How are our folks in the Northeast doing after the ice storm

[TimAPNY]

Please check in if you can. I know I have family without power still after a few days. I hope everyone has a warm place to sleep and a hot spot to keep up with WIX

Scott
Ken
and everyone else!

Tim

[Second Air Force]

Ditto the sentiments. We had our ice storm last year about this time and were out of power and water for a week. Hope everyone is hanging in there!

Scott

[Nathan]

Up in Northeast Pa we had freezing rain for most of the day. Then by next day about an inch of snow. We lost power for a few minutes at one point.

[Jack Cook]

Foot of snow plus 2" of ice 17' out trees down everywhere inc 2 on our yard.
Power out for 60,000 houses ours was out twice, no phone for 2 days. Haven't left home in 2 days has our culdesac is a ice incubator.
70' oak snapped and took the poower lines down across the street around the corner. The people had to get out because the rest of the tree is ready to cut 2 houses in half

[spookythecat]

Don't forget us folks in the NW. It's pretty nuts here too! I actually picked up people at the bustop this morning to help them get to work as the busses aren't doing jack around here. That's how I got to work yesterday so I figured i'd build up my karma and pay it forward.

[spookythecat]

Some scenes from a Seattle winter

Even Snowmen need to eat


The trainyard by my home






My new home


My roommate

[b29flteng]

Dumb question.... Does it normally NOT snow in Seattle?

[spookythecat]

Dumb question.... Does it normally NOT snow in Seattle?

Not a dumb question at all. I'm sure there's alot I don't know about your neck of the woods either.

It doesn't usually snow this much in the city which has alot of hills. The city has a small amount of plows and they prefer not to salt the roads for environmental reasons so it pretty much just shuts the place down. Usually a couple inches really screws this place up but i've seen between 6-12 inches in various places. In my 6 1/2 years here this is the worst snow i've seen. Usually when it snows it gets warm by the next day and the rain clears it away. It's been staying in the upper 20' to lower 3o's so we keep getting a little melting with a little re-freezing. The buses were operating at about 20% the other day and I think roughly 50% yesterday. Not everybody can afford to stay home (me) so they try to get to work even if there's no real reason to be there. I'll check the bustops on the way home and if I can give someone a lift then i'd be glad to. Sure beats waiting hours for a bus that may not even have enough room for you.

[b29flteng]

Spooky, I just found this on the Rush Limbaugh web site:

So I saw this story about the snowfall out there and how it's backlogged the city. This is from the Seattle Times. Did you know this, Snerdley? "Seattle Refuses to Use Salt." It's not just that. They refuse to use salt. The Roads are "'Snow-Packed by Design."

It's not just that they want to save their precious roadways. They're worried about the salt runoff hitting Puget Sound. Look, fine. It's an admirable goal -- typical liberal bureaucratic idiocy, but admirable. Again, wonderful intentions, lousy results. Listen to this: "The city's approach [of no salt and snow-packed roads] means crews clear the roads enough for all-wheel and four-wheel-drive vehicles, or those with front-wheel drive cars as long as they are using chains... The icy streets are the result of Seattle's refusal to use salt..." In other words, folks, the people who run the streets in Seattle in snowstorms want them icy; and the only cars that can pass the roads after Seattle has "cleared" them are the cars liberals are trying to take outta your garage: SUVs, four-wheel drives, front-wheel drive, chains.

You think chains might do more damage to a roadway than salt would? "If we were using salt, you'd see patches of bare road because salt is very effective," said Wiggins, the Department of Transportation chief of staff out there, Alex Wiggins. "We decided not to utilize salt because it's not a healthy addition to Puget Sound." Now, what is this? The only cars that can safely get around in Seattle after such snowstorms are the same cars these same liberals want to take away from everybody. (interruption) Puget Sound is made of saltwater, but it's a delicate balance. It's a very delicate balance. You know, man can destroy Puget Sound, Mr. Snerdley, with salt runoff from snow removal, the three or four times a decade they have to do it. These are very sensitive people. I'm surprised you're questioning their actions.

