http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/13/us-usa-weather-idUSBREA120WG20140213
Yikes! This sounds pretty bad. How are people here that live on the east coast dealing with this?
Snow and ice storm lands deadly punch on U.S. East Coast
- Thread starter Dream
- Start date
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/13/us-usa-weather-idUSBREA120WG20140213
Yikes! This sounds pretty bad. How are people here that live on the east coast dealing with this?
I'm in northern New Jersey and it's coming down really hard right now. I'm working from home and my kids are off school. No sense even trying to go anywhere in this mess. The snow is supposed to turn into rain in a few hours, which will continue until around midnight when it turns back into snow again. It should be done snowing by tomorrow morning.
At some point I guess I'll have to go dig my car out and hope it doesn't end up stuck in ice tomorrow. The last snow we had saw my car stuck in iced over and refrozen snow. You can get traction when it's just fresh powder, but when it's partially melted and then frozen back into something that's almost rock hard? Good luck!
Everybody be safe out there.
At some point I guess I'll have to go dig my car out and hope it doesn't end up stuck in ice tomorrow. The last snow we had saw my car stuck in iced over and refrozen snow. You can get traction when it's just fresh powder, but when it's partially melted and then frozen back into something that's almost rock hard? Good luck!
Everybody be safe out there.
I'm lucky to be working at home today and the rest of the week...in NYC it is pretty nasty outside. It's the sleet that I hate, more than the snow.
That happened to me last week. It took me thirty minutes and a lot of swearing for me to get my car out.
And yet, despite the Winter Storm Warnings, and the mayor's office advising travel only in emergencies, the NYC schools are open.
We've already had about 8" here in Queens, and it's now sleet. I stayed home and kept my daughter home, too.
Took me about 45 and it made us all late. What a pain in the ass. I definitely have to be more proactive about it this time.
I worked in NYC schools long enough to know that they're always fucking open. I get that it is important to keep them open, and I think this city is pretty hearty when it comes to dealing with foul weather, but sometimes I am just baffled by it. I remember an ice storm 3 or 4 years ago that left all the sidewalks coated in a thick sheet of ice. On the way to work I saw at least a dozen kids slip and fall, and outside our school a woman dropping off her granddaughter slipped and broke her arm!
I wonder if part of it isn't Manhattan bias. They seem to forget that however much snow and ice Manhattan gets there's bound to be 2 or 3 more inches in the other boroughs and the roads and sidewalks won't be as well maintained.
This gloaming is out my bedroom window in Brooklyn:
I think that's precisely it. I started working in NYC schools in '99 and if there's been one theme it's been that Manhattan seems to be the litmus for the rest of the city. I'd hoped that de Blasio would consider the other boroughs into his decisions, especially considering his campaign to "put people first." That doesn't seem to be the case thus far, at least where school closures are concerned. Where I am in Queens, public transportation is pretty thin. I have to walk almost a mile to get to the nearest bus stop. My street has yet to be plowed. Which means I'm not sending my daughter to school in this. And I can't get myself into work, either. And that doesn't even factor in the teachers commuting into the city from Long Island.
I don't know how snow days work in other states, but I know that in our school districts they only cancel school under the worst possible conditions because nobody wants to have to make up those days at the end of the year.
In New York State, schools have a certain number of snow days factored into their calendars. I don't know the exact amount, but it's likely less than five. As long as they don't use up the allotted days, there's no change to the calendar. Beyond the allotment, they have to make up the time, usually by having the kids go in on what would otherwise have been a conference day, or adding a day to the end of the year. In rare circumstances, such as the closures for Sandy, they will make up days during vacation weeks. NYC can certainly absorb a snow day or two without having to schedule make up days.
I know there was at least one district in New Jersey that was considering adding school on a few Saturdays to make up for all the snow days they've had.
I know there was at least one district in New Jersey that was considering adding school on a few Saturdays to make up for all the snow days they've had.
I liked that the NYC school chancellor said "it's a beautiful day" despite the fact that it's raining ice pellets at times and we're supposed to get another few inches of snow in a few hours.
Gotcha. Around here it's the complete opposite. You have make up the first 5 snow days. Any more than that you don't have to make up.
I'm not sure when that changed, actually, because I feel like it used to be the other way around when I was still in school.
What's unnerving is that it is now raining outside. And it'll warm up a bit tomorrow, only to freeze up over the weekend. We'd need like a full week of 60+ weather for all that snow to melt. Looks like it's going to be with us for a while. Around the area where I park, I've got "Snow Henge" (see photo album).
My street was flooded for several hours last night due to rain coming down and it melting some of the snow, but all the snow packed around the sides of the street blocked the drains, so it took a long time for it to go down.
Spent 20 minutes digging my car out this morning. The kids are out of school today, Monday, and Tuesday, so I got a sitter for them. Traffic was light at 8am, probably because so many people are still buried. This is why I got a head start.
Got to work and, while someone was busy plowing the parking lot, no one had bothered to shovel any of the sidewalks. There's over a foot of snow on them. What the fuck do we pay rent for? Totally unacceptable. It's almost 9:30 and it's still not been dealt with.
Spent 20 minutes digging my car out this morning. The kids are out of school today, Monday, and Tuesday, so I got a sitter for them. Traffic was light at 8am, probably because so many people are still buried. This is why I got a head start.
Got to work and, while someone was busy plowing the parking lot, no one had bothered to shovel any of the sidewalks. There's over a foot of snow on them. What the fuck do we pay rent for? Totally unacceptable. It's almost 9:30 and it's still not been dealt with.
I was walking down Park Avenue last night on the way home and there were quite a few cars that were almost completely buried from a combination of snowfall and the snowplows having gone by. Yet another reason to be happy I can walk pretty much everywhere I need to go.
And speaking of walking, I cannot believe the number of people who go out in this weather without proper footwear. And I'm not talking about all the teenagers who are too cool to wear boots either. I saw plenty of grown adults wearing nothing but running shoes or dress shoes.
And speaking of walking, I cannot believe the number of people who go out in this weather without proper footwear. And I'm not talking about all the teenagers who are too cool to wear boots either. I saw plenty of grown adults wearing nothing but running shoes or dress shoes.
We've had about 12 inches of snow on the ground for about two months, and I couldn't even tell you where my boots are.