DC Area Snowstorm: This is what you get when you cut budgets. You cut services.

[Captain Hilts]

A lot of people aren't even getting mail.

Montgomery County has some of the highest taxes in the country and major areas have not seen plows. Mass Ave., Wisconsin Ave./Rockville Pike, etc. Neighborhoods have not been touched.

[vadawg]

1. less to do with budgets and more to do with lack of equipment i think

this is unprecedented...

[Veruca Salt]

2. And the wrong kind of equipment...

When I saw a picture of the plows they use on main roads down there it was obvious they were not for the amounts of snow they are currently getting. They need to borrow some of our plows.

[vadawg]

3. yup you cant really budget for this kind of winter, or you would ge broke every year..

[leftofcool]

9. And not enough plows to go around

[Captain Hilts]

29. I've lived here since '96 and this is the 4th time it's happened. nt

[Captain Hilts]

15. With Metro, it's purely about money and lack of dedicated funds. nt

[Captain Hilts]

4. Yes, economies of scale are an issue in DC, but where's the MD National Guard?

[cdsilv]

5. Iraq? Afghanistan? Pakistan? - deployed elsewhere? n/t

[leftofcool]

8. I don't think there has been a state of emergency declared

No need for guard at this time. Not yet anyway

[Perky]

10. DC Guard was mobilized.

[leftofcool]

12. No mobilization for us here in AA County

We aren't important though, Nation's Capital is.

[Captain Hilts]

14. They were in Virginia also. nt

[hlthe2b]

13. Last time we had NG in one of these monster storms in CO

We had more hummers stuck in snow banks, than you could imagine... So, I would argue the extra NG personnel might be better utilized under the auspices of local response efforts.

[Zywiec]

6. Can you believe they cut the budget and it's going to snow again

later today and maybe next week?

:eyes:

[leftofcool]

7. No budget cuts in our area (AA County)

It is lack of equipment and man power. They can't get to it quick enough.

[ParkieDem]

11. This is terrible

I never understood how these areas with such high taxes can have such crappy services.

[vadawg]

21. because its a freak storm and couple of storms, jeez its not like this is the norm or something

its like your house suddenly falling down do you have the funds saved up to rebuild, why not, because its not likely to happen...

[Rebubula]

16. Unrec

This is a silly post. There is no way that any locale (live in Colesville area - 38+ inches) in this area has the money for this kind of once in a 100 year storm.

I agree that when you cut budgets, you have to cut services and sometimes this sucks. However, this is not the case in this area. This is an issue of getting your ass kicked by Mother Nature.

[Captain Hilts]

17. Metro should be able to run. nt

[LynneSin]

20. You need people to run the metro and many of them may not be able to get to work

This is not a typical winter for the region.

[Rebubula]

26. Yeah...

...well.. Metro is another topic all together.

They have had more than 12 fatalities in the last 12 months as well as many other, lesser issues.

[Captain Hilts]

28. It's all tied in. I know THE guy that WMATA called in Jan '96 about the impending two feet of snow

and he said "run the trains on surface rails all night." They didn't. Metro was useless and the head of DC Metro went on to become head of NYC transit as a reward for his incompetence!

[Rebubula]

31. Again...

...I agree that Metro is incompetent.

However, the roads and other services are down due to 3 feet of snow on top of 8 inches that will be covered by another 10-20 tonight.

[Captain Hilts]

33. Yes, but it's not as rare an occurrence as folks think. nt

[leftofcool]

19. And she is still kicking, eh?

You guys got 38+? We got about 32-33

[Rebubula]

22. Yup..

...and another 10-20....

I Freaking LOVE Snow....but even I am getting weary of this deluge...

Shoveled drive way so many times...but on the plus side, stuck with Mrs. Rebubula and the kid, plenty of bourbon and snacks.

[leftofcool]

25. Bourbon, beer and snacks here too

[Tesha]

23. Get used to these "once in a hundred years" events.

They'll be more and more common as time goes by and
the amount of energy available to drive weather systems
keeps increasing.

Maybe we need some inter-region "mutual aid" agreements?

Or just more-realistic budgeting???

Tesha

[Sparkly]

24. I agree...

We've thought about investing in a snow-blower, but realistically, the cost doesn't make sense if we used it just a couple of times a year. Of course, during those few times I sure wish we had one, but we need a new roof, a new clutch, our hugely expensive health insurance costs, etc.

Same with our services here.

Further, I don't believe the local road crews are lounging around or won't get everywhere they possibly can. Lots of local side streets are narrow and have parking on both sides -- if a plow goes through there, where can it put all the snow?! It's so deep, it piles up enormously as they plow just a few feet and it has to be pushed someplace...

So I agree -- Mother Nature went crazy on us this year! :hi:

[Captain Hilts]

30. I generally agree with you. But this is the 4th two footer we've had since '96.

Huge numbers of folks that really, really need to get to work (government, obviously) cannot.

DC area needs better contingency plans.

[Captain Hilts]

35. We've had two ft. snows, on average, every three years here. At least since '96.

Wisconsin and Mass Avenues have NOT been plowed. It's crazy around NIH and Bethesda Naval Hospital.

[LynneSin]

18. But to be fair - this is NOT a typical winter for the MId-Atlantic region

In the last 16 years we've had 2 bad winters that I can recall. Only reason I used 16 years is because my niece just had her 16th birthday and she was born during a bad blizzard in 1994 (They had to have a snow plower take my step-brother and his wife to the local hospital which was only 3 miles away). The last time we had bad blizzards was when I was still a contractor at my job which was 2001.

If we spent money like we're gonna have 20 inch blizzards every couple of weeks we'd be spending like fools. Because next winter we'll probably be back to the same blah winters that are typical for this region.

[Captain Hilts]

27. Well, we had 30 inches in a week in '96. Again in 2003. Again in Dec. 09. Feb. 10....nt

[LynneSin]

32. Now if we had that EVERY year then it makes sense

but in those 16 years there was 13 winters that barely had a blip on the radar.

[Captain Hilts]

34. I understand that, I lived in Toronto for 4 years and Moscow for one, but this

isn't as rare an occurrence as folks are saying. They need better contingency plans for when it does happen. Reciprocal agreements with other areas, etc.

In Toronto they have a snow SWAT team.