Ah, the recriminations begin.
Ah, the recriminations begin. There's an emergency communication system to coordinate emergency responses in times of emergency in Erie County. It's called the DLAN. Enjoy. Anyway, it's possible something may not have been working quite right, because there is now back and forth between the various Towns, the major news stations (who are actually pretty awesome about trying to help out as well as cover the news), and the County Executive. You know: Use the system! We did use the system! No you didn't! Yes we did!
And then there's the minimal backpedaling from the Governor on the whole you broke the travel ban thing. Again, there are dozens of miles between places where you would see any of these signs, if you could see them in whiteout conditions, exits were blocked so you couldn't get off the Thruway, there were accidents blocking the Thruway itself, and there's a real question as to when the travel bans and Thruway closures were put in place.
They were not when many people began their travel Monday night. Maybe they were stupid to go out, but if you live in an area like this and stay in every time there's some heavy snow, you might as well never leave. And who was going to pick people up from work or whatever? How were people traveling long distance going to get home? Meh.
I get that some of this is venting the stress and frustration that stuff like this engenders. That's fine, except one of the hard parts about being the person in charge is that you are not supposed to flail and berate at random; you're supposed to be the object of that and still keep your cool and do that leadership thing.
And now at least one of the Town Supervisors is making noise about how nobody is supposed to be parked on the roads after a certain time of year, blah, blah. Well, I don't know that particular town's regulations, but where I live, it's from 1-6 or 7am. So it was perfectly legal for people to be parked on the street at 11pm or 12 am. The fact that they found themselves buried under too much snow to be able to move their car anywhere at that point creates an interesting debate team topic. Yes, you are still technically responsible for moving your car. But it is not possible to do so. Are you always without any possible debate responsible for the cost of towing your car? Is there no extraordinary circumstance in which the general public benefits from bearing the cost of moving your car? If the circumstances preventing the car from being moved without heavy equipment did not occur, you would only have received a ticket and no car towing costs would have been incurred? Let the games begin.
Oh, and unfortunately there are already roofs buckling. Including at Dave's Christmas Tree Shop. Noooo, not the trees!
Best conversations, though, probably go to the can we still have a football game on Sunday?! Seriously? There's still a travel ban in the town where the stadium is and in every surrounding town. Even if there weren't, they can't get the roads clear. Plus, it requires sheriffs or troopers or something and, uh, they're a little busy right now? What gets me is that the Governor was very willing to criticize and threaten the drivers who got stuck on the Thruway, but he was very politic about how while things could change by Sunday, we presently can't commit to having resources available to have a game on Sunday. Insert Auntie face here. Iow, stupid poor individual drivers vs rich and powerful NFL. Completely different approach. I raise my eyebrow at you, sir.
I'd also like to raise my eyebrow at the Town Super who suggested that people were stupid to stay with their cars to avoid the car being towed or ticketed. First of all, I don't see how it makes any difference whether you're in the car or not in re: ticket/tow. Second of all, if they have nowhere to go, what are they supposed to do? What if you can get them out to a hotel but they don't have the money for a hotel? What if they car gets towed and they can't find it to get it back, or can't afford the fees charged by whatever private towing company? Granted, dying in your car is not optimal and if they could get people to shelters that would address most of that (and this is another source of argument because many people were at least contacted by phone by the police or emergency services, but many were not, and they simply could not get many of these people out for a very long time). And no one has mentioned whether they are going to try to impose some county wide monitoring to make sure nobody who got stuck and towed gets ripped off. Meanwhile, the City of Buffalo has already said they will not charge anyone to get their car back.
Man, these disasters are complicated.
#snowboob2014
And then there's the minimal backpedaling from the Governor on the whole you broke the travel ban thing. Again, there are dozens of miles between places where you would see any of these signs, if you could see them in whiteout conditions, exits were blocked so you couldn't get off the Thruway, there were accidents blocking the Thruway itself, and there's a real question as to when the travel bans and Thruway closures were put in place.
They were not when many people began their travel Monday night. Maybe they were stupid to go out, but if you live in an area like this and stay in every time there's some heavy snow, you might as well never leave. And who was going to pick people up from work or whatever? How were people traveling long distance going to get home? Meh.
I get that some of this is venting the stress and frustration that stuff like this engenders. That's fine, except one of the hard parts about being the person in charge is that you are not supposed to flail and berate at random; you're supposed to be the object of that and still keep your cool and do that leadership thing.
And now at least one of the Town Supervisors is making noise about how nobody is supposed to be parked on the roads after a certain time of year, blah, blah. Well, I don't know that particular town's regulations, but where I live, it's from 1-6 or 7am. So it was perfectly legal for people to be parked on the street at 11pm or 12 am. The fact that they found themselves buried under too much snow to be able to move their car anywhere at that point creates an interesting debate team topic. Yes, you are still technically responsible for moving your car. But it is not possible to do so. Are you always without any possible debate responsible for the cost of towing your car? Is there no extraordinary circumstance in which the general public benefits from bearing the cost of moving your car? If the circumstances preventing the car from being moved without heavy equipment did not occur, you would only have received a ticket and no car towing costs would have been incurred? Let the games begin.
Oh, and unfortunately there are already roofs buckling. Including at Dave's Christmas Tree Shop. Noooo, not the trees!
Best conversations, though, probably go to the can we still have a football game on Sunday?! Seriously? There's still a travel ban in the town where the stadium is and in every surrounding town. Even if there weren't, they can't get the roads clear. Plus, it requires sheriffs or troopers or something and, uh, they're a little busy right now? What gets me is that the Governor was very willing to criticize and threaten the drivers who got stuck on the Thruway, but he was very politic about how while things could change by Sunday, we presently can't commit to having resources available to have a game on Sunday. Insert Auntie face here. Iow, stupid poor individual drivers vs rich and powerful NFL. Completely different approach. I raise my eyebrow at you, sir.
I'd also like to raise my eyebrow at the Town Super who suggested that people were stupid to stay with their cars to avoid the car being towed or ticketed. First of all, I don't see how it makes any difference whether you're in the car or not in re: ticket/tow. Second of all, if they have nowhere to go, what are they supposed to do? What if you can get them out to a hotel but they don't have the money for a hotel? What if they car gets towed and they can't find it to get it back, or can't afford the fees charged by whatever private towing company? Granted, dying in your car is not optimal and if they could get people to shelters that would address most of that (and this is another source of argument because many people were at least contacted by phone by the police or emergency services, but many were not, and they simply could not get many of these people out for a very long time). And no one has mentioned whether they are going to try to impose some county wide monitoring to make sure nobody who got stuck and towed gets ripped off. Meanwhile, the City of Buffalo has already said they will not charge anyone to get their car back.
Man, these disasters are complicated.
#snowboob2014
what a bunch of boobs.
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