Monday, November 15, 2004
First of the Season
The first snow storm of the season hit this weekend causing many problems and if this is any indication of the winter ahead, we are in big trouble. Big trouble not because of winter storms, but because the general poplulation hasn't got "two clues to click together".
Consider this:
1) Despite what the media reports say, this was not a big storm. Get real. It wasn't that many years ago that a storm was only considered big if it covered the telephone poles to within a foot from the top.
2) Snow removal crews work hard, with long hours at a time, but they don't know how to clear snow. Even their supervisors have no knowledge of clearing snow. Hence the rows of snow in the middle of the street, lanes that narrow down to a lane and a half at intersections, and torn up sods. Yes there are correct procedures for clearing intersections.
3) News pictures show many vehicles off the road, upside down. How can they call them accidents? Call them insurance adjusters, idiots that fail to adjust to conditions, or just plain stupid. But they are not accidents. And a message for all SUV drivers - they do require traction too, four wheel drive does not allow for the problem behind the wheel(s).
4) Transmission towers are falling like matchsticks. Crews have to be called in from other provinces and states side. I wonder if the cutback in manpower a few years ago had anything to do with lack of preventative maintenance on these lines and towers? Naw - a couple loose bolts here and there and a weakened support wouldn't hurt anything. Take a look at them, big as they are, each piece helps hold the other in place. And I am not even an engineer.
It's going to be a long winter. A long cold winter without power. A winter full of needless collisions. That's my prediction, and I am sticking too it. (Suppose there is a country song in there somewhere?)
This work by NSCAVE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
The first snow storm of the season hit this weekend causing many problems and if this is any indication of the winter ahead, we are in big trouble. Big trouble not because of winter storms, but because the general poplulation hasn't got "two clues to click together".
Consider this:
1) Despite what the media reports say, this was not a big storm. Get real. It wasn't that many years ago that a storm was only considered big if it covered the telephone poles to within a foot from the top.
2) Snow removal crews work hard, with long hours at a time, but they don't know how to clear snow. Even their supervisors have no knowledge of clearing snow. Hence the rows of snow in the middle of the street, lanes that narrow down to a lane and a half at intersections, and torn up sods. Yes there are correct procedures for clearing intersections.
3) News pictures show many vehicles off the road, upside down. How can they call them accidents? Call them insurance adjusters, idiots that fail to adjust to conditions, or just plain stupid. But they are not accidents. And a message for all SUV drivers - they do require traction too, four wheel drive does not allow for the problem behind the wheel(s).
4) Transmission towers are falling like matchsticks. Crews have to be called in from other provinces and states side. I wonder if the cutback in manpower a few years ago had anything to do with lack of preventative maintenance on these lines and towers? Naw - a couple loose bolts here and there and a weakened support wouldn't hurt anything. Take a look at them, big as they are, each piece helps hold the other in place. And I am not even an engineer.
It's going to be a long winter. A long cold winter without power. A winter full of needless collisions. That's my prediction, and I am sticking too it. (Suppose there is a country song in there somewhere?)
This work by NSCAVE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
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