to the poster who thinks it is silly to gas up before a snowstorm

[Anonymous]

I don't know that a full tank of gas would have helped that much . . . it sounds like there were plenty of 12+ hour commutes last night. I just read that washington post article - it says 100 cars were abandoned on GW parkway alone! And not all were from running out of gas. I had no idea so many people would just walk away from their cars!

What happens to all these abandoned cars, anyway? How do you find it the next day? Like how would you even know who to contact?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know that a full tank of gas would have helped that much . . . it sounds like there were plenty of 12+ hour commutes last night. I just read that washington post article - it says 100 cars were abandoned on GW parkway alone! And not all were from running out of gas. I had no idea so many people would just walk away from their cars!

What happens to all these abandoned cars, anyway? How do you find it the next day? Like how would you even know who to contact?

I have been stuck overnight in the winter on a highway shut down due to ice storm. You can make it on a tank of gas, or even less. You run the car only when you need heat.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, run it for 10 minutes or so and heat up the car, then shut it off for an hour or so. Repeat.

But as an answer to your question about abandoned cars, I saw a lot of people shoveling out their own this morning, and the police towed a LOT of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I got out to pee by the side of the road in downtown Bethesda!

I still can't believe I held it in for 8 hours...and I'm over 50! Booyah! Bladder of a 20-year old!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, run it for 10 minutes or so and heat up the car, then shut it off for an hour or so. Repeat.

But as an answer to your question about abandoned cars, I saw a lot of people shoveling out their own this morning, and the police towed a LOT of them.

The other bad thing to happen is if your abandoned car gets "T-boned" by somebody sliding into yours and then they leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I only went to the grocery store once before last year's second massive snowstorm. People were buying milk and bread but also tons of junk food. The produce guy told me that no one buys lettuce or broccoli before a snowstorm.

That's because if your power goes out, you can't cook things like broccoli.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know that a full tank of gas would have helped that much . . . it sounds like there were plenty of 12+ hour commutes last night. I just read that washington post article - it says 100 cars were abandoned on GW parkway alone! And not all were from running out of gas. I had no idea so many people would just walk away from their cars!

What happens to all these abandoned cars, anyway? How do you find it the next day? Like how would you even know who to contact?

Bottom line -- if there's any possibility you will need to drive during or after a snow or ice storm, it's always better to enter the situation with a full tank of gas, than with a fairly empty tank of gas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I only went to the grocery store once before last year's second massive snowstorm. People were buying milk and bread but also tons of junk food. The produce guy told me that no one buys lettuce or broccoli before a snowstorm.

That's because if your power goes out, you can't cook things like broccoli.

Broccolli doesn't need to be cooked. And I lost power, but still could operate my gas stove. We had a lovely candle lit dinner without junk food. Not romanatic, but we made it work.

On a side note, my kids were super pumped to eat ice cream for breakfast. Why not! It was melting fast by that point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It never dawned on me to gas up before a snow storm. It also never dawned on me to sit in my car for 4 hours on a snowy evening . . . I just pulled over and went into a restaurant and had dinner and relaxed until the roads opened up more after about 9pm. By then the worst of the snow was done anyway.

The people stuck on the Beltway or GW Parkway didn't have that option

They had the option to stay at office or go to closest bar/restaurant within walking distance and wait until later. When I worked downtown this is what I did. 99% of those on the road have lived here for awhile and know what happens to traffic when it snows. Most of us learn by experience. Weather predictions are reliable, for the most part, today and this snow happened exactly the way it was predicted. In the winter, you should never let you tank go below 1/2 tank and when snow is predicted you fill the tank.

I do wonder, however, why some people buy so much toiler paper. Anyone know or can hazard a guess? On 9/11, I went to grocery story to buy a couple of things and the woman in front of me had six 12-roll toilet tissue packages. The man behind me said, "I guess she is planning for a massive evacuation!"

[Anonymous]

On a similar note, this is why I always pee before I get on metro.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It never dawned on me to gas up before a snow storm. It also never dawned on me to sit in my car for 4 hours on a snowy evening . . . I just pulled over and went into a restaurant and had dinner and relaxed until the roads opened up more after about 9pm. By then the worst of the snow was done anyway.

The people stuck on the Beltway or GW Parkway didn't have that option

They had the option to stay at office or go to closest bar/restaurant within walking distance and wait until later. When I worked downtown this is what I did. 99% of those on the road have lived here for awhile and know what happens to traffic when it snows. Most of us learn by experience. Weather predictions are reliable, for the most part, today and this snow happened exactly the way it was predicted. In the winter, you should never let you tank go below 1/2 tank and when snow is predicted you fill the tank.

I do wonder, however, why some people buy so much toiler paper. Anyone know or can hazard a guess? On 9/11, I went to grocery story to buy a couple of things and the woman in front of me had six 12-roll toilet tissue packages. The man behind me said, "I guess she is planning for a massive evacuation!"

re your first paragraph - by the time we got on the road and picked up our 8 month old from daycare, it was too late to do anything about it. i suppose we COULD have abandoned the car, or turned around and spent 2 hours driving the 3 blocks back to the parking garage we'd just left and then gone to a hotel or something, but the traffic was honestly worse than i have ever seen it before. i know that people around here get crazy in the snow, but this was crazy on a level i haven't seen before.

re your second paragraph - i have always wondered if people expect to live out snowstorms with nothing but milk, wonderbread and toilet paper. that seems to be what people go get. maybe they think they could burn the TP to toast the bread? i don't know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
They had the option to stay at office or go to closest bar/restaurant within walking distance and wait until later. When I worked downtown this is what I did. 99% of those on the road have lived here for awhile and know what happens to traffic when it snows. Most of us learn by experience. Weather predictions are reliable, for the most part, today and this snow happened exactly the way it was predicted. In the winter, you should never let you tank go below 1/2 tank and when snow is predicted you fill the tank.

I do wonder, however, why some people buy so much toiler paper. Anyone know or can hazard a guess? On 9/11, I went to grocery story to buy a couple of things and the woman in front of me had six 12-roll toilet tissue packages. The man behind me said, "I guess she is planning for a massive evacuation!"

That's hilarious!!! Please DCUMers, I hope you all got the joke.

[Anonymous]

LOL

[Anonymous]

I don't know . . . every time I see people gassing up before a snow storm, I always assume those are the people who need to get out and drive their SUVs around sight-seeing immediately after the snow stops just to prove they can. Suddenly, even though there is 10 inches of snow on the ground, the just MUST drive down the block to get some marshmellows.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
re your second paragraph - i have always wondered if people expect to live out snowstorms with nothing but milk, wonderbread and toilet paper. that seems to be what people go get. maybe they think they could burn the TP to toast the bread? i don't know.

It just really sucks to be stuck at home for four days with no TP.