Above The 48th Parallel: Hurricane Vs. Blizzard

Svashtar

Svashtar

Joined
Dec 28, 2003
Messages
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Forwarded to me from another list. Immediately thought of Munk and other folks in the northern states. Not making any comment about Katrina or the Gov't response to the disaster, but do agree with most of the points here.

Mods, seems entirely appropriate to me for the Cantina, but move to the political discussion forum if you think it fits better there.

Regards,

Norm

___________________________________

Hurricane vs. Blizzard

This text is from county emergency manager out in the western part of North Dakota state after the storm.

Amusing, if it were not so true...

WEATHER BULLETIN

Up here in the Northern Plains we just recovered from a Historic event- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with a historic blizzard of up to 24" inches of snow and winds to 50 MPH that broke trees in half, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed all roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.

FYI:

George Bush did not come....

FEMA staged nothing....

No one howled for the government...

No one even uttered an expletive on TV...

Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.....

No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House....

No one looted....

Phil Cantori of the Weather Channel did not come....

And Geraldo Rivera did not move in.

Nope, we just melted snow for water, sent out caravans to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars, fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oillanterns or Aladdin lamps, and put on an extra layer of clothes because up here it is 'work or die'. We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin at home' checks. Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early... we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.

"In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the worlds social problems evaporate."
 
!

_______________________________________________________________
CAVE CANEM ET SEMPER PARATUS
Dic, hospes Spartae nos te hic vidisse iacentes,
Dum sanctis patriae legibus obsequimur

BlueMillieSig.jpg

If they don't want me to eat animals - why do they make them out of MEAT?
 
Norm, please pass this on to whomever wrote that "Weather Bulletin":

"You whining crybaby idiot, did the blizzard make you homeless? Did you lose everything you own? Did you lose your job? How many people died in your blizzard?

Sound like you're proud you know how to light a fire. Congratulations.

I know how to make ice, but I don't consider myself a genius, nor do I even find it post-worthy.

I hope you get to live in a FEMA trailer someday, when your home is destroyed, as I once had to. I hope you have to eat MRE's for a week; no, more. May your old people and children be in your same boat, that you may learn an ounce of compassion for your fellow Americans.

You think you deserve media attention because you chose to live in a cold place? Sounds like you're jealous of that financial aid. FEMA made a mistake. Hey, why don't you run it? You've got answers.

Your "Weather Bulletin" is nothing but thinly veiled racist garbage.

Have a cold winter. You deserve it.


Sincerely, Mike
adworks_mike@yahoo.com
 
There aren't any cities with millions of people in them in North Dakota or Montana.

My town was socked in for a week last year and everyone did fine.

It's true in the Mountainess West people help each other and usually know their neighbors names.

The more people, the more society breaks down.

I moved here to get away from the breakdown.



munk
 
Uh ooh, I see Ad's mad.

Ad, people die in blizzards. I don't think the writer was a thinly veiled racist; I think that's doing him the return of the over simplification he did in the first place.

These Northern West states don't have the enormous populations you do. We can still help one another effectively. I'm on the Volunteer Fire dept because otherwise there is no one to put out fires.

No one deserves to be killed for lack of preparation, but it does happen.

I think the real message of New Orleans is what was revealed when the lid was pulled off by the Hurricane- a third world nation within a nation.



munk
 
I agree with Munk.
although, North Dakotans are probably tougher than the avg. bear.Man,can it get cold up there.Brrrrr!!!!!:D

shearer
 
The biggest difference is that blizzards don't tend to obliterate homes. This is a major issue, one of the big three actually, food, shelter, clothing. Also, most people who live in areas where winter happens have the clothing, and the alternative fuel sources to deal with it.

Now, if a blizzard were to strike in the gulf? That is a different story.

Last winter in Boston we got 36" in one blizzard, and then another 12" about five days later. Was it a disaster? Hell no! It was a damn good time! Sure people lost power, jobs and schools closed down, the economy suffered a bit, and some babies were probably made. But we all had the extra jackets, down blankets, and starbucks coffee to make it through.

