Texas+ice= failure

[Pearl]

Gee, TxDOT "brined" some city roads Friday, NOT working!! Putting salt water on the roads days in advance is a huge waste of money!! Now there is MAJOR ice build up on ALL the roads and highways, and the main event of ice is just starting! Big rigs from out of state (those who can drive in all conditions) are stranded, along with the idiots who feel they must get out! So TxDOT is  now sanding the bridges and overpasses, the ones they can get to! Most people are actually not getting out, yay!! There are many who did not prepare food wise to be in for several days! I called 7 older folks yesterday to check on them, FIVE do not have enough food to make a meal!! One literally said she had half a box of crackers and some cookies , she has two kids local who could have went shopping for her, now it's too late. Well, she won't starve! This isn't our first ice storm! I guess if they haven't learned by no they are not going to!!

 

[Morgan101]

Gee, TxDOT "brined" some city roads Friday, NOT working!! Putting salt water on the roads days in advance is a huge waste of money!! Now there is MAJOR ice build up on ALL the roads and highways, and the main event of ice is just starting! Big rigs from out of state (those who can drive in all conditions) are stranded, along with the idiots who feel they must get out! So TxDOT is  now sanding the bridges and overpasses, the ones they can get to! Most people are actually not getting out, yay!! There are many who did not prepare food wise to be in for several days! I called 7 older folks yesterday to check on them, FIVE do not have enough food to make a meal!! One literally said she had half a box of crackers and some cookies , she has two kids local who could have went shopping for her, now it's too late. Well, she won't starve! This isn't our first ice storm! I guess if they haven't learned by no they are not going to!!

Be careful, Pearl. You are too good hearted to let those older folks go hungry. I know you will help them. Just be careful.

 

[Pearl]

Be careful, Pearl. You are too good hearted to let those older folks go hungry. I know you will help them. Just be careful.

I CAN'T help them, they are on their own!! I really encouraged them BEFORE this mess to stock up, even offered to go to the store for a few. Nope, local news said just rain. If they haven't learned by now......

 

[Patchouli]

With that budget surplus someone mentioned that Texas has, you’d think they’d go ahead and buy a few snow plow trucks that can dump salt, plow roads, and stay on top of things, just to keep something passable. Really ticks me off every time we get bad weather here.
Y’all, it’s true. This place is shut down. Once in a great while I hear a siren or a hot dogging truck, otherwise, shut down.
I’ve not had work for two days, they closed early on Monday.
I’ve always got food And camping supplies if there’s no electricity. Church friends, we always check on one another and almost everyone is always prepared.

 

[Cabin Fever]

It's a rare day in Minnesota to not have travelable roads within 12 hours of a major snow or ice storm. Oftentimes, less than 12 hours.

It's a fact that southern states have more school days cancelled due to winter weather conditions than we do in Minnesota. We have almost 3 feet of snow on the ground that has been accumulating since late November. Kids in our area have not had a cancelled school day off yet.

 

[zoomzoom]

With that budget surplus someone mentioned that Texas has, you’d think they’d go ahead and buy a few snow plow trucks that can dump salt, plow roads, and stay on top of things, just to keep something passable.

There's nearly 700,000 lane miles of road in Texas. That's enough to make a 30-lane highway around the entire planet. That's going to take thousands upon thousands of trucks.

 

[Patchouli]

There's nearly 700,000 lane miles of road in Texas. That's enough to make a 30-lane highway around the entire planet. That's going to take thousands upon thousands of trucks.

In the major areas of the metropolitan roadways, where major hospitals and emergency responders are located, nothing is done. I’m not talking about every single court, circle, avenue and road being plowed or salted. I lived in Maryland where at times it was all they could do to keep up with the major highways during snowstorms. And that was all that would get done sometimes for days. No, we certainly aren’t Wisconsin or Minnesota or Michigan etc etc.

 

[havasu]

My grandkids are in Temple/Belton area of Texas, and the schools announced two (no snow) snows days this week to keep the kids safe at home, rather than risk their lives driving them to school.

 

[Cabin Fever]

My grandkids are in Temple/Belton area of Texas, and the schools announced two (no snow) snows days this week to keep the kids safe at home, rather than risk their lives driving them to school.

Hey, we have three grandkids that live in Belton.

 

[Peanut]

The last major ice storm I had was in 97/98, 25yrs ago. Big, big storm, roads were shut down 3days but power was out for 3days also. No one needed to go to work aside from medical fields. The only other folks who needed drive were those unpreppared, no food or even extra blankets in their house.

The deep south doesn't get this kind of weather every year, might skip 6-8 years before another such storm... And then shut down the roads for a couple days. The last time roads around here were icy here was 2015. Then they were fine the next day.

In the mean time a state would have to maintain a fleet of salt trucks/plows. For one storm in the last 25yrs? Don't think so.... The loss of revenue for 2days would not justify a state maintaining a fleet of trucks for 25yrs.

Richardson TX during last year's storm... getting storms 2 yrs running is unheard of.

 

[Cabin Fever]

Y'all need a pair of these....

 

[Peanut]

I recently ran across this on the NWS website about my location... The average daytime high for January is 54 degrees. Don't see the need for salt trucks here.

 

[zoomzoom]

In the major areas of the metropolitan roadways, where major hospitals and emergency responders are located, nothing is done.

