Virgina declares state of emergency..

[SP33Demon]

It's not that bad on Van Dorn St yet. And to the guy who said back roads still aren't plowed from last Tuesday night, are you posting from Alaska? Everything melted Wednesday when it was 40+ out and sunny LOL.

I hit up Trader Joe's last night around 5:30 and it was pretty crowded, took about 20 minutes to check out. Not horrible but still packed.

 

[xanis]

It depends on how cold it stays because the roads will not be plowed. Sure, if it is 60 and sunny on Sunday, the roads will clear up some. Otherwise, no, the roads won't be touched. But perhaps since they declared it an emergency that means they can release some money to get them cleared. I'm guessing that's why they did it.

Makes sense.

 

[syrillus]

I love it when southerners go batshit crazy over a little snow.

 

[spidey07]

They said that last time, too, and nothing was taken care of.
Empty promises... unless the fact that declaring an emergency actually provides them with money to clear the roads.

It should get them some federal funds.

I don't think people understand. A snow like this can make the roads impassable for a long time. More than just 2-3 days. It's the super cold weather that is following it which means salt will be useless. Or the two feet+ of snow just gets compacted/rutted and then freezes.

 

[FM2n]

Updated 6:32 PM GMT on February 05, 2010

Wow, that does actually look pretty bad. There's more rainbows on that map than my neighbor's flag.

 

[sjwaste]

It should get them some federal funds.

Virginia is already pretty bad about funding most of the state through the Northern VA tax base. Not sure there's any other choice but to let it sit or look for federal funding. We're not exactly fond of tax hikes here in VA.

Shit, I pay 0.86% on my property taxes and I still don't want to pay more.

 

[sjwaste]

It's not that bad on Van Dorn St yet. And to the guy who said back roads still aren't plowed from last Tuesday night, are you posting from Alaska? Everything melted Wednesday when it was 40+ out and sunny LOL.

I hit up Trader Joe's last night around 5:30 and it was pretty crowded, took about 20 minutes to check out. Not horrible but still packed.

Yeah, its not bad yet, but its inevitable that it will be. I almost went to the Shoppers at 7 corners this morning just for laughs, but then I realized how bad that place is on a regular day.

 

[spidey07]

Heck, I remember our big storm in KY back in 93. That WAS a disaster. National Guard had to be called in because medical personel couldn't get to the hospitals, food couldn't be brought in, etc. The whole city basically shut down for a week.

 

[mb]

It should get them some federal funds.

Hopefully. But even then, how much of an effort is going to be spent on northern VA compared to the rest of the state? Central VA doesn't get taken care of like they do.
We'll just have to see what happens.

I'm just glad I didn't have to do any shopping. My boss's wife made him go to Wal-Mart this morning

 

[Wyndru]

Even in upstate NY people now get uptight about weather, people go crazy buying supplies when they hear anything over 2 feet is forecasted. Even though a day later the roads are fine. Granted where I am it's mostly former long islanders, which is probably what fuels the paranoia.
I remember as a kid having to wait for the bus in weather like that.

 

[Terzo]

They said that last time, too, and nothing was taken care of.
Empty promises... unless the fact that declaring an emergency actually provides them with money to clear the roads.

Fair enough. I haven't had complaints with the previous storms, but then again I suppose the following weather was more conducive to melting. As opposed to this time around where I'm hearing talk of getting *more* snow on Wednesday (it doesn't sound like it will be a ton, but it certainly wont help things).

 

[sjwaste]

Hopefully. But even then, how much of an effort is going to be spent on northern VA compared to the rest of the state? Central VA doesn't get taken care of like they do.
We'll just have to see what happens.

I'm just glad I didn't have to do any shopping. My boss's wife made him go to Wal-Mart this morning

My county is locally funded, I believe. A bigger problem in the more rural areas is actually putting people on the ground. For every linear mile of road, how many people live there? Unless 10% of the population operates a snow plow, you'll have trouble even getting enough people to clear all of the roads.

It fundamentally has to be a local issue. The fed/state govts aren't efficient enough to deal with a very local problem like this. When I lived in Harrisonburg, they did an okay job of clearing the roads, but a lot of the work was also done by local residents with pickup trucks, plows, and tow straps. Some of these dudes looked like they absolutely lived for it. They'd even come help the students dig out, even though for the most part, the perception was that the two groups didn't get along at all.

Where in Central VA are we talking? South past Charlottesville?

 

[Felisity]

People around here in MA rush out to buy up bread, milk and such if a huge storm is predicted. It's not surprising that is happening there. However, I fail to see why this is a big deal. It's not like the storm is going to hit states with no snow preparedness, like MS, AL, GA or other southern states. At least they have a way to clear some emergency snow routes.

