Why the South Fell Apart in the Snow

[Gingersnap]

Chains are prohibited in Tennessee. Tears up the road too much. Legally, only the Post Office and military vehicles may use chains. Pretty sure that's also the case in Alabama. Not sure about Georgia.

Wow! Who knew? They ought to let you use them when you get an ice storm since it would only be for a day or so.

[gary m]

I'm pretty sure I don't even want to know what an SMBD is.

And no, I'm not going to google it.

sado-masochism, bondage and discipline.
Dallas could probably explain it to you.

[phillygirl]

I noticed last weekend in Maryland that apparently many roads have barely met the plow. I have to say, as bad as Pennsylvania roads are, at least they are generally plowed pretty well (and they've really done a good job this year with the storms we've been having). Most of the back roads I took last weekend were at best, packed snow...not a bit of blacktop showing for miles. It surprised me. But still better than driving on semi icy roads with people that don't know how to drive. I'll take a barely plowed road all by myself than risking driving behind, in front of, or next to an idiot...I sometimes fill that role all by myself thank you.

[Frostbit]

sado-masochism, bondage and discipline.
Dallas could probably explain it to you.

Heh, heh , He said Dallas….. heh, heh

[Lanie]

I would never laugh at car wrecks or death.

But scenes on highways like the Walking Dead? Yes, I'll admit it. I laughed. Dedicate the Asshole song to me.

The article does state some good points, but I know that there are people who are just good at driving in snow. I have a friend who lives deep in the country. It's a a very small town in which if you blinked, you'd miss it. I think this is probably one of the last areas to to get plowed. I'm not sure about the salt. He works retail and always thinks he has to make it in. He's able to drive it. I've been with him during it.

We both agree that it's importance to give people their distance and to slow down. I try hard not to use the brakes. If I do, I just barely tap them. I'm still working on how to get better control of the car if it starts going out of some control. Fortunately, I haven't had it that bad yet. I did great last night until I turned on the street where I lived. Then, I scared myself.

[Adam]

I would never laugh at car wrecks or death.

But scenes on highways like the Walking Dead? Yes, I'll admit it. I laughed. Dedicate the Asshole song to me.

The article does state some good points, but I know that there are people who are just good at driving in snow. I have a friend who lives deep in the country. It's a a very small town in which if you blinked, you'd miss it. I think this is probably one of the last areas to to get plowed. I'm not sure about the salt. He works retail and always thinks he has to make it in. He's able to drive it. I've been with him during it.

We both agree that it's importance to give people their distance and to slow down. I try hard not to use the brakes. If I do, I just barely tap them. I'm still working on how to get better control of the car if it starts going out of some control. Fortunately, I haven't had it that bad yet. I did great last night until I turned on the street where I lived. Then, I scared myself.

I took my driver's ed in Asheville. It was mandatory at that time that someone drive in snow in order to pass drivers' ed (which was mandatory in NC in order to get one's license before age 18, at least back then). So we all had to go out and drive that POS Chevy Citation in the snow for a while until the instructor was satisfied that we could at least manage in snow without freaking out.

Personally, I never had any problem with it anyway, so it was all the same to me, but for a number of people in the class, I think it probably made a very big difference to them in the future.

[Gingersnap]

There's no trick to driving on snow and ice. You have to keep your distance and be kind of terrifyingly brave when it comes to intersections: there's a point where blowing through red lights/stop signs is safer than trying to stop. You need to keep your speed way down. You have to goose it when you know you're coming to an elevation so you don't get stuck at the bottom or get spun around. That's about it.

Flat out ice with no traction is a different story. Out here, we stop and put on chains. Without chains, you just have to stay put.

[Frostbit]

There's no trick to driving on snow and ice. You have to keep your distance and be kind of terrifyingly brave when it comes to intersections: there's a point where blowing through red lights/stop signs is safer than trying to stop. You need to keep your speed way down. You have to goose it when you know you're coming to an elevation so you don't get stuck at the bottom or get spun around. That's about it.

Flat out ice with no traction is a different story. Out here, we stop and put on chains. Without chains, you just have to stay put.

Or just buy a Mercedies Benz with 4Matic and put Blizzacks on it. Just sayin'

[Tom Servo]

Thanks for posting that article. I've passed it along to others.

Beyond what's written in the article, we don't have the proper tires for icy driving. I think most southerners have all seasons at best and performance tires at worst. And it only takes one or two with bald ass tires to skid into each other on the interstate for chaos to ensue.

Down here on the coast we got less than predicted, so we were shut down expecting half an inch of ice. We still got enough that it justified the cancellations and closures, though. I sort of witnessed some of that northern "the fuck you closing for?" attitude from several of our area snowbirds. They've all come down from places like Minnesota and Ontario and Iowa and know a thing or two about wintry driving. And strangely enough, they were the ones who ignored the pleas to stay home on Tuesday and wound their asses up in ditches and in guardrails. Apparently their thought their awesome mad snow skillz translated on our un-treated, un-salted, un-plowed roads. Nope.

Everyone's so eager to blame somebody for this "screw up" but it's just nature proving she's in charge down here. The people in charge of closing schools and government can only act based on the weather info presented to them. And in this case, the National Weather Service was the one behind the curve.

Atlanta's NWS in Peachtree City added all of metro Atlanta to the Winter Storm Warning at like 3 am. Not enough time I think to get the word out to millions to stay home, but it should have been enough time for business owners to shutter operations first thing in the morning. I can only conclude that people either ignored the weather warnings or didn't take them seriously.

Birmingham's NWS is more responsible, IMHO. They didn't update their data until friggin' 11 am, well after school and work started for everyone. And it didn't help that James Spann was telling people to ignore the higher forecasts from Accuweather and Intellicast, who apparently saw this coming sooner than he did. (Side note: Spann was supposed to go to a school in Tuscaloosa to have a weather session, but turned around halfway when he saw how bad it was. He wound up ditching his own car a mile from his studio in Riverchase and walking the rest of the way like everyone else who got stuck.)

There are certainly lessons to be learned from this by our meteorologists, but I really don't see how or why our governments should do anything special to mitigate this should it happen again, cuz it ain't gonna happen again for another 10 years, most likely. If anything, it's going to cause the less educated weather weenies to over-hype potential snows and we'll wind up shutting down for jack shit, which already happens once every few years anyway.

In a way, I feel like the derision aimed at us for our "snow incompetence" is payback for all our haranguing of Jerseyites who cried for months after their homes were wiped out by hurricane Sandy. The same way they can't understand why we can't go anywhere for 1/2 an inch of snow we were wondering why they didn't build their houses on stilts if they're gonna be near the beach! Hurricanes hit Jersey about as much as snow hits Mobile, LOL.