# 10 hour back-up on I-5 iin Seattlle **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 23, 2010, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-hour-back-up-on-i-5-iin-seattlle/561655 "2010-11-23T13:19:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Terra1041](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Terra1041](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terra1041)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-hour-back-up-on-i-5-iin-seattlle/561655/41 "2010-11-25T00:06:27Z")
I’m on Capitol Hill too. At first I laughed at the whole thing about Seattleites hating snow, being from Detroit myself, but I quickly realized that Seattle actually can’t deal with snow. No salt trucks, sidewalks are unshovelled so the snow turns to ice as people walk on it (the fact that almost nobody walks in Detroit made its sidewalks a lot less dangerous even uncleared), etc. ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-hour-back-up-on-i-5-iin-seattlle/561655/42 "2010-11-25T00:11:32Z")
one huge issue is that Seattlites simply do not understand hills+ice=FASTER not slower. I mean anyone who thinks about this for more than an instant should be able to work out that climbing a hill covered in slippery stuff will not work at 3mph, if you speed up and climb the hill faster than normal even you can get up most hills (unless they are to long/steep) it also helps to no what you can and cannot handle before you make the attempt. ---
**Author:** ![Apricot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bcef8e/32.png) [@Apricot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apricot)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-hour-back-up-on-i-5-iin-seattlle/561655/43 "2010-11-25T00:38:52Z")
I hate it when people slow to a crawl in front of me on a hill, I like to hang back and take a run at it. The only way to get up the 8% grade, 1 mile long hill to get to my house is to take a run at it. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-hour-back-up-on-i-5-iin-seattlle/561655/44 "2010-11-25T01:40:59Z")
Over here in Clyde Hill we got maybe 2 inches. I live at the base of Clyde Hill so have about 100 yards of uphill to navigate to the main drag and then it’s all good. 405 was clear. Everyone from work pretended to work from home and I probably put in a half day remotely. We have a tiny garage full of unpacked boxes, so the van was sheltered but sticking out the front. Pipes froze but didn’t break. The Utility company sent a truck out literally 5 minutes after I called it in. A very nice man identified the water main in the garage, pointed out that the shut off valve was frozen, pointed out twice that he certainly could not give me advice but that a hair dryer might do the trick. 2 minutes later the water was flowing and espresso brewing. 🙂 Managed to find sleds still in stock at Big 5 yesterday in Factoria (Target was sold out). Took the 3 China Bambina’s to Downtown Park, which as a great sledding hill. This was their first real experience with snow and hills (we had snow a couple of times in Shanghai but it’s about a 100 mile drive to the nearest hill). They thought sledding/saucers/snow was the “bestest” ever. So, our very first school snow day in the US was not a very tramatic. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-hour-back-up-on-i-5-iin-seattlle/561655/45 "2010-11-25T02:57:53Z")
Me. At least I got to see my ducks fly one time before they get roasted. ---
**Author:** ![Cinebar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Cinebar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinebar)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-hour-back-up-on-i-5-iin-seattlle/561655/46 "2010-11-25T03:17:25Z")
I live in the woods in rural Lewis County (Washington) and I have a foot of snow, have been snowed in since Sunday afternoon, have had temperatures down to at least 10 degrees, have lost power twice, and have been without water for the last 48 hours. I’m having to melt snow to water the animals. (Did you know it takes four or five buckets of packed snow to get 1/2 a bucket of water?) Can’t shower or do laundry. I’ve washed a few dishes using melted snow but that bites. I had some jugs of (human) drinking water but I’m down to my last one. I even have to melt snow to flush the toilet. Yesterday, when the sun would come out, the temperature would creep up to around 30 degrees; today, it was cloudy and it never got past 21. Tomorrow (TG) is _supposed_ to be the big turn around. The fact that it is after 7:00 p.m. and the temperature is still around 21 (and hasn’t dropped) gives me some hope. Last night when I went out to milk around 9:00, the thermometer read 10. Monday, they had a two hour delay for school. I watched the bus drive past my house down on the highway (it goes about 1/4 mile up the road and turns around before picking up my kid on the return trip) and the bus had to make its own tracks because the snowplow hadn’t been by. She was ten minutes late when she went by the first time and it took her a good ten minutes to drive 1/4 mile and turn around and come back so I kept my kid home. I wasn’t going to put my kid in jeopardy (hell, it was still snowing like crazy at that point). Then, I got a robo call from the school, saying that due to adverse weather conditions, they were sending the kids home. They were only there for about an hour and a half! And school was canceled for yesterday and today, too. And guess what! It’s not even winter yet! