Dies to Removal

Ben....Yoda......Dagobah system....

Hey Empire, get ready to suck some Dack!

Hey Khaos, you want some ice?

I must have a death wish. We are officially up to 60" and I trekked 2 miles through it to deliver food and meds to my aunt who didn't plan ahead. Took me 3 hours and quite the talking to from the cops and snow crews.

It's pretty chilly outside - I had to wear a long-sleeve shirt today. I mean, I rolled the sleeves up, but it still counts.

Dude, I live in Florida lol

You all can't complain. It's 90 F here today.

Also it's full of Koreans. So that kind of sucks too.

Wait, are you seriously in Abu Dhabi now?

Male to female ratio at site: 300 to 1.

Unless you count the 15,000 laborers. Then it gets worse.

Wait, are you seriously in Abu Dhabi now?

Yeah dude. New job. I build nuclear power plants and shit.

I thought Abu Dhabi was just a made-up country that Garfield mailed Nermal to until a buddy of mine moved there like 5 years ago.

Now he grows figs and dates and shit and owns like 3 families.

How many indentured servants do you own, Dechs?

None, happily.

But who will harvest the figs or rub exotic oils over your body or carry you to work on your palanquin?

I don't need any of that.

A man that doesn't have servants to rub date oil on his bare chest can hardly be called a man

Nobody needs those things, but if you could, why wouldn't you?

Are you alive BL?!

Yes I am still alive. Unless I do something stupid like go on another rescue mission and get hurt or stuck, the only things that might kill me are my roof collapsing or having a heart attack digging myself out. I don't know the official total as it hasn't been updated in 16 hours. I get a bit of a reprieve this afternoon before more arrives late tonight and tomorrow.

I saw six feet total so far.

I would believe it. I was literally over my head in a lot of spots last night. The snow should compress a bit in the sun today so I can try to get my snowblower to shoot the snow over the bank. Right now plows are mythical creatures for us on the side streets and likely will be for another day or so but I can at least get chunks of my driveway cleared.

Being 24 and living in the south, I feel this is a learning opportunity for me.... Do you HAVE to blow off driveway and shit? Is it mandated by state laws or neighborhoods? I am guessing it makes sense if it is to prevent structural damage of your house. Can you tell your job "Look, I can't get out of my driveway, sorry."?

edit: how do you have internet?

The snow is taller than my car, so yes I do have to clear my driveway if I want to go anywhere. There is no law saying that I have to get my driveway cleared out though. Local laws do require that my sidewalks are cleared within a reasonable time of a snowfall to ensure pedestrian safety (mostly kids walking to school or bus stops). Around here, the only time you really can get away with not going to work due to snow are in cases of travel bans or your street not being plowed out. Aside from events like this, most roads are plowed and safe for travel fairly quickly.

Response to edit: We only lose utilities to wind taking branches off trees, mostly. The cables are so narrow that the snow can't pile on them and break them. I would imagine a lot of buried cables as well in places being immune to snowfall. Cell services are a bit congested but still working as well, so I could tether to my phone if necessary.

For us, this is our usual timetable for things like getting to work (measurments are for overnight snowfall):
6" or less: No delays
6"-12": Maybe 5-10min delay
12"-18": 10-15min delay
18"-24": Depends on plow situation but usually 30min delay. Some schools and businesses consider closing. Potential for travel bans if the snow is blowing hard or drifting. Roads are usually drivable within a few hours.
24"-36": Schools closed, some travel bans. Main streets often cleared within hours. Maybe a day for side streets depending on location.
36+": Travel bans, possible state of emergency. Not going to be going anywhere for a while.

We are fairly well prepared for snow. We use heavy construction equipment to move it. Our plows are often things like refitted dump trucks (salt spreader in the back). It takes something on the level we are dealing with yesterday/today to slow them down much.

Can't you just fashion a flamethrower out of something and burn your way out?

I did one winter when we had an ice storm. I don't have enough fuel to clear all this. I would need, at minimum, 20 gallons of napalm. You can't just melt it since it will form an ice sheet, you have to practically dry the ground if you do that kind of thing.

As far as I know that sort of thing has only happened once in Boston in living memory. blizzard of 78 ( I wasn't born but my parents always talked about it). We get snow in Boston but nothing like that. At least I have a frame of reference though, unlike those silly southerners.

The Blizzard of 78 was just a flurry compared to this if you only talk about raw snowfall. 27 inches fell over two days there. The catch is that, in a city like that, there is nowhere to actually put the snow so there was no relief for a much longer period. Infrastructure wasn't nearly what it is these days, either. The only snowfall in memory that comes close to this was our infamous Blizzard of 77 where people could go sledding off their rooftops if the snow drifted in the right way. Nobody has done that this week here to my knowledge as the winds weren't strong enough to cause drifts like that.

I've learned more about snow in the past few posts than the rest of my life.

/california scrub

As far as I know that sort of thing has only happened once in Boston in living memory. blizzard of 78 ( I wasn't born but my parents always talked about it). We get snow in Boston but nothing like that. At least I have a frame of reference though, unlike those silly southerners.

Hey Snowpocalypse last year lasted 2 days in Atlanta maaaannn. Roads were frozen for a day and half, chaos ensued. Hence we named it Snowpocalypse.

So you had, what, 2 inches? Quite frankly, I am amazed that only 5 people have died so far due to the storm. That is nothing short of miraculous.

Yeah, we are in some peril here. There are serious questions about the structural integrity of older roofs with this much snow on them. Even emergency services are shut down since the plows can't make it down the road, much less ambulances or fire/police. Some departments have snowmobiles but they are limited and not exactly the safest way to transport injured/dying patients.

Edit: Unless I have a heart attack shoveling (even my insane snowblower chokes on this), I will survive. My roof is strong and I have enough provisions to last a few weeks.

Heard about the storm on the news. Does sound bad. We get the lake effect too, as I can literally see Lake Ontario from my work and home. It's snowing now, but nowhere near as bad as you have it. We do end up with snow that accumulates and builds to be that high, but we're expecting 10 degrees next week so it should all melt. Hope you're safe.

I remember one time in college about 2/3 years ago... I was in Statesboro, which is really South Georgia about 35 mins from Savannah. On valentines day (my twin buddies' birthday) we threw a keg party and kept the keg in the snow. Then the next year, same time, we had a keg party at the pool. Weather man, weather.

Unless I have a heart attack removing the snow, I will survive. I have an old house that was built with things like this in mind and enough food to last a month. While this kind of snow is unprecedented, we do try to be prepared for events like this.

You legally have to clear the sidewalk.

Also BL, I'm only like 3 hours from Buffalo if you want to hang out at an Open or something in the future.

Be safe redbro.

Since Fahrenheit is the only acceptable measurement for temperature I'm going to assume you don't know that 10 degrees is still below freezing.

All civilized countries use the metric system.