Winter Storm 2014 - Working from home

Anyone working from home today? I ended up traveling out of state (SC to MI) and now I'm trapped without a flight home (the airlines cancelled my flight three times). I'm working and staring at a lot of snow/wind/ice out the window. Ah well...

Find more posts tagged with

Free for TechExams community: Cybersecurity salary guide

Compare cert salaries and plan your next career move

Button

Comments

--chris--

BGraves wrote: »

Sitting at the table under a blanket at home, working remotely via VPN.
Stranded motorists spend nights on freeways after snow blankets South - CNN.com
I've been in ATL 9 months, I've never seen anything like this..the drivers are batty and the cars are ill equipped for snow/ice.

I've only lived in MI, so I cant begin to figure this out so I will just ask:

Why is it southern folk have such a hard time with light snow/moderate ice? I understand its a rare occurrence, but watching that video makes it look like everyone drives on bald tires, the laws of physics have changed and every road is uphill...BOTH ways.

veritas_libertas

It's not the snow, it's the ice. Snow comes down, melts and then quickly freezes. When they see snow they immediately think ice which means a run on milk and bread. As of the latest weather reports there has already been over 40 crashes in Greenville.

BGraves

--chris-- wrote: »

I've only lived in MI, so I cant begin to figure this out so I will just ask:

Why is it southern folk have such a hard time with light snow/moderate ice? I understand its a rare occurrence, but watching that video makes it look like everyone drives on bald tires, the laws of physics have changed and every road is uphill...BOTH ways.

Chris to be honest, I find myself wondering that too.
My best guesses....

No winter storm prep like salting/sanding streets and highways.
No real plows to speak of to remove snow and ice.
Drivers fail to leave appropriate space to slow down, drive too fast, don't pay attention, don't know how to drive in snow or ice, no snow tires, possible they don't even have all weather tires as it is rare to see snow here. (Hell, when it rains here, people go nuts)
I also imagine that the sheer volume of drivers on the road contributes. (Need better public transportation options here IMO)

Regardless, this is the only place I've ever been where things get this crazy. Growing up in KS/IA, this was fairly normal stuff and the roads were generally cleared within a day of it happening. Hopefully everyone has stayed safe out there! As much as I love my job, it's not worth my car in a ditch and freezing to death.

A quote from local news website from last night:
"11:06 p.m.: As of 9 p.m., the Georgia State Patrol has been called to investigate 940 traffic crashes since 10 a.m. today. The crashes have resulted in 104 injuries. One of the crashes from this afternoon is now a fatal crash."

Legacy User

Yea my father in law is in NC on business and apparently they only have 1 plow for that area. That area is projected to get upwards of 12 inches.

100k

BGraves wrote: »

Chris to be honest, I find myself wondering that too.
My best guesses....

No winter storm prep like salting/sanding streets and highways.
No real plows to speak of to remove snow and ice.
Drivers fail to leave appropriate space to slow down, drive too fast, don't pay attention, don't know how to drive in snow or ice, no snow tires, possible they don't even have all weather tires as it is rare to see snow here. (Hell, when it rains here, people go nuts)
I also imagine that the sheer volume of drivers on the road contributes. (Need better public transportation options here IMO)

Regardless, this is the only place I've ever been where things get this crazy. Growing up in KS/IA, this was fairly normal stuff and the roads were generally cleared within a day of it happening. Hopefully everyone has stayed safe out there! As much as I love my job, it's not worth my car in a ditch and freezing to death.

A quote from local news website from last night:
"11:06 p.m.: As of 9 p.m., the Georgia State Patrol has been called to investigate 940 traffic crashes since 10 a.m. today. The crashes have resulted in 104 injuries. One of the crashes from this afternoon is now a fatal crash."

Pretty much this ^^^. It is very rare to get snow in that area. Even though it is only two inches the city was no where near prepared for it nor the people. They cant prepare well for something they never experienced and also there was not enough salt for the roads. I am in Florida and I can tell if it started snowing here, even a little, it would be nuts. Mass chaos lol. Not even sure if they sell winter tires down here

puertorico1985

That is exactly the problem in the South. I live two hours east of Atlanta, and it snowed about 2-3 inches, and (literally) everything was closed. Schools, Work, Businesses, etc. Snow is so rare in the south that the preparations are virtually non-existent. We don't have any way to remove snow and ice from the roads, and it doesn't help that idiot drivers don't know how to drive in the snow (driving too fast, braking too late, not enough space when driving behind another vehicle).

Claymoore

--chris-- wrote: »

Why is it southern folk have such a hard time with light snow/moderate ice? I understand its a rare occurrence, but watching that video makes it look like everyone drives on bald tires, the laws of physics have changed and every road is uphill...BOTH ways.

It's not that hard to understand if you've seen how bad people drive here on a bright sunny day. Add in rain - and it rains every day for 5 months - and people just get worse. We had a light rain last night and someone was driving down the highway with their hazards flashing. If we had snow and ice in Tampa the highways would become car blenders of death.

Our cars aren't equipped for it. No chains, no snow tires. My car is AWD and I had to have it shipped in because that is so rare here, lots of the trucks are only 2WD. My tires are high performance summer tires designed for rain. I don't know how well my car would handle snow and I don't care to find out.

Our cities aren't prepared for it. No plows, no salt, no emergency snow routes. We could handle hurricane evacuation better than we could a half inch of snow. People wouldn't know to stay home, keep certain routes clear, leave early - none of the stuff we knew how to do in the midwest.

And our drivers aren't prepared. See that 50 year-old guy in the SUV talking on his cell phone? He just moved here from New York\Boston\Chicago and never owned a car before. He has as much time behind the wheel as a 17 year-old. And then there's the old people...

100k

^^^

--chris--

@claymoore: lol

That's just it though, we don't prepare either nor do we put any special seasonal touches on our vehicles. I full appreciate the lack of experience with winter driving....everyone has been there.

I guess I just have a hard time understanding how people don't learn to slow down and drive cautiously after the first 10 minutes. Also the tires just spinning lol...that has me to. I imagine the people with wranglers and subarus were probably the only people able to move.