Up here in the Northern Plains we just recovered from a “Weather Event” of “Biblical Proportions” with an historic blizzard of up to 24" inches of snow and winds to 50 MPH that broke trees in half, stranded hundreds of motorist in lethal snow banks,
closed all roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to tens of thousands.
George Bush did not come…FEMA staged nothing…no one howled for the government…no one uttered an expletive on TV…nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards…no one asked for a FEMA Trailer House…no news anchors moved in.
We just melted snow for water, sent out caravans to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars, fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or
Aladdin lamps and put on an extra layer of clothes.
Even though a Category “5” blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early…we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.
That everyone up there just crawls into a snow cave after their house has been obliterated is pretty impressive. I’ve always held any resident of the far north in the highest regard considering the harsh conditions they endure in even just a normal winter. No kidding.
But, if as you imply, you’re suffering through conditions that exceed that forced upon New Orleans, Gulfport and the greater Gulf coast, loss of not just houses but entire communities that include widespread death, then hey, boy howdy, good on you for not demanding a FEMA trailer to sit next to your (I suspect still intact) abode.
Truth be known, your whining is less deserved than theirs. If the people of your region have suffered through a hardship with dignity, don’t sully it by heaping undeserved accusations on those who have probably endured a damn sight more.
Good on the people of Montana. Bad on those that seek to do some perverse kind of “plight to plight” comparrison.
Glad to hear you’re well. We here in central NJ are getting flooded. Again. Not my house, of course, (our lot drains off into an acre of undeveloped woodlands that we bought to keep out of the developers’ hands, and we’ve never had more than an inch of water in the basement after the new sewers messed up the draining system, but that’s another story I won’t go into now.) However, the nearby little town of Bound Brook, which got clobbered by Hurricane Floyd, is expecting Main Street to be flooded. Again. Guess the flood abatement projects didn’t work. Or maybe they did. We’ll see tomorrow.
(mods, feel free to move this to the pit, where I should have posted it.)
Ya’ll are missing the point of the OP.
People in New Orleans built their houses below sea level in an area which is bordered by the ocean, a river and a lake, all of which are higher than the city. When Nature strikes everyone whines and bitches that it’s someone elses fault. They steal TV’s because they don’t have enough food.
People in Montana and North Dakota built their houses in an area which has big snowstorms, few roads, a small population and freezing cold weather any time of year. When Nature strikes, everyone just deals with it, helps each other out and nothing gets stolen.
No, we didn’t have our houses destroyed. That’s because we aren’t stupid enough to build them in an area where they are likely to be destroyed.
We have this odd idea in Montana and North Dakota that if you forget trouble, you’re more likely to get in trouble.
Yet the federal government has to build and maintain the roads out to your ‘communities’ in the middle of nowhere.
The People of New Orleans do not steal TV’s because they dont’ have enough food. A few people stole TV’s because the opportunity to steal and tv and get away with it arose.
Which is worse/harder, living somewhere where you will die if you spend a night outdoors about four months of the year, with additional, occasional worse conditions thrown in, or living somewhere where your house will probably get knocked down at least once in your lifetime, but no guarantee? I see your point, whistlepig. There’s periodic crisis thinking, and there’s prepare for normal, everyday lethal conditions thinking.
My Canadian attitude looking at people who live in places that are known for extreme conditions is prepare for them or face the consequences. We will die if we don’t have adequate shelter at all times in winter. That is our fact of life. A fact of life in Tornado Alley or a flood plain or a hurricane zone is that tornadoes, floods, and hurricanes can be expected. If you’re not prepared, you will also probably die.
The OP is an idiot. What fuckin storm? Montana sure got help from FEMA here. I don’t understand your reasoning but let me say " Your ideas intrigue me. Do you have a news letter to which I might subscribe?"
Walk in here with you dick in your hand claiming to be tough and self sufficient, you are pathetic to compre a little cold weather in montana to the disaster that was Katrina.
Furthermore the victims of Katrina didn’t CHOOSE to build in a bad location. What do you suggest that people who were born there should have said this place isn’t safe I am going to leave the only home I have ever known and all my friends and family and go live with the self rigfhteous white folk in montana.
Words fail me. I don’t know how to address you barely disguised rascist drivel.
Fuck! I just knew there was something that didn’t feel right about the world when I got up this morning! :eek:
Take heart, whistlepig. Everytime the temp hits -30 I have to post a rant. Then I wait about 18 hours to adjust, and then become really, really smug. Why? Wait for January when the morning news shows are reporting on how the Northeast has effectively become paralyzed because the temps are BELOW FREEZING!!!
Those are the mornings I gladly start the car, unplug it, and scoff at those in the NE that try to portray themselves as the toughest bad-asses in the world. Pussies.
This doesn’t really relate much to the argument at hand, but your statement pissed me off.
I don’t know about Montana and North Dakota, but out in the middle of nowhere where I live, cities, townships, counties, and states build and maintain most of the roads. I’m sorry if our “communities” are worthless to you. They’re our homes and are no less important than the big cities.
You wrote about people who built their houses where they should have known NOT to build them. HOW CONDENSCENDINGLY RUDE OF YOU!
Did you move to Montana based on the safety of the homes in the state?
How do you feel about California and earthquakes?
Florida and hurricanes?
Kansas and tornados?
Oops - forgot - there was a hurricane in New York - oooh - earthquakes too. New York gets blizzards and ice storms.
Tornados in Georgia. Oops - remember the lightning storm in PA/DE? What about the Johnstown flood?
The Tsunami? How about cyclones and hailstorms?
WHERE SHOULD WE ALL REBUILD OUR LIVES?
Where do you in your kindly wisdom suggest we all live?
In fact, we’ve had at least two “historic” snow events of 24+ inches in the past couple of years. And people stayed home until it was over and then got out their snowblowers and shoveled out. Big, fat, hairy deal. If the OP is seriously comparing a run-of-the-mill blizzard with a class IV/V hurricane, then he’s seriously deluded. One blows through town – the other blows the town away.
I’m not sure what one had to do with the other (i.e blizzards vs. freezing temps) but yeah, it sucked, and on the coast it super sucks. No picnic any way you slice it.
Maybe whistlepig should get together with my mom and they can figure it out together. A couple weeks ago she suggested that New Orleans shouldn’t have been built where it is. This is a woman who lives about fifteem miles from the San Andreas Fault in one direction and fifteen miles from the Hayward Fault in the other, by the way. I asked her where the safe place we could all live was. Interestingly, her answer was Montana! (My mom also once asked me if I thought it would snow when she came to visit me in Chicago…in June. Yeah, she’d be great in Montana.)
And what’ll be left of Montana when the Yellowstone Supervolcano erupts, hmm?