I know what you mean but those roads are up to the City to buy and operate trucks. I don't follow their budgets but do they have $$$ to buy trucks that are around $250,000 + operator + salt?

 

[Supervisor42]

DW's niece lives in Palestine TX and they have even lost power .

 

[Morgan101]

I CAN'T help them, they are on their own!! I really encouraged them BEFORE this mess to stock up, even offered to go to the store for a few. Nope, local news said just rain. If they haven't learned by now......

Sad! What;s the old adage? You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. You did all you could, and earned your place in Heaven for that.

 

[Patchouli]

DW's niece lives in Palestine TX and they have even lost power .

I’ve been to Palestine, Texas. The End.

 

[Cabin Fever]

 

[Pearl]

I know what you mean but those roads are up to the City to buy and operate trucks. I don't follow their budgets but do they have $$$ to buy trucks that are around $250,000 + operator + salt?

They will bother to have hoards of trucks out dumping salt water on the roads days before an event! My opinion, save it for sanding during or salting! Then they try to plow ice off the roads, no, doesn't work!

 

[Supervisor42]

Not many of these people are gonna be harping about it on Facebook:

USA Today:
Nearly 300,000 homes and businesses were without power in Texas Wednesday as the Lone Star state continued to battle frigid temperatures and freezing rain.

In Travis County alone, which houses the state capital of Austin, more than 156,000 customers – nearly a quarter of the energy customers in the county – were without power as of about 12:30 p.m. CT, as the area braced for the second day of the winter storm.

 

[DrJenner]

The last major ice storm I had was in 97/98, 25yrs ago. Big, big storm, roads were shut down 3days but power was out for 3days also. No one needed to go to work aside from medical fields. The only other folks who needed drive were those unpreppared, no food or even extra blankets in their house.

This is why I keep a bag of undies, socks and toiletries in the car when I'm on service. I can always sleep in our call room and shower there, get scrubs from the machine and not have to leave (and chance the roads). The only thing is if the cafeteria runs out of food, most of the time I do stock up and bring a bunch with me, but usually not dinners. Guess I could always just continue with the intermittent fasting!

 

[Pearl]

This is why I keep a bag of undies, socks and toiletries in the car when I'm on service. I can always sleep in our call room and shower there, get scrubs from the machine and not have to leave (and chance the roads). The only thing is if the cafeteria runs out of food, most of the time I do stock up and bring a bunch with me, but usually not dinners. Guess I could always just continue with the intermittent fasting!

Most of the hospitals and nursing homes here had staff stay volunteraly. Great idea!!

 

[Cabin Fever]

This is why I keep a bag of undies, socks and toiletries in the car when I'm on service. I can always sleep in our call room and shower there, get scrubs from the machine and not have to leave (and chance the roads). The only thing is if the cafeteria runs out of food, most of the time I do stock up and bring a bunch with me, but usually not dinners. Guess I could always just continue with the intermittent fasting!

Our daughter does the same thing. She's a physician at BS&W. The only difference is that she has a coworker who lives across the street from the hospital where she can sack out.

 

[DrJenner]

Most of the hospitals and nursing homes here had staff stay volunteraly. Great idea!!

Yeah it's not a good time to not show up. Typically everything is worse, and then you have the homeless people who show up frostbitten who didn't make it to the warming shelters.

 

[DrJenner]

Our daughter does the same thing. She's a physician at BS&W. The only difference is that she has a coworker who lives across the street from the hospital where she can sack out.

Smart! There is a hampton inn attached to the hospital, but of course we have to pay. I don't know anyone closer than a friend who is about 5 mins away

 

[Pearl]

Smart! There is a hampton inn attached to the hospital, but of course we have to pay. I don't know anyone closer than a friend who is about 5 mins away

In your profession you can't just stay home! In all my years working with dogs and horses, someone HAS to be at the barn or kennel to care for the animals! I am often asked if I MISS working with animals! I sure do, but not as much as I like working for myself and sitting home during an ice storm! I have enough to do here for mine!

 

[Peanut]

Smart! There is a hampton inn attached to the hospital, but of course we have to pay. I don't know anyone closer than a friend who is about 5 mins away

I've spent more than a few nights sleeping on a catscan or mri. The patient table has a nice pad, always pillows and blankets in the cabinets.

 

[dademoss]

I read this and remember, way way back, 1984, Augusta Georgia, sometime in december. It SNOWED (3/8 of an inch maybe, but there was Ice too), and got below freezing. The city shut down, the morons from Cincinnati drove to the plant. We had to scrape the windshield with our credit cards, no ice scrapers. Every line in the plant was frozen, it never freezes there. So many cars off the road, if you don't see it, you aren't used to it.

 

[Pearl]

Wellllllll, A LOT if people are finding out the hard way that the roads are STILL icy! I put on the local news just to see how bad it is! Dallas highways are a parking lot!! There are still people without power! A bunch of school districts thought they'd open, only to have to close again!! Some people just don't get it, and never will!!

 

[kenv1950]

Wellllllll, A LOT if people are finding out the hard way that the roads are STILL icy! I put on the local news just to see how bad it is! Dallas highways are a parking lot!! There are still people without power! A bunch of school districts thought they'd open, only to have to close again!! Some people just don't get it, and never will!!

Can't fix stupid ,