I just wish they had an insurance contract then.
Sure its expensive on years you don’t need it, but with the right contract its a bargain on the years that you do need it.
It’s odd how idiotic people get about snow. F’rex: I live in Connecticut. CT is one of the winteriest states in the US; snow is not exactly a rarity. Big, road-closing storms are expected a couple of times a season. No big deal; we’ve been here 300 years or so, right?
Wrong.
We’re getting a moderate storm today, from about now until early evening. It will close roads for a while and it’s better not to be driving, even with 4WD and snow tires. So a day/evening home, and the roads will assuredly be open and safe by mid-morning (on Sunday).
Are my fellow Yankees calm about it? They are not. Our small commercial zone is a madhouse - lines at the auto parts store, massive crush at the grocery store, angry New York traffic jam getting out of same, people with shopping carts filled with milk and bread and water and the like. Was there for a few routine things; I just drove on through and out the secret back entrance and home.
We’ve been through several massive storms since we got here, including losing power for over a week, twice. When we moved in, the neighbors snarked at the generator - “Oh, the doctor installed that ten years ago and I think it’s run for fifteen minutes.” (Half the houses here now have generators.) We’ve been warm and comfortable and calm and prepared for every storm, from massive blizzards that shut down the northeast to this one-day piddler. No worries.
So how come a California transplant to whom snow was a two-hour drive handles this weather with equanimity and even a little pleasure, while lifers here panic and run in circles squawking? I know perfectly well I can run to the store tomorrow morning for anything I need… why don’t they?
I understand the driving part…when you only drive on snow/ice a few times a year…yeah, you ain’t be worth shit doing it.
What I don’t understand (and this goes for more northern climes)…People, you are not going to freeze to death in a modern house even if the power goes out. Get something other than a damn T shirt and boxer shorts on, pile up some sheets, comforter, or quilts on the bed/sofa and be done with it.
Cuddle with a fracking cat if you get desperate.
I actually have 100% respect for the problem-solving that went into this response. Material at hand, problem presented, response formulated. I suspect that was not an on-the-day response, but rather one formulated years before the emergency. Kudos.
Unfortunately, the balance of my response is only fit for The Pit. :dubious:
Because they’re not natives. They’re from Brooklyn or Queens and are utterly unprepared for non-urban weather patterns. I know- I lived in NYC for many years before moving to southern Orange County, NY. where I lived for 15 years. It was well on its way to being primarily a bedroom community to NYC when I arrived in 1992.
Teeming- and I do mean teeming- with city transplants. They were utterly contemptuous of all things rural and non-city. Fairfield County, CT has been basically a bedroom community for NYC and a flee-to for NYC/ Long Island natives ever since the New Canaan Line of what became Metro-North Railroad was first chartered in 1866. That’s a very long time. 
I used to stand in the Shop Rite in Monroe, New York. Bemused as hell. People would be HYSTERICAL. "Oh man, the kids will be home, snow day from school, we’re all fucked up here man, I need another eleven loaves of Wonder Bread and a few dozen eggs, some kerosene, Velveeta, a coupla sixes of beer for Louie and me and nine pounds of 80% ground beef. And some propane. Cause, you know, we’re country people and Louie he loves to grille in a blizzard. " It was a little like watching Bill Paxton lose his shit in “Aliens”.
2.3" of snow later, with a one-day snow delay and no real closings, that lady’s still wondering what to do with the other 10 1/2 loaves of Wonder Bread…
People are idiots.
ETA: Billfish: We had 100% electric heat in that house up in Orange County. I actually dug it in a big way and we saved a ton of money. HOWEVER- when the power goes out, the heat goes out. Only once in all of those years did it become an issue. We lost power for over 24 hours and you know what? Your average well-built split-level from 1967 isn’t made out of high-tech materials with the walls filled with foam. We spent the night elsewhere because the ambient temperature in our house was around 45º and that wasn’t really great sleeping weather with 2 small kids.
Huge batch of bread pudding. Surely she also purchased several gallons of milk…
But yeah, the rush to stock up on bread, milk and toilet paper… (of course you fear to run out of TP in the blizzard). I remember Maryland “snow emergencies”…
A standard gas or oil furnace is also useless when the electricity goes out.
In 2000 we had a nasty ice storm. Power went out for 4 days. We have a fireplace and I went thru a lot of wood.* But most of the house still kept getting colder and colder.
This is the thing about the Southeast. A storm can be quite variable. Small differences in tracking and temps can have a big effect. It can end up basically a “meh” (like this one) or a much nastier one like the 2000 storm. So some preparation is a good thing. Especially being able to eat without electricity for a few days. Bread is good. But eggs?