Another dumb question.... Isn't Puget Sound salt water? So how is salt water run off going to damage other salt water?

Maybe that's why I'm a mechanic, I just don't see the big enviormental picture.

Yes we get snow once a year here but it's usually gone the next day. We get ice storms about twice a year too.

[spookythecat]

I saw that article earlier. The "Snow-Packed by Design" thing is one of the dumbest things i've ever heard. You should see some of the roads when there is no snow. They're torn up or have trenches worn into them from years of chains. Heck, drive I-5 through Seattle and try and hold a conversation with your passengers. You can barely hear anything but the road. i think a little salt once every five years wouldn't be the end of the world (or the fish, or the birds, or the trees)

[Jack Cook]

We had a wee bit of weather in Salem. Still below freezing temps
with more freezing rain/snow expected The dots on the photos are snoe flakes.

our house

ditto

our Christmas tree

My sidekick Abby

our neighbors

2 houses buried in trees and if the rest falls on them

All 3 trees went at the same time boom-boom-boom scared the pee of me

[Moonlight]

I thoroughly enjoyed calling my parents at their home in Vegas and telling them my wife could see the grass in our yard in MT. My mom was NOT amused.

I've been in Morristown, NJ for the past 2.5 weeks training at Simuflite. Got to deal with my first ice storm since the '90's when I was in upstate NY. I really, really DON'T miss 'em.

Oh well, I'm on Delta out of Newark in the morning. I'm going to tell all the Californians that live in the Bozeman area that NJ is THE place to be...maybe they'll move.

[muddyboots]

I saw that article earlier. The "Snow-Packed by Design" thing is one of the dumbest things i've ever heard. You should see some of the roads when there is no snow. They're torn up or have trenches worn into them from years of chains. Heck, drive I-5 through Seattle and try and hold a conversation with your passengers. You can barely hear anything but the road. i think a little salt once every five years wouldn't be the end of the world (or the fish, or the birds, or the trees)

Unfortunately you'd be wrong, Spooky. Salt content is one of those things you don't want to twaddle with too much. While the ocean is indeed made of salt, if you dump huge amounts into an area too quickly it can cause massive fish die offs. It's happened a couple of times down on the gulf taht I remember. It wouldn't kill the entire Gulf, but miles and miles of it have been known to die to salt concentrations. And if you have a 200 square mile die off of fish, plants and especially the lower levels of the food chain like algea and krill, it can have a devestat8ing effect.

Now look at the sound. The gulf is a nice big open piece of water. So salt consscentrions don't last too long. And they still cause massive die offs when they occur. Now do that in the sounds cramped waterways. Where is it going to go, and how long will it take to settle out? Especially if it is spread out over a long period of time, like every five to ten years, it is goig to cause massive shocks in the fish stcoks there. And the krill. And the algae. And the birds taht eat the fish, and the animals that eat the birds an dthe fish...etc etc...I'd say Seattle is doig the right thing...sort of. THere are plenty of other things which can fix the problem withoiut killing the ecological system off, just as cheaply. Why no sand on yoru roads?

Actually Salt isn't going out because it eats cars. It's being replaced with other stuff. Something seems silly about the whole thing, but not using salt isn't it.

Dang. I'm being all sciency tonite. B29, I hope it isn't hurting your head :p Spooky, I KNOW it is hurting yours. Go play some Pogues and it'll get better

THose are AWESOME pics btw. one of your railpics is now my background

[Moonlight]

Here in MT they changed from salt to sand to magnesium chloride. It sucks. That stuff took the chrome right off the $5K rims of my wife's car. Totally destroyed 'em. I'll take the sand, thank you very much.

[muddyboots]

Hmmm. They use it in Denver and I've never heard of anybody having trouble, but then, I've only spent two winters up there. Of course, I'll still take sand over salt any day. Doesn't melt it but give stick and it won't eat your iron...