Blizzards are nasty, but most people still get to sleep in their own beds before, during, and after the fact.


~ Bamboo ~
 
Blizzards are nasty, but most people still get to sleep in their own beds before, during, and after the fact.>>>>>>> Bamboo

Not to knock the noble Boston Blizzard, but in the three Rocky Mountain states I've lived in, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, if you get caught in a blizzard, even in a car, you can die very easily.

A standard warning posted often by the National Weather service, or the Montana Highway Dept in conjunction, not sure which, says, "if you leave your home tonight you are taking your life into your hands."

This warning is posted frequently, many many times every season.
White out conditions and below zero temps with high winds are nothing to take lightly. Many highways have permanent steel blockades that stop all travel- along with a flashing light, and a sign saying; Return to Sheridan, (as on the freeway right outside of Sheridan Wy.) They won't let you travel. Entire sections of the States are cut off.

I don't think anyone who has not experienced one here can truly understand. People would tie ropes to themselves to make it to the barn to feed the animals, lest they are lost and never found till thaw.

No, it's not a lot of fun. It is very serious.



munk
 
No, it's not a lot of fun. It is very serious.

munk



Yeah, I guess you're right. The one thing we don't get here are the really low temperatures, which I didn't even think about.

Mother nature is a strong woman.

~ b
 
It can go on for days, too; though usually a day and a night are about it.

If you go off the road here, or even pull to the side, you can get buried and not seen again. There's so much distance. And the things right off the road- ditches, canyons, trees, rivers, cliffs...

A blizzard in a city and you at least are surrounded by people. Actually, a Blizzard in a place like Boston, when the power goes out and few have back up heating systems, could be a catastrophy.


munk
 
Mike I can not really understand your loss as I have never been through anything like that. But I can sympathize.

I know you have been bombed out at least once by a hurricane. I think that you lost a lot, and that insurance did not give you the coverage to replace your damaged and destroyed possessions.

It must be very hard for you to listen to the 'cold weather griping' from people who have NOT been through the horrors that you faced.

But the point of the OP was that people prepared are able to work through weather like this, and that neighbors help neighbors -- that they did not feel a need to ask for outside help.

Personally I don't like snow. Pretty to look at, but <shudder> I don't like being out in it. Blizzards? I would move as soon as I could dig myself out!

I like Atlanta weather. So far we have been pretty lucky here. Few hurricanes. No blizzards and very little snow. Maybe a few days and then it evaporates.

No one could have been prepared for the depth of destruction from hurricanes that have hit our country in the last few years, unless you have an underground waterproof bunker.

Hmmm, maybe I shoud start digging.....
 
Bill, I get his point. But it's like someone with a splinter complaining about their pain to someone in traction. Fourteen months later, I am still living in wreckage. The subject is a raw nerve.

I realize you're helping explain his point of view to me, not defend it. Thank you, I appreciate it.

As for as the whole NOLA thing, which his "weather bulletin" is about, I have no comment. Didn't happen that way in my neighborhood.

Bill Marsh said:
Mike I can not really understand your loss as I have never been through anything like that. But I can sympathize.
Click to expand...
Thank you. I do appreciate it.

Bill Marsh said:
I know you have been bombed out at least once by a hurricane. I think that you lost a lot, and that insurance did not give you the coverage to replace your damaged and destroyed possessions.
Click to expand...
Two cat. 3 direct hits in a year. Uninsured losses are in the 5 digits.

Bill Marsh said:
It must be very hard for you to listen to the 'cold weather griping' from people who have NOT been through the horrors that you faced.
Click to expand...
Actually, I lived half my life in freezing climates. I remember the blizzard of '77 and 20' high drifts. Didn't go to school for a week.

Bill Marsh said:
But the point of the OP was that people prepared are able to work through weather like this, and that neighbors help neighbors -- that they did not feel a need to ask for outside help.
Click to expand...