- I spent a remarkable fraction of my time processing wood and keeping the fire going. Don’t know how northerners dealt with this centuries ago.
This is super-important. When I lived in Chapel Hill, every time there was a winter storm, I’d hear the Yankees mocking us Southerners for our caution about driving. Then they’d get out and slide their cars all across the black ice and into a ditch. As I understand it, black ice is much more common with winter storms down here than it is up north, and it’s pretty freakin’ impossible to compensate for.
The other factors–less snow-removal equipment, less experience driving in snow, etc.–are important. But the black ice issue is the biggest one, in my opinion.
It’s certainly not impossible to freeze to death in a power outage. Very few furnaces work without power, and in seriously cold temperatures even well-insulated modern houses will get cold in a hurry. If, like me, you live somewhere that people look at Environment Canada “Extreme Cold Warning” statements and say “Well that’s cold, but it’s just -34. How is that extreme?” it behooves you to have a contingency plan for what to do in extended power outages. Backup power, fireplace, bugging out, whatever. Winter is coming, and she will kill you without mercy if you do not give her the respect she deserves.
Fortunately, extended power outages usually happen when it’s not so cold, because they mostly result from freezing rain or heavy wet snow, both of which fall when temperatures are around freezing.
Well, of course, particularly when you are talking MINUS 34.
But somewhere more along the lines of freezing?
If this die hard born and raised deep south skinny white dude can hike around on a windy day at 7 degrees and camp in a cruddy little tent during a windy sleet storm and manage to not be shivvering me timbers off I’d think people in windproof house with bunch of clothes and blankets out to be able to work something out.
angelsoft, I’m in a part of Oregon that hasn’t had huge accumulations this week, yet even with studded tires it’s impossible to leave my driveway due to hills. No salt, just sand, which right now is a bit of sand on a base of ice. On Friday, even down in the flats I saw a great deal of skidding while braking. If yesterday’s predicted yet absent warmer (37F) rain doesn’t appear today and clear the roads, and the power lines don’t come down, I’m probably walking/busing to work tomorrow, if work is open.
ETA: on Friday at mid-day, it was evident that the closest grocery had had no produce delivery for several days. We have had one mail delivery this week, and no trash pickup. This is in an urban area.
Remember, Gorsnak is talking -34 C. That’s only -29 F.
Shit your right!
Break out the Burmuda shorts and Gatorade 
I think that both Canadians and Americans can agree that -40 is -40.
QFT. The Snowmageddon of 2014 wasn’t really caused by the snow; it was caused by the snow that melted and then re-froze. We’re actually okay on snow, unless it’s a real crapload; but we get knocked out by ice.
Explains why I’ve only ever heard of them on TV shows and such despite the frickin lot more than 3 inches of snow needed to close anything down.
From the National Weather Service for the central and northern Colorado rockies. -
- SNOW ACCUMULATIONS…AN ADDITIONAL 6 TO 12 INCHES GIVING STORM
TOTALS OF 12 TO 24 INCHES.
That’s by tomorrow/Tuesday morning.
-and-
- THERE MAY ONLY BE A BRIEF PERIOD OF BETTER TRAVEL CONDITIONS TUESDAY BEFORE ANOTHER STRONG WINTER STORM ARRIVES TUESDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY.
SNOW SHOULD FINALLY TAPER OFF IN THE COLORADO HIGH COUNTRY LATE THURSDAY AND END BY FRIDAY.
We’ll be fine. I’ll have to plow a few times. Maybe take off work an hour early or something as this starts to wind up again tomorrow night.
I doubt if it’s ever been done and don’t think it ever could be. Funding. Municipal government operating funds are fixed and planned out in advance. It would cost a city millions (over and above what they have budgeted for that year) to do what you describe. The Governor would have to claim a “disaster” in order to get federal funding assistance. And by the time that all goes through the gov’t red tape process everything will be mostly melted anyway.
The other factor is the sodium chemical Northern cities use. TONS are needed. Northern cities plan their season and have it on hand in advance for the season and don’t want to give it up (or even sell it) because if you need more you’re screwed. You can’t get a 2,000 ton salt delivery overnight. There have been years up here in Minneapolis that were particularly bad and there was talk about running out of salt before spring and very difficult (and expensive) to get more during the season.
I used to work in a service station/tire shop and we offered studding (heh) service. I only saw it done once and never did it myself in the six years I worked there.
I seem to recall about twenty years ago my state (South Dakota) had to ask a neighboring state for some truck-sized snowblowers because the snow along the sides of the road got too high to plow anymore. I think they came from Minnesota or North Dakota. Some states have reserve funds for just such emergencies.