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unusedusername3 t1_j1vw9qm wrote

Reply to comment by kaijugigante in After deadly Buffalo blizzard, families scramble to find food and essentials by PinkClouds20

4 ft is a LOT of snow.

I lived in Buffalo. It was 20+ years ago, but I don't think there have been big improvements in snow removal. Snow falls of 1 foot of snow or more slowed the city down. If it happened slow enough most things wouldn't close or the they would close early and/or open late, but not for the a whole day. Schools were the exception and they would close for a day or two.

I lived there for 2 snowfalls of about 3 ft. Schools closed for a week, the University closed for a couple of days. Everything closed for a day. Specific supermarkets and other essential places were the only things open on day 2.

Now you are thinking 4ft is not that much more than 3, but it is. You start running out of places to put the snow. You have issues where you have to plow to the essential workers homes to get people to do the rest.

Other confounding factors can be:

  • How much snow did they have before? This can effect what they can do with the snow, how much deicing is available?

  • It's the holidays. Who is out of town and can't get back to help? Who can they not even get a hold of and so can't plan. How many non locals are around using resources and doing stupid things like driving in a blizzard (yeah local do that too).

  • Lake effect snow is very wet and heavy. It's harder to get move/carry than the powdery stuff. It also becomes ice very easily making it even harder to deal with and roads even worse.

  • Continued bad weather (i don't know if this is the case). Everything is harder and more dangerous in cold weather. Ditto for wind.

There could be other problems like Buffalo's budget didn't put enough in maintenance and essential equipment broke. We'll probably find out more in a few weeks or months.

Seriously though, 4 ft is an insane amount of snow.

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Direlion t1_j1w8e93 wrote

The mayor was on TV yesterday and said the city was basically out of money. The mass shooting earlier this year required a huge amount of resources to manage all of the security, emergency services, legal costs, and so on. Not to mention the loss of business and tourism revenue. Now with the historic storm they just simply don't have enough resources to manage.

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IAmACatDude t1_j1wn33f wrote

Buffalo has some of the lowest property taxes for any major city in the country. The mayor won't raise taxes because the real estate developers are in his pocket. So the city crumbles.

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unusedusername3 t1_j1x0mez wrote

Oh yeah, I forgot that Buffalo is an old steel town that has had it's best days behind it.

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SaraAB87 t1_j1xg8s1 wrote

I live in WNY. Buffalo and WNY in general do not know how to clean up snow, and it will not change. I don't suggest living here if you are elderly, handicapped, or have some other kind of disability or if you just cannot shovel.

Where I live there's less than a foot of snow, however the issue was the wind. 60mph wind gusts with snow make visibility down to zero and you cannot see. It creates a very dangerous situation with even just a little bit of snow. There are also snow drifts, which make it seem like there is more snow than there is. The snow can blow up against your door and make it impossible to open, even if there isn't very much snow on the ground.

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ChelseaHotelTwo t1_j1x070v wrote

Christ. A city that's used to snow and you still close schools because of snow? No wonder a Blizzard kills people. I'm struggling to figure out if Americans are just so fucking dramatic about everything or if this would kill people and require the national guard in Oslo as well where I'm from.

We've had massive amounts of snow with strong winds too but daily life just went on with delays. Main roads are cleared within the hour, you dig out your own car, then you drive to wherever or you walk.

Hearing stories about people freezing to death in their cars in a city is insane. If it's winter you'll be wearing clothes for winter. If your can't drive further you leave your car and go to the nearest house for shelter. Are there just so many people from other places who are not used to cold weather?

Not making fun obviously just curious how this happens and if the weather is so bad my city would face the same consequences or if this is just how it affects American cities.

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zer1223 t1_j1x33df wrote

You can't plow roads or fix power lines in hurricane force winds. They couldn't 'just go on' like you're used to

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ChelseaHotelTwo t1_j1x8ay0 wrote

You can always plow roads. Power you can luve without for a bit. Ambulances will have escorts to get where they need if visibility is 0.

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Full-metal-parka t1_j1yqpsk wrote

Fucking bullshit. You can’t clear a road when the wind is blowing that fucking hard. One foot of snow in normal winds can cause drifts of 6-8ft all on their own. Multiply that by 4 and you’ve got a real fucking problem.

It’s like trying to use a bucket to drain a lake.

You clearly have zero idea what you’re on about.

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ChelseaHotelTwo t1_j1ys2v2 wrote

Here major roads will be cleared regularly during the snowstorm even with blowing snow covering up the road. Then all roads are cleared after the wind dies down. Happens regularly in many Norwegian cities and never experienced this level of drama/panic here. If you're in a city and get stuck in your car you leave it and seek shelter. If you're inside you just stay in for the duration of the storm and you'd have bought enough food to last a day or two before because you live in a place where paying attention to the weather is important. If you lose power you put on more clothes and light a fire. It just seems to me bad infrastructure combined with too many people having no clue how to cope with a lot of snow or panicking because of it leads to a worse situation than it should be.

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Full-metal-parka t1_j1yxm1f wrote

You’re making a lot of assumptions that are baseless and rather silly.

People pay attention to the weather but this is was an absolute freak storm that some of the people who died in their cars were not old enough to have ever experienced.

Leaving the car is the last thing you’re told to do here because 9/10 it’s better to stay put. Especially in blizzard conditions, in unfamiliar landscape. Could they have found a house? Maybe. Could they also have died getting turned around and lost in 0 visibility? very likely

You’re discounting that many people were traveling home for the holidays or going home from essential jobs (a nurse) rather than just jumping out to the store for a head of lettuce or whatever.

No amount of snow plowing is going to clear roads during an ongoing blizzard with the snow conditions what they were. Not happening here, not happening anywhere. It’s just physics.

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unusedusername3 t1_j1x0pn0 wrote

That will never happen in any American city, because we refuse to raise taxes.

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InOurMomsButts420 t1_j1xvco7 wrote

You should go drive around the east side, then take up shelter in the fruit belt.

I’ll make a deal with ya. We won’t even involve any snow. We can wait til May.

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