Nobody was listening.

[FDR]

Trouble is too that they are outlawed in places.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Of course, we expect our roads to be kept clear and dry no matter how bad the storm. Where I live, they actually do a damned good job too. Used to be only the main streets ever saw a plow.

[Larry Caldwell]

It was cream color. Also the biggest engine I ever owned, though it was far from the hottest car. My hot rod record goes to a little Mazda R1 with an R3 engine that had been built up as a stock racer, headers, roll bars and the whole schtick. It would do 120 mph in 3rd gear, and I have no idea how fast it would go in 4th. I loved driving that car. It would blow the doors off just about any muscle car on the highway. I also went through three sets of brakes in 18 months.

Mazda still puts the rotary in their high end sports car. I hear it's hot.

[FDR]

I live in central Ny, and on a steep hill. They sand and plow at the first site of snow and do it every two or three hours. If they didn't we'd never be able to use the road.

[Dave Jefford]

You are right, the Democrats were responsible. In fact Bush in his interviewed, praised Michael Brown standing beside him saying he's doing a good job. doing a good job on TV.

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Larry Caldwell:

Driving at night in 10" or so of fresh/falling snow has got to be one of the most aesthetic experiences I know of.

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per David Starr:

My experience is that 4wd makes for considerably poorer stopping than with 2 wd

- 500 lbs of extra weight and all that. Same with cornering - a quarter ton more trying to fly off on that tangent..

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Ann:

Dunno from 'blanket', but there's definitely a security issue for me.

Having commuted with my wife from the burbs to Philly for somewhat more than 20 years - and having spent several years each on the Frankford El and the Paoli Local before switching to automobile; I'd say that the reasons I switched to car were reasons often touted for using public transit: Speed, economy, reliability, and safety.

From Paoli, using a car reduces a 1.5 hour commute to about 40 minutes - door-to-desk.

Can't remember the numbers for parking cost/vehicle mileage costs - but I think that with three or four people it was cheaper than train. Parking's a lot more now... so that break even point has moved - but I'd still drive if it were just me and my wife. As it was, we did quite a few years in a van pool.

Except for the extremely rare traffic jam (like once/twice per year) on 76 during our commuting hours (we'd get up at 5:30....) we were never late for work

- as opposed to weekly delays on Septa and the Main Line.

Once you're on a train, it's probably safer - if not particularly aesthetic with the asbestos brake fumes flooding the cars in summer and school-age citizens talking at the top of their lungs, saying Mother-F***k every fifth word... but getting to 30th Street station can have it's challenges.

Over the years we had several women attacked walking to the station. One guy had a loaded gun held to his head on the El. Another one talked some halfwit with a pistol out of robbing him at the El stop just across the street from where we work. One night four drunks decided they'd throw me off the Market Street bridge, even. Still not 100% sure how I talked them out of it....

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per enigma:

I think metabolisms acclimate to warm/cold weather.

Long time ago, I was sitting on a bench in Waikiki's 'International Marketplace'

- taking a break from a night manager's job at the Pacific Holiday Hotel.

It was December. I was wearing a long-sleeve cardigan sweater and was right on the verge of freezing my pasty white butt off.

Some old guy from somewhere like Montana or Nebraska or North Dakota....someplace cold... just off the plane... sat down beside me.

I guess he felt like he had to say something to be polite - so he said "Sure is hot and muggy, isn't it?".

Couple years ago, I went back to spend a month in Kailua looking up old friends and seeing how their lives came out. It was November. I was *really* glad for the air conditioning.

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Ann:

Do you have any snowshoeing experience?

If not, be a little cautious.

I didn't have a clue when I walked some land for about six hours with the local Forestry Department guy.

*Really* messed up my big toe toenails - lost them completely and they were never right after that. Turns out they were bumping the tops of my boots with every step. Just a teeny little bump.... but repeated thousands of times...

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per TURTLE:

Now it's starting to jell....

[keith]

Yeah, another trip we shoed up in Ft. Lauderdale waniting to swim. The desk clerk said "Ok, but it's awefully cold". Go figure. ;-)

Hmm, that's over 40 years at 365 days per year. You must have one whale of a retirment!

[keith]

FEMA has nothing *to* stage, other than bureaucrats. Their job is to facilitate reconstruction, not prevent destruction. The mayor and governor blew it big time (*useless* drowned busses, allowing parties to go on after the "mandatory" evacutation, etc.).

[YouKidding?]

I used to work a second shift and often was the first person to drive on the snow storm covered back roads, on my way home after midnight. I can't remember them being plowed very often. My VW Rabbit with snows never left me down. 26 miles through 10 to 12 inches of snow. It was quiet and lovely.

In my 27 years in northern NY, VT, and NH, I have never missed a day of work because of snow and always get home. I never had a 4WD or used chains. I have always lived on town roads and often 5 plus miles to the closest state highway. It's all in knowing how to drive your car in the weather conditions in your area. It's also about taking your time to get there.

YK

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per FDR:

From this and other threads, it seems like one central issue is that FEMA cannot legally come in until the locals ask it to - and it sounds like the mayor and the governor did not ask FEMA to come in until fairly late in the game.... much too late.

OTOH, the FEMA guy's remarks on TV made him sound really bad..... and I think there is still a legitimate question of why federal government resources weren't staged immediately - so they could be on the ground within hours of getting the necessary formal requests.

OTOH, maybe the were staged.... but the story on the coming deployment of that hospital ship didn't sound like it...

[FDR]

The FEMA's role is to help in exactly this type of situation. Why is it the Mayors fault? He doesn't have the resources necessary to deliver water, food and etc. in a disaster of this size. He doesn't command thousands of troops, amphibious vehicles, helicopters. The police force was overwhelmed. The feds have the materials, men and machinery, yet they didn't get involved until 5+ days later.

Here's a great article on how the US helped the Neteherlands during their levee break disaster:

It took the US 36 hours to get in there and start helping. And this was all the way over there. You'd expect an even quicker response here.

It's obvious that FEMA doesn't work well. It needs an overhaul, plain and simple.

FEMA should be run by someone with experience, not a former horse show manager..

[FDR]

It still doesn't explain why 5+ days went by without help.

[Ann]

That part of my post was in reference to going to NYC, etc. When I commuted to Radnor, I sometimes drove.

Didn't help me, but there used to be an express train from Paoli. Don't recall if it was a commuter train or if one could board a "regular" train. I started at (oddly named) Suburban Station, near City Hall.

That definitely would make a difference. As far as I knew, my commute was unique where I worked.

When I was commuting, there was only the SureKill. A tanker truck turned over and burned on the overpass at city line, destroying the steel girders. Was very glad to have public transportation for the months it took to rebuild the road.

Reverse commuting, other passengers were mostly women who did domestic work at main line houses.

I'd gone to Dresel (co-op) back before it became the new, improved Drexel. The dorm was on Powelton Avenue. There were the standard winos to contend with but any half-smart mugger knew thAT the picking were better around Penn. The athletic field was at 44th and Market and there was sometimes a problem with neighborhood kids throwing stones.

[Ann]

I didn't have anything like that in mind. But thanks for the warning.

I did the same thing once, wearing new sneakers the first time I played raquet ball. (It was also as I recall, the next to last time I played raquet ball.)

[FDR]

I believe I saw the memo asking for assistance on the 28th, which was on that Sunday before landfall.