NC Penguin

Has this thought crossed anyone's else's mind?

As many millions of us living in the US at the moment continue to experience inclement weather and are unable/stopped from going to work, how much will this ice and snow/dangerous driving conditions cost the US economy?

In my area, the Triangle in NC, I just read online from a local newspaper that the amount of business lost on Monday 26 and Tue 27 January is as much as $44 million!

I can't imagine how much business will be lost in bigger metropolitan areas such as New York, Boston, Chicago, etc.

The end result will surely lead to many small businesses struggling even more to survive and consequently closing altogether.

And what's Bush doing about all this?





NC Penguin

Manc

I am pretty sure that January and February didn't just sneek up on people. Especially in Boston NY and Chicago.

NC Penguin

This is what is so odd. People in the North East part of the US pretty much know what to expect weatherwise once winter strikes. Houseowners do what they can to protect their homes from burst pipes, residents make sure they have warm clothing and fuel for the home.

So, why can't the country, the state and cities prepare for the dangerous road conditions?

What's more important, going into space (or poking around on Mars), or making sure Americans can go to school, go to work and just keep the country going?

effi

Duh, going into space of course. The pres could not give a shit about whether anyone makes it into work, or loses wages etc. All he cares about is his own stupid agenda.

ctwickman

I don't get what you are getting at NC Penguin. You are acting like other states have the same problem NC does--they don't. Ice that would cripple NC is a complete non-issue in places like Chicago and New York because the roads are pre-salted to the brim. People just go to work like it rained.The road conditions in northern cities like Chicago are usually great no matter the conditions. There is no such thing as icy roads up here because the city/state DOES take care of it ahead of time. North Carolina is in the south, so naturally they don't have the plows and salt infrastructure they do up here. It's not like North Carolina where they don't salt the roads (I used to live in North Carolina--Carrboro to be exact for three years). You are acting like what happens in the Triangle is what happens in other places in this country, which just isn't the case. Five feet of snow and ice would cripple the Triangle, but it wouldn't even matter in Chicago since the plows and the salt take care of it all before people even get up and go to work, so it's a NON-issue. Have you ever been up here? The roads are white with salt--ice and snow is a non-issue on the thoroughfares.

Pulaski

Exactly! and it makes no (economic) sense to pay for huge numbers of ploughs and other equipment to deal with severe winter weather when it is only a factor in North Carolina for a few days each year. Unlike Chicago, to name but one city where winter weather is pretty much guaranteed to mean several months of freezing weather and snow.

Buffalo, NY a couple of years ago, was "closed for business" for just a couple of days when, in the space of a week, mother nature dumped seven feet of snow on the city! It was so bad that the city was using dump trucks to cart the snow out of town, there simply wasn't the space to plough that much snow off the roads. That much snow in NC and the locals would think that the world is about to end!

Franklin

Yeah!!! Not dealing with snow is the one thing that can do Mayor Daley in! Chicagoans don't take kindly to roads blocked with snow or un-drivable because of freezing rain. It better be sorted in real time or the Mayor's job is on the line! Yes, seriously!

When I lived downtown in Chicago, I was amazed to hear the big trucks and bulldozers working through the night actually carting the snow away. There are heated sidewalks to keep pedestrian traffic moving around, e.g. Northwestern Train station. There is loads of salt spread across the freeways - the city authorities use those huge trucks loaded with salt, they work in formation pushing the snow from one lane to the next and salting at the same time. Four trucks in angled formation. Quite a sight when you see it. They block the whole expressway! Sometimes the lane next to the central railway line (subway, but the above ground bit that runs down the center bit of, e.g., the Eisenhower. One year a car flipped over the snow packed against the center wall along the tube line and fell onto one of the tracks upside down.

Gross50

Are you blaming Bush for the bad weather? I don't think so. He's got nothing to do with how the cities deal with freaky weather.

The presidency is much more than clearing snow from your side walk (just joking, dont take me seriously).

Pulaski

I'd have thought that a penguin would be in her element in this weather!