10 hour back-up on I-5 iin Seattlle

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

It snowed yesterday. It snowed a lot, for the Pacific Northwest, 5", at our house.
I’m watching the news right now and they’re showing the traffic back-ups still there from last nights’s comute. There were buses upside down and backwards all over town. All the schools are closed.

And the wind blew. Lots of power outages.

Today, the snow is over, but the temperature is very cold. Our thermometer says 19 this morning.

I know, for those of you in the mid-west, especially, are laughing at us, but the lack of snow mitigation infrastructure and inexperience combined with the hills, makes it almost impossible.

We took the 4WD out last night to the park and did brodies in the parking lot. We both have experience driving in snow, so we were pretty comfortable getting around, but we saw lots of people doing stupid things. Lots of people walking in the middle of the streets. We saw a bunch of teenagers dragging a kiddy pool up a big hill on a main street. They were wearing white, so they were nearly invisible.
I’m amazed more people aren’t dead this morning.

So, neighbors, how are you fairing?

2

Holy cow, I have to call my grandma in Issaquah later! Five inches?

I’m in Idaho and my car is, until they come around and plow, snowed in. I’m not sure how much I have here but I’m guessing in the realm of 8 inches, which is enough that my car can’t make it to the nice plowed highway, snow tires or not. One of my neighbors couldn’t make it out in his truck. When I went to bed we had maybe an inch on the ground. It’s so pretty out there!

I sure hope I don’t have to call my boss to tell her I’ll be late because of snow. That’d be embarassing.

3

We’re staying cozy here in Interbay/Magnolia. I frequently work from home, so it’s business as usual for me today (alas, no snow day!), but my son’s preschool is canceled. My husband is a shift supervisor at Starbucks, and has to work today, but his store is about a 5-minute walk in regular weather so it’s not so bad. Rather, as long as his co-workers can get to work it won’t be so bad!

He’ll stop at the store on the way home (it’s across the street from his work), so we’ll get the remaining Thanksgiving ingredients we need, and then we just have to hope that the roads clear in time for T-day dinner at my in-laws’ house on Queen Anne!

Speaking of Queen Anne - have you seen the videos of the idiots trying to drive up the counterbalance last night? They’d be funny if the dumbasses weren’t crashing into the cars of people who didn’t make the attempt. Morons.

4

I live in Pierce County and stayed home today too.

It’s nuts down here as well because of ice. I didn’t want anyone smacking my rig. I have my worklap top with me, but connectivity work’s secure network is not great today. It’s taking forever to do anything, so I just gave up for now.

5

Well, shit, it’s more like a foot out there, so I called my boss. The damn plow better come around soon, I’m stuck until it does!

6

Is that really unusual weather there? That’s kind of nothing around here, because we get it often enough that we’re prepared for it.

A friend from Kenmore is calling me tonight. I hope she’s snug and warm at home.

7

Even more moronic because there are two ways up Queen Anne that are much less steep.

Yes, very.

8

The issue, plain and simple is the glare ice we get in these types of situations.

We have serious gridlock issues around here as it is; throw in ice and big hills, and well…it’s a recipe for disaster.

They can’t seem to keep up with keeping the roads de-iced either.

9

I saw the thread title and immediately thought, “Oh, did it snow?”

I lived in Seattle for 4 years. MrWhatsit grew up there. Being from the Midwest, I initially shared in the laughter and mocking about how local residents run around in a panic at the first sign of snow, and then quickly realized, this is because they have no snow-clearing infrastructure. Hell, in Chicago they’ll start running the salt trucks before snow even starts to fall, if there’s a major blizzard in the forecast. Seattle doesn’t even HAVE salt trucks. (At least, I don’t think so.) Plus, everything is up or down a steep hill from your current location.

I feel for you guys. Hope it gets cleared away soon.

10

I was able to get the Prius moving on my icy street, so I drove it to Seattle yesterday. On the way home I wished I’d driven the Jeep.

