Problems with snow in NZ

Usually I would turn to Lane with a question like this, but he is busy dodging pyroclastic flows and red tape in Indonesia. What happens in places like Truckee when you get big snow storms?

Over the past few days NZ has been hit by a couple of storms, depositing less than 1m of snow over lots of the country. On the main state highway in the North Island, there has been ~20cm of snow, but the road has been shut for a couple of days now.

Some towns in the South Island have been without power for 12 days and many farm's livestock are really suffering.

I am not resenting the snow one little bit as I am dying to get on my skis (although I have a slipped disc and can't use my left leg at the moment), and I am not knocking NZ's ability to deal with the storms, but does this happen in the US? As in roads closed, power down, with to me what seems such a small amount of snow?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Karrot

Over the past few days NZ has been hit by a couple of storms, depositing less than 1m of snow over lots of the country.

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http://turbomirage.phpwebhosting.com...omer_drool.gif

sorry... what was the question?

Some guy said this on a music forum about NZ:

"The population of New Zealand is about 4 million.
1.4 million are retired, that leaves 2.6 million to do the work.
There are 0.5 million in school, which leaves 2.1 million to do the work.
Of this there are 1.2 million directly employed by the government, leaving 0.9 million to do the work.
0.25 million are in the combined armed forces, preoccupied with cleaning their rifles, which leaves 0.5 million to do the work.
Take from that total the 0.35 million people who work for Provincial and city Governments, and that leaves 0.3 million to do the work.

At any given time, there are 76,000 people in hospitals, 186,234 on welfare leaving 37,766 to do the work.
Now, there are 11,998 people in prisons or awaiting sentence and 25,768 on ACC.
That leaves just two people to do the work.
You and me."

Portland, OR a metro area (one city) of 1 millionish, was shut down for 3-4 days because of snow/ice. When I lived in Washington, DC a major metro area the joke was - how do you shut down the US government? Get a GS to yell 'snowflake'! Yes, it does happens.

Weren't you fucking paying attention to how much we failed with some water and high wind?

Thanks Stomp :fuckyou:
Usually questions are followed by things called question marks. They look like this ?

So find the string of words that end with ? after them, and you shall have my questions.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Karrot

Thanks Stomp :fuckyou:
Usually questions are followed by things called question marks. They look like this ?

So find the string of words that end with ? after them, and you shall have my questions.

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Drink some Speights and it'll all be fine. Calm the antipodal insecurities.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by skier666

Some guy said this on a music forum about NZ:

"The population of New Zealand is about 4 million.
1.4 million are retired, that leaves 2.6 million to do the work.
There are 0.5 million in school, which leaves 2.1 million to do the work.
Of this there are 1.2 million directly employed by the government, leaving 0.9 million to do the work.
0.25 million are in the combined armed forces, preoccupied with cleaning their rifles, which leaves 0.5 million to do the work.
Take from that total the 0.35 million people who work for Provincial and city Governments, and that leaves 0.3 million to do the work.

At any given time, there are 76,000 people in hospitals, 186,234 on welfare leaving 37,766 to do the work.
Now, there are 11,998 people in prisons or awaiting sentence and 25,768 on ACC.
That leaves just two people to do the work.
You and me."

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Geze, no wonder why things are crippled down there from some snow

in anchorage our airport has never been closed by snow, just volcanos, earthquakes, and 100 mph winds, but never snow. I go to seattle however and it'll rain and they slow down to 25 on the highway cause the damn bidge over the ship canal, theres no few lanes no curves just a fucking bridge. So yes the U.S. sucks at dealing with anything, except alaska which a a snow removal industry

I just have an image of these massive (over 1m) snow dumps I have heard of, and it sounds like everything keeps working. I was only wanting to know if you had the same problems.

Thanks for answering my question cj and akpm

Because we have lots of these:









http://tetongravity.com/forums/attac...8&d=1151054514



and Wow, Chill out Karrot. I think you need to see the image in Stomp's message to understand the post.

Anyway, places like the sierras get huge dumps like this all the time, and we are well practiced at dealing with it. everybody owns a snowblower, we're used to driving in it, and there's dozens of plows stationed nearby.

Places like texas, on the other hand, are completely useless at dealing. They're brought to their knees at a cm of hail. all they can do is sit around and wait for it to melt.

I know what you're saying. Christchurch is in view of snowy mounatins all winter long, but only 5 cm of snow downtown last september and every government office was closed!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Karrot

Thanks Stomp :fuckyou:
Usually questions are followed by things called question marks. They look like this ?

So find the string of words that end with ? after them, and you shall have my questions.

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here's my question.

shall i fetch a fucking blackboard retardo montalban?

quit flapping your overly sensitive meat curtains and relax already...

JONG

(ok ok FELLOW jong)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Karrot

I just have an image of these massive (over 1m) snow dumps I have heard of, and it sounds like everything keeps working. I was only wanting to know if you had the same problems.

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'working' is a relative term for the Sierras..For the massive storms the highways do close (for periods up to a day) and traffic definitely slows and things do take time to dig out. They do work better, but as Geoff said, they get tons of snow... as in 20m annually. Houses have exits 3m off the ground for big snows.

Shouldn't you be celebrating the roos draw, or are you trying to blend in :tongue:

Apologies!! Sorry Stomp :redface: I took Homer to be asleep snoring. Is he drooling over the snow?

I'm so used to reading people giving shit to each other for no reason on this forum that I was overly sensitive. I should just read and not post.

I'm now on my third glass of wine and lots of codine, so chilling out. I've heard if you drink and have codine you end up a drooling mess on the floor. That's what I want to become, just so I am not in pain for a while.

Bring on the snow!

P.S. Go the roos!!! He he...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by skier666

Some guy said this on a music forum about NZ:

"The population of New Zealand is about 4 million.
1.4 million are retired, that leaves 2.6 million to do the work.
There are 0.5 million in school, which leaves 2.1 million to do the work.
Of this there are 1.2 million directly employed by the government, leaving 0.9 million to do the work.
0.25 million are in the combined armed forces, preoccupied with cleaning their rifles, which leaves 0.5 million to do the work.
Take from that total the 0.35 million people who work for Provincial and city Governments, and that leaves 0.3 million to do the work.

At any given time, there are 76,000 people in hospitals, 186,234 on welfare leaving 37,766 to do the work.
Now, there are 11,998 people in prisons or awaiting sentence and 25,768 on ACC.
That leaves just two people to do the work.
You and me."

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You forgot the punchline. "And look at you - wasting your time on the internet."

http://static.flickr.com/41/74301592_580e789a00_b.jpg

We use one of these to keep the road to work open, no matter how bad the snowfall. The sierras usually aren't affected too bad. The will usually only shut down the California portions of the roads because CALTrans are a bunch of ninny lawsuit-fearing pussies. I've driven through 3 ft drifts on I-80 in Nevada before and they still didn't close that shit!

Let's not forget this past New Year's Eve, when a massive rockslide shut down I-80 over the Sierras for days.

But yeah, generally, places that get more snow know how to deal with it better and have the gear to do so.

Down here in the Bay Area, it doesn't rain from roughly May through November. When the first rain of the season hits, it's like people forgot how to drive when it's wet. It's unbelievable.