothing of a few inches of snow, but in the DC area, people go sh*t.

Odd how different perspectives will elicit different reactions. You should see
how NC drivers handle snow. I lived in Maryland for a year, and I thought
the DC drivers handled snow incredibly well. And they actually plow the
roads there! Back in NC, we get a flurry that doesn't even stick, and the
city comes to a stand still (that actually happened last year. Traffic litterally
stood still for hours during a flurry. It made national news. I was so
embarassed...)

[Flyingcursor]

Like Missy said, people seem to forget all about how to drive on snow every year. Thankfully we don't have runs on all the grocery's though.

[buddhu]

It is now nearly 4 a.m. and, according to CNN, which has been filming it, the traffic is still bumper to bumper across 8 lanes, moving less than 5 mph on the freeways going out of Houston and parts thereabouts.

(That's about 6 k/hr to you metric sorts . . . oh, maybe not . . . what is you use instead of hours?)

Er... in imperial British time units we measure things in yonks...

OH my. I nearly spit coffee on my screen with that one. Bravo!!!!


edited: still laughing out loud.

Too kind

I think those are known as "coke came out of my nose" moments (although I tend to substitute beer).

[jbarter]

"coke came out of my nose"

Now you know you shouldn't put it in there in the first place.

[Wanderer]

Every news video I've seen shows the southbound lanes completely empty (of course, no one's going toward the storm)- so why doesn't the highway patrol open ALL the lanes going in one direction? It seems they could move the traffic more efficiently that way. Sure, getting off the highway would cause some issues, but if people are driving more than, say, 50+ miles inland, then the traffic would be somewhat lessened by that distance - and they could have state or local police man those 'backward' exits... its weird watching 3 or 4 open lanes and the other direction is a parking lot.

They supposedly did that in houston on some freeways, or were going to do it, or something. I have yet to see a picture that shows it actually being done.

[beowulf573]

I-45 towards Dallas was opened up, they were planning on doing 290 (towards Austin) also, however that plan was cancelled by the state so that there would be a way emergency aid to get in if needed.

They were planning on doing I-10 (towards San Antonio) also, but I'm not certain they did.

[Wormdiet]

In a mild defense of the grocery-snagging madness, occasionally we do get weather here in west-central NC that actually does justfiiy stocking up. Not snow, not hurricanes, but ICE. We had a storm that legitimately closed roads for two or three days. It's a lot more dangerous than just snow.

[Lambchop]

In a mild defense of the grocery-snagging madness, occasionally we do get weather here in west-central NC that actually does justfiiy stocking up. Not snow, not hurricanes, but ICE. We had a storm that legitimately closed roads for two or three days. It's a lot more dangerous than just snow.

We weren't fussing about stocking up, Worm, but about stocking up with 30 pounds of ground beef and 6 dozen eggs in the face of what nearly always ends up to be a 2-week electrical outage. People are stocking up, but it's with crazy things.

[Jack]

In a mild defense of the grocery-snagging madness, occasionally we do get weather here in west-central NC that actually does justfiiy stocking up. Not snow, not hurricanes, but ICE. We had a storm that legitimately closed roads for two or three days. It's a lot more dangerous than just snow.

We weren't fussing about stocking up, Worm, but about stocking up with 30 pounds of ground beef and 6 dozen eggs in the face of what nearly always ends up to be a 2-week electrical outage. People are stocking up, but it's with crazy things.

Mabey they all have power generators?

Or, if it's cold you can always store food outside.

I knew a man who, when winter came and the electricity went out for a long time (as it always does in heavy snow storms), would put his food in the fridge that was half submerged in the creek by his house. Even when the creek wasn't frozen, the food inside the fridge stayed really cold. The fridge didn't work otherwise, but in this position in the creek, it worked rather well.

[avanutria]

It's never cold in Texas. That's why I refused to move there. (I seriously considered it as an option last year...not for long, though!)

[Wanderer]

Mabey they all have power generators?

Or, if it's cold you can always store food outside.

I knew a man who, when winter came and the electricity went out for a long time (as it always does in heavy snow storms), would put his food in the fridge that was half submerged in the creek by his house. Even when the creek wasn't frozen, the food inside the fridge stayed really cold. The fridge didn't work otherwise, but in this position in the creek, it worked rather well.

It was 101 yesterday. I don't think that beef's gonna keep in da ol' creek

[fearfaoin]

In a mild defense of the grocery-snagging madness, occasionally we do get weather here in west-central NC that actually does justfiiy stocking up. Not snow, not hurricanes, but ICE. We had a storm that legitimately closed roads for two or three days. It's a lot more dangerous than just snow.

This is true, and it is a problem for many people, whom I will diplomatically
call "relocated Northerners" (rather than the less politic "Damn Yankee
Transplants" that some folks around these parts prefer). Our asphalt
tends to soak up heat all the time, including during winter, and release
it into new fallen snow, thus melting said snow into water, which then
refreezes. Often we end up with a layer of Ice under snow, or even
worse, black ice, which is ice so glassy that the black road shows
through, rendering the ice indistinguishable from the rest of the road.
Anyway, many newcomers aren't used to this and assume they can
drive on the snow like they could back home, which often isn't the case.

And then the actual ice and freezing rain storms that Wormdiet mentions.
That stuff brought down power lines just from the weight of the ice
accumulation.

[Wanderer]

So, I just couldn't take being the only one at the grocery store who wasn't buying totally useless stuff. I had to make a statement...

So, this morning we had cream cheese and caviar canapes for breakfast. I feel better now.

On a side note, caviar is one of those weird foods where I don't really enjoy it that much while I'm eating it, but immediately after it's all gone, I say to myself "gee, I could use some more of that".

[Tommy]

It is now nearly 4 a.m. and, according to CNN, which has been filming it, the traffic is still bumper to bumper across 8 lanes, moving less than 5 mph on the freeways going out of Houston and parts thereabouts.

(That's about 6 k/hr to you metric sorts . . . oh, maybe not . . . what is you use instead of hours?)

Every news video I've seen shows the southbound lanes completely empty (of course, no one's going toward the storm)- so why doesn't the highway patrol open ALL the lanes going in one direction? It seems they could move the traffic more efficiently that way. Sure, getting off the highway would cause some issues, but if people are driving more than, say, 50+ miles inland, then the traffic would be somewhat lessened by that distance - and they could have state or local police man those 'backward' exits... its weird watching 3 or 4 open lanes and the other direction is a parking lot.

There is always talk of doing that. But what I have heard is when it comes to doing it, they don't have enough manpower to block the on ramps, and there is always a few that are going south.

[Darwin]

The gallon waters were gone, which I wasn't surprised by. So, I got some bottled waters..was about the same price per gallon, no sweat. I expected that.

I didn't expect it. When my granddaughter came home yesterday saying that neither Target nor Tom Thumb had distilled water (which I use in my espresso machine), I accused her of not looking carefully enough, implying that she probably had trouble seeing the top shelves where they keep the distilled stuff ('cause she's so short).

So, I went out today and, sure enough, there was only a little "purified" water. I finally found some 2.5 gallon bottles of distilled water at Albertsons--and that was about all they had of the large bottles, though there were great mounds of Avian and such near the front of the store.

The only thing I could imagine was that all supplies of gallon bottles had somehow been sent off for use by evacuees. It never occurred to me that people were stockpiling way up here. Wonder if they do the same when it snows?