Re: 1/23 Snow Storm in the Northeast

Posted by ewrecks On 2016/1/23 21:43:45

We picked up around 28" here and Somerset Turnpike- about 15 miles south- supposedly recorded 35.5 inches. There are still cars and buses stranded on the Turnpike which have been there since last evening when traffic snarled due to several rigs jack knifing ....and at last report they will spend another night on the bus.
The one bus is full of college basketball players and another full of some girls sports team. With.some pizza ( Dominos dropped some in) and a few cases of Iron City beer, I think the situation could work out.LOL
There are people living outdoors in this mess, hundreds of thousands without electricity or heat, at least 17 deaths and untold property damage.
We have had larger snowfalls and by all accounts the folks near Buffalo deal with snow accumulations like this routinely.
I have photos from the Winter of 1935-36 somewhere. My father worked with a crew clearing snow along US Route 30 by hand because no machine at the time( and possibly now) could deal with the accumulation. They dug down and created shelves and used those to move the snow up to the next level. The photos show him and fellow workers sitting on the tops of the utility poles along the road. That accumulation melted,too quickly and generated the second major flood,of Johnstown on St Patrick's Day in 1936.
I think part,of today's difficulty with coping with storms is that we have gotten used to good roads, electric lights and heating systems that are dependent on dependable electric service. When the power goes out, there are no lights.....but also frequently no heat . When coal and wood stoves and furnaces were more the norm, loss of power was less an issue.
Let's hope that we do lot have too many people die or lose their homes due to this mess. I'll be grateful that I am warm and that the Internet and cable allow me to wait for the plows.