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Cyberhwk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7993a0/32.png) [@Cyberhwk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyberhwk)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-hour-back-up-on-i-5-iin-seattlle/561655/47 "2010-11-25T04:23:41Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > And forget about neighborhood streets, which is why we had situations like [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMzeiMJQrvk). W…T…F!!! That guy had 4 separate impacts on all 4 adjacent corners! Is that a RECORD? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-hour-back-up-on-i-5-iin-seattlle/561655/48 "2010-11-25T04:43:26Z")
> [@Cyberhwk](#): > > W…T…F!!! That guy had 4 separate impacts on all 4 adjacent corners! Is that a RECORD? :eek: It’s even better with [Yackety Sax](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNlQXHoQ6kc&feature=related). 😛 ---
**Author:** ![fuzzypickles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9d8465/32.png) [@fuzzypickles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuzzypickles)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-hour-back-up-on-i-5-iin-seattlle/561655/49 "2010-11-25T05:25:20Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > It’s even better with [Yackety Sax](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNlQXHoQ6kc&feature=related). 😛 Everything’s better with Yackety Sax! 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Daylate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9dc877/32.png) [@Daylate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daylate)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-hour-back-up-on-i-5-iin-seattlle/561655/50 "2010-11-25T05:32:10Z")
> [@](#): > > one huge issue is that Seattlites simply do not understand hills+ice=FASTER not slower You misunderstand. It’s not that at all. It’s just that most Seattleites are such dedicated liberals that they firmly believe that things like the Law of Gravity, Newton’s First Law of Motion, the Law of Supply and Demand, etc., can be ignored if said laws would interfere with something that the Seattleite strongly feels should be done. [SIZE=“1”]Slithers off into the grass, chuckling evilly.[/SIZE] ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-hour-back-up-on-i-5-iin-seattlle/561655/51 "2010-11-25T06:02:03Z")
The TimeWindress is an RN and has to go to work tonight, so we’re going to give it a shot. We were out earlier briefly to get gas: the roads east of Redmond seem to have received no attention at all, even here three days after the snow. It’s drivable safely if you know what you’re doing, but barely in places. We both grew up in Minnesota, so we can drive in ice/snow, but you’d think the state could give us a little help, especially after the fiasco a couple of years ago where they wouldn’t use salt because it would runoff into Puget Sound…which is salt water. (We don’t get cold enough to need the exotic salt substitutes on the road here, sea salt would have been fine). ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Cymbeline](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_cymbeline/32/9244_2.png) [@Green\_Cymbeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Cymbeline)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-hour-back-up-on-i-5-iin-seattlle/561655/52 "2010-11-25T07:14:06Z")
> [@stargazer](#): > > Sorry - it’s a long, steep hill here, one that is ALWAYS treacherous in the snow. ALWAYS. > > [Here](http://www.queenanneview.com/2010/11/22/snow-sticks-to-the-streets-in-queen-anne/) are some of the videos I mentioned! > > And[here’s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhZCyQ3emQg) one from another neighborhood - Capitol Hill, where some of the upthread Dopers live. > > This is why I stay home. Wow. Those videos were entertaining to watch. But I am kind of amazed at the ineptness of the Seattleites. I lived in Morgantown WV in college, which is built on a bunch of hillsides, and we had snow every winter, but it was never that difficult to get around. Also, Pittsburgh PA, which is also built into a mountainside and has some super steep inclines, gets plenty of snow every winter. Is it that bad there? Here in Northern Virginia we got over 2 feet of snow earlier this year and things seemed to be pretty under control. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-hour-back-up-on-i-5-iin-seattlle/561655/53 "2010-11-25T07:16:13Z")