They closed shop at 1300 yesterday because of the weather. Good for me, because I expected bad conditions on the way home and it’s better to have some light. The express lanes were southbound (they didn’t switch them), so I had to get into the regular lanes. Lots of cars, slow traffic. Conditions weren’t that bad until after Marysville. I did briefly lose traction a couple of times, but nothing serious. Traffic was stopped at Angel of the Winds Casino. It cleared after a couple/few miles.

Generally conditions were better in the north. By Arlington the roads were clear and dry. People were driving about 60 mph instead of the posted 70. On the north side (i.e., Bellingham and north) the wind picked up. I guess it was blowing around 30 kts almost directly out of the north. Near the Nooksack River it felt as if I’d be flipped. The road remained clear and dry through the Chuckanuts to my exit at Birch Bay-Lynden road. BB-L had some ice on it, but had generous dry strips – sort of. There were stretches that were completely covered in ice. I was following an old woman, and she was driving about 10 mph under the posted 50 mph limit on the dry stretches. She slowed down to 12 or 15 on the icy stretches, which I considered reasonable – especially since I was in the Prius. I switched to engine braking, since I’ve found this to be a good strategy in that car when the roads are icy.

I’d driven into Belltown instead of getting on the bus in Northgate. It usually takes me about two hours to get home when I do that. Yesterday it took three hours.

The patio thermometer read 16º when I looked at it about half an hour ago, and the sun is out. And here I thought ‘sunny 16’ was a photography guideline! :stuck_out_tongue:

11

Yeah, it’s almost easy to mock places that can’t handle it until I realize that it’s something they’re not prepared to deal with because they almost never have to. Then I just feel bad.

Stay safe, Washingtonians!

12

WADOT sent out the trucks ahead of time and spread salt and brine on much of the freeway. It seemed to help. King County Metro went to snow routes the day before the storm, and the buses were chained. That seemed to help as well.

But yeah, Seattle has one or two hills. :wink: NWCN is showing clips of people sliding on a hill that is solid ice. A metro bus got sideways and hit a pole. People’s cars were skating around, and they showed one clip repeatedly of an apparently disabled car being smacked by a car that slid down the hill.

Seattle seems to have taken a lesson from 2008, but I’m glad I’m telecommuting today.

13

After the storm 2 years ago, in which it took me 11 hours to travel 11 miles home, I vowed not to drive in the snow again. So Monday morning I took two buses from Bothell to the eastside, which took 2.5 hours. Worked all day and got on the 545 bus to downtown Seattle, which also took 2.5 hours and got me only halfway home. The worst of it was crossing the 520 bridge at slower than walking speed, with many many stalls on the west hi-rise, including a few semis who should have known better than to attempt it without chains.

Apparently the city is using salt this time, but it’s so cold there’s almost no effect.

So I arrive in Pioneer Square at 8pm last night, and the bus driver recommended finding a place to stay instead of trying to get my second bus northbound on I-5. I stopped in the nastiest Skid Road bar I’ve ever been in, which was half full of other stranded commuters. One of them gave me the brilliant idea to take the light rail out to the airport and find an inexpensive hotel there.

At the Airport Hilton, no room at the inn, because everyone else seemed to have the same idea. They told me every hotel anywhere near the airport was booked, but the Grand Hyatt back in downtown Seattle had rooms, so I got back on the light rail and made it to the Hyatt at 7th and Pine.

(Thank God for the light rail, because all roads were pretty much impassable with stuck vehicles.)

The Hyatt was great - they put me in a corner suite for $143, saying they’d lowered their rates to help stranded people out.

Although every school system in Puget Sound is closed (including UW), my workplace is still open for business this morning, of course. Got up at 5:00 to assess the situation, and started calling co-workers. My boss was very cool, saying to do what I needed to do, and they’d just cope. After seeing the jack-knifed semi blocking all lanes of I-5 southbound, I decided to try to make my way home instead of potentially being stranded for a second night if I made it back to the eastside and got stuck there. There is a prescription medicine at home which I have to take daily, and the cats never got fed last night (nor the heat turned on).