You want to talk "huge winter storm" Check out my links below.

Birmingham, AL got slammed in 1993. Along with the rest of that state. There was reportedly even a couple of inches of snow on the gulf coast of AL. People were not prepared for that storm and there was massive power outages and people unable to get food. Some of the electrical outages lasted a week or longer. I was in college at Auburn U. when that storm hit, and it was insane. Even the FL pan handle got a little snow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Storm_of_the_Century

Prior to 1993 the largest winter storm was the Great Blizzard of 1899.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Blizzard_of_1899

 

[shortylickens]

I love Virginians, they're almost as nice as Minnesotans, but they are FUCKING STUPID!
They wait until the last second to stock up on supplies for a storm they've known about for a week. They never keep emergency gear around. And they have no fucking clue how to drive. Apparently they think the shitty driving they do all year around will actually work better when there's ice on the road.
Of course, the fact their roads are loaded with illegals who dont have a license and never took an American drivers ed class doesnt help much.

 

[TruePaige]

My county is locally funded, I believe. A bigger problem in the more rural areas is actually putting people on the ground. For every linear mile of road, how many people live there? Unless 10% of the population operates a snow plow, you'll have trouble even getting enough people to clear all of the roads.

It fundamentally has to be a local issue. The fed/state govts aren't efficient enough to deal with a very local problem like this. When I lived in Harrisonburg, they did an okay job of clearing the roads, but a lot of the work was also done by local residents with pickup trucks, plows, and tow straps. Some of these dudes looked like they absolutely lived for it. They'd even come help the students dig out, even though for the most part, the perception was that the two groups didn't get along at all.

Where in Central VA are we talking? South past Charlottesville?

Yeah, I live in a more rural part of Virginia and other than the main roads we still were not that clear from the last storm.

Dang it, neighbors have parked in front of our house because they couldn't get any farther up the hill.

I had to go feed all the animals and am going to have a hell of a lot more shoveling ahead of me so they can get outside.

We've had more snowfall before this storm even hit than in the last 10 years according to the chart in the paper today.

I lived in Maine and I'm used to lots of snow, but some Northeast / Big City posters don't know how a state that has a fraction of the equipment and budget for Maine-style snow fall have to deal with it.

Trust me, I've seen both sides of the coin.

 

[Noirish]

...

 

[DrPizza]

It should get them some federal funds.

I don't think people understand. A snow like this can make the roads impassable for a long time. More than just 2-3 days. It's the super cold weather that is following it which means salt will be useless. Or the two feet+ of snow just gets compacted/rutted and then freezes.

Salt will be useless? It's not supposed to get super cold there; certainly not down into even the single digits. Salt works just fine at those temperatures. (Ask the millions of people in the Northeast who regularly experience such temperatures.) And, to put it in perspective, when it warmed up to those temperatures a week ago, it was a welcome relief.

 

[TallBill]

There is a huge difference between declaring an emergency and declaring a snow emergency!

 

[zinfamous]

well...I totally misread that title.

moving along.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Or the two feet+ of snow just gets compacted/rutted and then freezes.

That's the worst part. When Denver got buried in Dec. 2006, the city neighborhoods were the last streets to be addressed by the plows. Since the plows were playing catch-up for days on the major roads, neighborhood streets became impassible compacted ice roads with pot-holes, that would break peoples' cars. Some roads simply didn't get plowed because the plows themselves risked being broken....and then we got slammed by another blizzard a few days later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_20–21,_2006_Colorado_Blizzard

 

[Riceninja]

What the fuck is wrong with people? At WORST they'll be snowed-in for 2-3 days. Do people really not have enough food in their house for 6-9 meals?

have you seen most virginians?

 

[villageidiot111]

You guys are pussies. If we get 2ft of snow here in Fargo they don't even cancel the schools.

 

[ShawnD1]

Even some of the main streets aren't completely clear - there are still 5' piles of snow blocking some turning lanes and snow piled up on the sides and medians of the roads making the lanes narrower, not to mention icier considering it was 40 yesterday so it melted a tad and will start to freeze now.

This is what's so ironic about winter. Places that get cold and stay cold don't have much of a problem. My friend lived in Ottawa for a year and he said that place was a complete nightmare in winter. It would snow, melt, then freeze.

 

[venkman]

No kidding. It never snows here but we probably have enough food in our house for the 3 of us to survive for a week or so.

Zero food is enough food for you guys to survive for a week. Water on the other hand....

 

[Gunslinger08]

I kind of want to go out and drive around, just to see how crazy people are.