I’ve had to laugh to myself regarding all the news hype regarding the east coast ‘blizzards’. I don’t doubt that the amount of snow and weather conditions have been trying and treacherous for the people of the east coast and I realize the danger is heightened because the people that live there are not used to these kind of weather conditions. What amuses me is that these national news stories about how bad the ‘blizzard’ conditions have been, I’ve heard on the national news radio today several times that police had to rescue Maryland drivers who were stranded after driving into a snow bank!!!! Terrible, yes. I realize it’s newsworthy because this rarely happens there but seriously?…... they think they have it bad?
Twice this winter elderly men in towns just a few miles from here have been found frozen to death in a ditch after getting stuck and trying to walk for help. A good friend of ours was involved in a 20 car pileup on the highway because driving conditions were so bad you couldn’t see past the hood of your car, in which he had gotten out of the car to see if the person ahead of him was injured while he was out of his vehicle he was hit by a semi and went somersaulting through the air. He survived, but was in critical condition for many days. I cannot count on one hand the number of times I have driven this winter where I had little to no idea if I was actually on the road. Occasionally a mailbox or a hint of a yellow line while I was driving 6 mph through the white out let me know I was on the right track. How about adding a -40 degree windchill to the 2 feet of snow and blizzard conditions. How about we throw in some 40mph winds for kicks and giggles….then we’ll talk.
Perhaps if these things didn’t happen here on a regular basis we would be newsworthy too?
The amount of snow here is laughable - until you try to go out with all the ill-equipped people on the roads. It's pretty scary! We had only a few inches of snow (much less than the DC area) Tuesday morning, but white-out conditions with the wind. There was a 50 car pile-up on the freeway. That's right...50! 5-0! What the H were they doing? How fast were they going in that kind of scenario! OMG!! A couple of hours later, when all was clear, including the roads because it wasn't that cold, I went out to run a few errands and there were several cars off the road.
ReplyDeleteI laugh when school gets canceled for THREE days for about 8 inches of snow....but seriously, I wouldn't trust the bus drivers to be able to handle even a little slush on the secondaries.
Okay...Iowan on the east coast rant over! :)