My neighbors helped each other, every day. Soldiers brought us MRE's. FEMA, I think, took one look and felt sorry for me & set up a trailer.

I didn't ask for or receive one cent from any aid source whatsoever.

The guy wasn't really complaining about his cold weather situation, something which hasn't changed since the days of his ancestors moving to ND. Don't tell me it's getting colder every year. His comments were about the way the denziens of New Orleans and our government handled an emergency (extremely poorly- no argument there) and how "people help people" in cold weather climes.

GOOD PEOPLE HELP ONE ANOTHER WHEREVER THEY ARE.


Out of time,

Mike
 
I think life is good in warmer climes, but when things go wrong, they can go real wrong. Maybe that's just because of population densities.



munk
 
I agree with AD! And I'm taling about the PO'd part too. That guy is claiming apples with oranges. There were no neighbors left to help in NO. When everything is destroyed you've got to change your priorities to survival. To your own familys survival. What an A hole. I'm so mad I could spit. No one is trying to downplay the hardships faced in the extreme north, but don't just trash the South because of what the Press shows you. Idiot! I hope your winter is cold and your ugly fat Yankee wife rolls over onto you and smothers you in her stinkk!

Andy
 
Oh and if its such a utopia up there why cant you keep your youth around? That's a social problem smart guy!

Andy
 
Tough times don't last, Tough people do

Trite and cliche', not if you ask me. Blizzards, hurricanes, twisters, blinding sandstorms, man made storms of fire and metal. Yessir, been there, some are worse than others, ain't none of 'em good. Lost nearly everything I own twice, been left for dead once, and along the way lost some people that mattered to me. But, I've still got, and will always have, the three things most important to me, Faith, Love, and Honor. Strength, courage, resolve, perserverance, charity, and hope, can all be drawn from that well. Keep those things that are most important close to your heart, the rest will sort itself out.

Blizzard vs. hurricane, moot point, ask children who've lost both parents to a car wreck what level of destruction is required to bring about true suffering. We can debate all day long who suffers most and why, but bottom line, there is, and will always be, suffering in this world, and there are, and will always be, people who rise above it.

Sarge
 
Blizzard vs. hurricane, moot point, ask children who've lost both parents to a car wreck what level of destruction is required to bring about true suffering. We can debate all day long who suffers most and why, but bottom line, there is, and will always be, suffering in this world, and there are, and will always be, people who rise above it.
Click to expand...

Nicely put, as usual:thumbup:
 
I see this thread has circled back around to where it began.

There are some books I know the ending to, and this is one:

<< Blizzard vs. hurricane, moot point, ask children who've lost both parents to a car wreck what level of destruction is required to bring about true suffering. We can debate all day long who suffers most and why, but bottom line, there is, and will always be, suffering in this world, and there are, and will always be, people who rise above it.>>> Sarge


This is the where it comes together.


munk
 
Blizzard VS Hurricane, dumb argument for sure. And who cares, compassion is the way universal way to respond to disaster. Judging can wait for someone with more vision IMHO.

If you weren't insulted by that Managers statement your family wasn't in Louisianna and Mississippi suffering since the storms. Mine was and thems fightin words.

"In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the worlds social problems evaporate."

His whole tirade is just a kick in the groin from someone with little class. I'm not ashamed it got me mad. It was intended as a slap in the face. A cheap nameless cowardly slap in the face. We don't deserve it down here, not right now. You didn't hear any of us jabbing at the New Yorkers in their time of need. Many of us rushed up there at our peril to help in the rescue effort. Even more sent $. The whole country did. We're all Americans so why does junk like this come up and how did his words spread? By spreading them they are empowered. I don't know if its veiled racism, but its plainly ignorance.

Andy
 
It's oK to get mad.
I think we need to look at the fact that once you hit the 48th parallel 90% of the people are South of you. That's 90% of the problem.

Does everyone here know their neighbors? I usually did, even when living in the Big City of millions.



munk
 
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