For the second or third time, we have a “blizzard to end all blizzards!!” on the East coast.
I get a little tired hearing about the winter storms on the East coast, in which photos like this make the news. The main story isn’t the storm, really, but the fact that it’s happening in a more heavily populated area than in perpetual-butt-of-the-joke North Dakota. Or, perhaps, because some of it is happening in areas maybe unused to seeing that quantity of snow.
Because otherwise?
This is a photo showing snow accumulation.
Or this photo, which features the men of Hampden, North Dakota, and a backhoe, trying to dig out the buildings at the Prairie Winds and Pioneer Power threshing site in 1997.
Just a little perspective.
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I was born during the “Blizzard of ‘78″ in Boston. My father had to dig a hole to get my mother out of our house to get to the hospital.
Anyway, I’m from Minnesota, when it snows here in Chicago and people freak out – I say “Get over it.”
Might we remember significant blizzards, which we remember for one of two reasons, amount of snow, or loss of life. Here, we remember the blizzard of 1966, one that took place in the ’40’s and then the one you are showing the picture. Two things to remember, be prepared at home and stay off the highways.
I got caught in a storm a few years ago, it was fine when I left Devils lake and all of a sudden I couldn’t see anything except the middle line of the road, when I got to Garske I could see lights, and drove in and stayed with very kind people.
Another time, the last year of my Mom’s life, I wanted to go see her on Christmas eve, it would have been a 40 mile drive. It was a beautiful day, but there were warnings of a storm coming, she insisted that I stay home. and it did come, we couldn’t see anything, numerous people sat in their cars that night unable to go anywhere as it was a complete whiteout. My Mom was blest by her neighbors in the building who shared that Christmas with her. Just a little history lesson for you and your readers.
As one who is getting ready to gear up and go shovel out from the “blizzard” that hit DC, I hear ya. I grew up in the mountains of northern NM, so tons of snow at once is not a big deal to me. The thing, at least in DC, is that the bulk of the time, we don’t get snow during the winter. Or we get 2 inches and everyone freaks out. Anything beyond 2 inches is a serious problem from the fact that there aren’t enough plows, there isn’t enough stored up salt to treat the roads, people don’t understand that it’s dangerous to go out if you don’t know what you’re doing (which they don’t), the lack of infrastructure that can withstand such a thing (and thus people lose power for weeks) etc etc. So it’s not so much about the snow, I think, as it is about the unusual amounts on people who just have no clue and, as a result of having no clue, end up seriously injuring, if not killing, either themselves or others. (It’s not uncommon for a 5″ snowstorm to have upwards of 2000 accidents on the interstate as people try to get to work. Not all life threatening, surely, but still.)
So have a little patience with us, we wouldn’t survive a week in ND.