US snow

[Dr.Agon]

Just hearing about the snowstorm on the east coast, is everyone OK?

My thoughts and prayers go out to those affected.

[irvgotti452]

Thumbs up for New York. The city is running like nothing ever happened. Kinda wish it snowed today into tomorrow so I would have an extra day off lol.

[Superchop]

Got about 2 feet more or less in central jersey.  Everything went pretty smoothly and cleanup wasn't too bad.  Cleaned up twice yesterday and a final time today. 

But yeah...kinda wish the blizzard hit during the week instead of a weekend lol

[Arseen]

I don't understand how some snow can cripple areas where it's known to snow.
JUST GET FREAKING EQUIPMENT!!!
And plan ahead.
Same goes to cold.

Here in Finland if it snows and you can't get to work, tough luck, why didn't you prepare.
We simply don't get "snowdays"

I remember around Christmas 2006 when we got 60+ cm (2 feet) snow with in 5 hours the road stayed open whole time.
All public roads where cleaned between every 30 to 90 minutes, depending on priority.
Private roads where even better as people here have tractors with snowblowers.
Not even airports were closed.

[Superchop]

Lol, I don't think equipment is the problem...the problem is paying people lol.  Especially on a weekend and on top of that having people work the night shift...that's entering double time (2x the payrate) or at the very least time and a half.  With this being the first real storm of the season I'm sure they don't want to clean out the budget just yet.

[Madducky]

That and some people in the US consider funding public works to be SOCIALISM, which it is, but they have been falsely taught that it's just like COMMUNISM! So when local ballot initiatives come up to give teachers raises or pay for the equipment needed, they vote against their own self-interests and let crap like this bring our country to a standstill.

Just what I've noticed.

[redsox2012]

I don't understand how some snow can cripple areas where it's known to snow.
JUST GET FREAKING EQUIPMENT!!!
And plan ahead.
Same goes to cold.

Here in Finland if it snows and you can't get to work, tough luck, why didn't you prepare.
We simply don't get "snowdays"

I remember around Christmas 2006 when we got 60+ cm (2 feet) snow with in 5 hours the road stayed open whole time.
All public roads where cleaned between every 30 to 90 minutes, depending on priority.
Private roads where even better as people here have tractors with snowblowers.
Not even airports were closed.

To be fair, the population density in the Northeastern U.S. is probably among the highest in the world.  It's not that some people can't get around, but clearing the way for tens of millions of people to move after 2 -3 feet of snow can be overwhelming, even in places where it snows regularly.

If the same size storm hit in other areas of the globe, it might affect only 1 or 2 % of the people that this storm did.

[wiggy]

I don't understand how some snow can cripple areas where it's known to snow.
JUST GET FREAKING EQUIPMENT!!!
And plan ahead.
Same goes to cold.

Here in Finland if it snows and you can't get to work, tough luck, why didn't you prepare.
We simply don't get "snowdays"

I remember around Christmas 2006 when we got 60+ cm (2 feet) snow with in 5 hours the road stayed open whole time.
All public roads where cleaned between every 30 to 90 minutes, depending on priority.
Private roads where even better as people here have tractors with snowblowers.
Not even airports were closed.

Come on, man. You're smarter than that. That's about as narrow as saying "hey, the economy is bad, let's just make more money".  

The weather along any coast can be extremely erratic.  Planning for a massive snowstorm is sort of impossible. It's like planning for doomsday.  

Also, you live in a minuscule country. Setting up that sort of infrastructure is nothing compared to what it takes in the U.S.  Foreigners often seem to forget how large the U.S. is. For example, Texas is the size of France. That's just one of our 50 states equaling the size of an entire nation.

[Arseen]

True that only 80 000 people live in this area, but that has nothing to do with readiness.

The area has tens thousands of kilometers of road, and the clearing crews aren't that big, but there are plenty of them situated correctly, and thus no snowblocks had time to form.

It is as simple as situating the crews correctly in the preparation.

When the snowing started we were prepared and immediately when needed the snow clearers went to work

For example this little town I live in has has 2 centers and about 300 kilometers of public road and plenty of store fronts and yards and such, yet 5 tractors and truck kept it clean easily as they had coordinated plan.

Private roads were kept clean too by their owners.

As to the biggest airport of Finland: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-12042213

And yes I know that big cities have problem with parking blocking the roads, which makes things way harder, but then leave the cars and use public transportation.

[marioxb]

Don't forget that us Americans are lazy too. Not only the people who would clean the snow, but those of us who would love to miss work due to the snow.

[palmer6strings]

Hell I feel that it's kinda bullshit that they close down the whole freakin state because of 2 feet of snow. Here in Missouri, when we get 2 feet of snow nothing happens. We are still expected to come into work and shit.

On top of that, our road crews here suck dick. They don't even try to make the roads better it seems.

[Arseen]

but those of us who would love to miss work due to the snow.

I didn't say I wouldn't mind... We just don't get to do that.
Specially at my line of work at home healthcare.
If for some miracle we could not to work due to roads been blocked we can call fire department to come to pick us up to work with their off-road vehicles.
Not that my Volvo can't handle snow. Once drove 2 kilometers thru 15+ cm snow as one client hadn't cleared her road.
I almost called fire department... but could not bother.

[Arseen]

On top of that, our road crews here suck dick. They don't even try to make the roads better it seems.

We had same problem here in past when the public road care was first privatized.
Then they were reminded that they were legally responsible if someone got injured or died, or that rescue department or home health care could not get thru due to roads being bad.
They immediately got their act together.

Private roads are always in perfect condition due to this being agricultural area and thus maybe one in 20 houses has tractors and snow equipment, and they know that we don't come if roads are unpassable, which is unlikely anyway as we have off-road capable work car.

[shenske]

All good here in Colorado. For being a "mountain state" we surprisingly don't get as much snow as people think we do. It may snow tonight but my guess it will just be misty.

P.S. Go Broncos

[Megatron]

I moved to San Diego about a year and a half ago, but prior to that I lived in upstate NY and then Washington DC. 
Upstate NY is the snow capital of the country (outside of Alaska), so I was accustomed to several feet of snow a year, often a few feet on the ground after one night.  We usually had school and work.  But this is expected.  It happens every year, so we had all the necessary equipment, and most people living there knew what to do.
DC, on the other hand, nobody has any idea what to do in this stuff, because it doesn't happen that often.  Once in a great while there is a blizzard, but usually its no more than a few inches at a time.  I was the only person I knew who lived there that actually had snow tires.  They don't invest in what they need because they don't think they'll need it.
Then this stuff happens and the city is crippled.

That said, I've never been happier to be on the opposite coast.