> [@nyctea scandiaca](#): > > I lived in Morgantown WV in college, which is built on a bunch of hillsides, and we had snow every winter, but it was never that difficult to get around. Also, Pittsburgh PA, which is also built into a mountainside and has some super steep inclines, gets plenty of snow every winter. Is it that bad there? > > Here in Northern Virginia we got over 2 feet of snow earlier this year and things seemed to be pretty under control. It’s not the snow. It’s the ice. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-hour-back-up-on-i-5-iin-seattlle/561655/54 "2010-11-25T12:44:26Z")
Yeah, it’s the ice – if it’s cold enough the ground is frozen, then the snow doesn’t melt the instant it touches pavement, and doesn’t refreeze when the temps drop a little. At least, not as much. And where I am there are plenty of plows, sand trucks and the like, and even studs are legal. I love my snow tires. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-hour-back-up-on-i-5-iin-seattlle/561655/55 "2010-11-25T14:16:08Z")
> [@Daylate](#): > > You misunderstand. It’s not that at all. It’s just that most Seattleites are such dedicated liberals that they firmly believe that things like the Law of Gravity, Newton’s First Law of Motion, the Law of Supply and Demand, etc., can be ignored if said laws would interfere with something that the Seattleite strongly feels should be done. > > [SIZE=“1”]Slithers off into the grass, chuckling evilly.[/SIZE] Close, but not quite right. The issue is that said laws have not been debated, discussed, voted on by fifteen council subcommittees, subjected to a mutual hissy fit between the mayor and council, and finally approved by a citizens’ referendum (not to mention surviving the inevitable second referendum which seeks to overturn the first). It’s called “consensus building.” DISCLAIMER: The poster is from Tacoma, which makes his opinion null, void, and subject to third-degree noogies. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-hour-back-up-on-i-5-iin-seattlle/561655/56 "2010-11-25T15:29:28Z")
> [@stargazer](#): > > Sorry - it’s a long, steep hill here, one that is ALWAYS treacherous in the snow. ALWAYS. > > [Here](http://www.queenanneview.com/2010/11/22/snow-sticks-to-the-streets-in-queen-anne/) are some of the videos I mentioned! > > And[here’s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhZCyQ3emQg) one from another neighborhood - Capitol Hill, where some of the upthread Dopers live. > > This is why I stay home. Thanks for the info and the links. We’re still laughing. And having even more fun trying to figure out how to pronounce “Puyallup”. 😛 The best we Texans can come up with is: “Pull Ya’ll Up”. Disclaimer: I lived in Seattle for awhile and never learned how to say that word. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-hour-back-up-on-i-5-iin-seattlle/561655/57 "2010-11-25T16:47:24Z")
Well, it’s 8:00 AM, we’re supposed to be starting _Over the River and Through the Woods, to Grandmother’s House We Go_, but it’s snowing, again. The temp is still below freezing, but warmer than yesterday. We’re going to wait an hour, and see. We have 4WD, so I think we’d be ok, but why risk it. We can go tomorrow or Saturday. I just checked the ferry cam, and there’s no wait. The Hood Canal bridge is open and looks bare and wet, but who knows what it will it be like after another hour of hard snow. I’m guessing we’re having spaghetti for dinner.☹ ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-hour-back-up-on-i-5-iin-seattlle/561655/58 "2010-11-25T16:57:39Z")
Looks like a little under 25º outside, and a little more than two inches of snow. It’s coming down pretty well. Small, cold-temperature sized flakes. Maybe I’ll go out in it after I finish the first pot of joe. ---
**Author:** ![Daylate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9dc877/32.png) [@Daylate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daylate)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-hour-back-up-on-i-5-iin-seattlle/561655/59 "2010-11-25T17:07:27Z")
> [@](#): > > Close, but not quite right. The issue is that said laws have not been debated, discussed, voted on by fifteen council subcommittees, subjected to a mutual hissy fit between the mayor and council, and finally approved by a citizens’ referendum (not to mention surviving the inevitable second referendum which seeks to overturn the first). > > It’s called “consensus building.” Dead accurate analysis of Seattle. You must live here. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-hour-back-up-on-i-5-iin-seattlle/561655/60 "2010-11-25T19:38:41Z")
> [@pullin](#): > > Thanks for the info and the links. We’re still laughing. And having even more fun trying to figure out how to pronounce “Puyallup”. 😛 > > The best we Texans can come up with is: “Pull Ya’ll Up”. > > Disclaimer: I lived in Seattle for awhile and never learned how to say that word. Pyoo-AL-up (kind of rhymes with “you gallup”), although technically tribe members pronounce it PYAL-up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-hour-back-up-on-i-5-iin-seattlle/561655.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-hour-back-up-on-i-5-iin-seattlle/561655.md?page=4)