The Hyatt desk clerk told me no buses were running, and no cabs to be had. Luckily she was wrong about the buses, and I got VERY lucky only having to wait 10 minutes for the one I needed. I’m in dress pants, dress shoes, a heavy coat, and only a baseball cap. Ears can get frostbitten pretty quickly at single-digit windchills.

This bus driver was insane, squeezing past stalled semis and other city buses. He told me his was one of only two he knew of on that route. I-5 was snow-pack all the way up to Lake City Way and all the way home. The exit ramp at Lake City Way was the scariest - uphill through a narrow tunnel with a stalled semi in the left lane - about a 2-inch clearance, but we made it. The driver assured me they WERE salting the roads - it just doesn’t do much at these temps.

I’m not even going to attempt going to work today. I’m going back to bed.

14

Propane is expensive, so it’s my habit to turn the furnace off when I’m not home or when I go to bed. This past week I’ve taken to keeping it on, but turned all the way down. I think that’s 50º. The hood fan over the stove is on to circulate the air. I’ve closed off the middle bedroom, so I’m not heating that. Last night I turned the space heater on in the little bedroom and shut the door. It’s a little over 60º back there, so I’m hoping the pipes to the laundry room don’t freeze.

You might consider leaving the furnace on at its minimum setting for the sake of the cats.

15

I conveniently live on the way to work for my boss. If he goes in, I go in. That isn’t a bad thing; gotta get paid. But it comes in handy if I go outside, find the snow is almost as high as my car’s trunk and text him to come get me if he wants me at work. :smiley:

16

Video

See the slope of the hill. (It’s shown fairly well by the building.)

See the icy road.

See the guy trying to go down the hill.

Oops.

17

I’m visiting a friend in Redmond for Thanksgiving. First day I got here, I had to buy mittens, a hat, a sweater, and another set of flannel pjs, which I’m wearing under my clothes, because the warmest stuff I packed is just not up to this. There went my souvenir budget. sigh

Friend came home around 2 p.m. yesterday as her boss had kicked everyone out when the weather turned. Before she got home, I build a small snowman on her balcony. It’s features are now covered by the snow that fell afterward. Everyone in Redmond is on foot. There are only a few car tracks in the snow on the streets. Friend has logged in remotely to work, and we’re watching Bones and then the Lord of the Rings while drinking hot chocolate and tormenting her cat.

So, I won’t get to see the SciFi Museum or the Battlestar Galactica exhibit or go on a Harbor Cruise, but that’s okay. I doubt I’ll stick a toe outside today, and I’m quite happy with that situation.

18

Holy crap…now I don’t feel so bad about the overturned truck during yesterday’s rush hour which got me stuck on the 101 for two hours.

19

masonite, it appears we might be neighbors. I’m on Sand Point Way, at the north end of Matthews Beach. You’re lucky the bus made it up the LC exit. There was a bus vs a couple semis at the exit last night at 11:00 PM that wasn’t cleared until 6:30 this morning.

MsWhatsit, oh we do have salt trucks now. We have 25 salt/sand plows for all of King CO!
I just watched an interview with the mayor, who was SHOCKED that is wasn’t enough.

They brined the major streets the night before, but once it started snowing, they just couldn’t keep up. At the beginning, they announced that they’d be salting/sanding the major streets, but if you wanted your side street treated, to call a number they gave. That didn’t last long.

In their defense, the storm was much stronger and lasted much longer than the “weather model” predicted. The snow was supposed to stop at around 7:00 PM, but lasted until about 11:00 PM.

20

I grew up out there, and my whole family is in the Bellevue area. None of them have been on Facebook today, so I wonder if they lost power. Ugh. Everyone was home safe, though.

Here’s a video a friend of mine posted (she did not shoot the video, she just shared it). Check out the bus @3:30. (Apologies in advance for the shitty music.)