I95 Richmond to the Beltway people suck in cars for 17 plus hours

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one can walk between the cars with water bottles and granola bars...maybe some diapers?

So the affected area was 50 miles long. Who do you expect to walk 50 miles carrying boxes of water, granola bars and diapers? All available DOT crew were either working on snow removal on accessible roads, or helping with the traffic issues with the 18 wheelers that had crashed due to ice and snow or helping direct traffic or a million other things going on. Additionally, the highway was so jammed that emergency crew trying to get to the crashes were having problems accessing the accidents. How do you expect those walkers to actually get to the vehicles. Do you want to be assigned to walk for 50 miles carrying cases of emergency rations and trying to deliver it them to thousands of standed vehicles?

That's about as realistic as the person who suggested an emergency helicopter rescue for Senator Kaine. I guess as long as your car isn't the one having a helicopter land on it, you're okay, right?

Some of you people have absolutely no concept of logistics when you make these suggestions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My guess? People were still traveling after the holidays

Senator Tim Kaine is one of the people stranded overnight on 95.

WTOP just had him on.

He's out now apparently. Said his section finally started moving around 1:00pm.

This is incorrect. According to his Twitter feed, he's been stuck for 27 hrs.

[Anonymous]

I don’t understand why so many people were on the road. Everyone could see in the MORNING that the snow was way worse than expected.

I have 3 kids. I cannot imagine being stuck in a car overnight with no food.

So many people must have run out of gas. What a freakin nightmare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My guess? People were still traveling after the holidays

Senator Tim Kaine is one of the people stranded overnight on 95.

WTOP just had him on.

He's out now apparently. Said his section finally started moving around 1:00pm.

This is incorrect. According to his Twitter feed, he's been stuck for 27 hrs.

Only the best and brightest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, more people should have listened to the weather forecast and stayed off the road. Pre-treatment applications aren't designed to accommodate near regular traffic flows through a winter storm. It was snowing too heavily and there were too many cars/trucks on the road. It only took a few tractor trailer spinouts for chaos to ensue.

This. Plus, this was a mess all the way into DC - people couldn't make it up the incline of the exit to 210 (I think?) near DC. Then it's just a chain reaction, plows can't get through and everyone is stuck.

+1
There were just too many people on the road, and it was clear early on that the snow was heavy. It only takes one or two accidents and there's not much anyone can do to resolve it quickly. I honestly don't know why so many people were out -- the schools were all closed, the federal government was closed, I'm sure many other offices who follow the feds were closed, too -- what were all those people doing? Everyone knows that Virginia isn't used to handling that kind of snowstorm because it's not common.

No dear, “everyone” doesn’t know this.

Some of us are smart enough to understand that as the climate changes and the planet gets hotter and hotter, that snowstorms like this will be more and more common because of all the added moisture in the atmosphere.

And Virginia just elected a guy who has promised policies that will make the planet even hotter.

So I hope you like snowstorms like this. There will be a lot more in the future.

Right. Our little corner of the planet called VA is now being called upon to save the world. Drama, much? (And I love snowstorms, BTW)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one can walk between the cars with water bottles and granola bars...maybe some diapers?

So the affected area was 50 miles long. Who do you expect to walk 50 miles carrying boxes of water, granola bars and diapers? All available DOT crew were either working on snow removal on accessible roads, or helping with the traffic issues with the 18 wheelers that had crashed due to ice and snow or helping direct traffic or a million other things going on. Additionally, the highway was so jammed that emergency crew trying to get to the crashes were having problems accessing the accidents. How do you expect those walkers to actually get to the vehicles. Do you want to be assigned to walk for 50 miles carrying cases of emergency rations and trying to deliver it them to thousands of standed vehicles?

That's about as realistic as the person who suggested an emergency helicopter rescue for Senator Kaine. I guess as long as your car isn't the one having a helicopter land on it, you're okay, right?

Some of you people have absolutely no concept of logistics when you make these suggestions.

Yeah the National Guard, Fema, the Red Cross...they know how to do things like that. It is not like 1 guy goes out with a box on his shoulder.

[Anonymous]

I’m surprised we haven’t seen tweets from Jose Andres describing the meals his team is delivering to the stranded motorists and plow drivers. He certainly seems to find a way to overcome logistical challenges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why so many people were on the road. Everyone could see in the MORNING that the snow was way worse than expected.

I have 3 kids. I cannot imagine being stuck in a car overnight with no food.

So many people must have run out of gas. What a freakin nightmare.

Indeed. We had neighbors stuck on 270 during the last big snowstorm years ago - they had just moved to the region from a snowy Scandinavian country, didn't know how we dealt with snow, and for them the forecast was not ominous in any way. They ended up stuck in their car with kids overnight Anyone who has been here for a longer period of time should know that they can get stuck anytime there's snow...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why they didn't pre-treat 95/495.

I get that no one believed the snow would stick due to the warm temps, especially so much of it. But I drove on it Sunday night around 8pm, and there was no pre treatment on the highway whatsoever. Nada.

VDOT has stated that they couldn’t pre-treat the roads because this storm started as rain and everything would’ve washed away.

But they could have had plows/salt trucks all night long like they do in the north.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m surprised we haven’t seen tweets from Jose Andres describing the meals his team is delivering to the stranded motorists and plow drivers. He certainly seems to find a way to overcome logistical challenges.

YES! World Central Kitchen gets it done!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m surprised we haven’t seen tweets from Jose Andres describing the meals his team is delivering to the stranded motorists and plow drivers. He certainly seems to find a way to overcome logistical challenges.

Ha. What they need are porta-potties.

[Anonymous]

Once it turned from rain to snow, VDOT should have been out. We have salt domes for this very purpose along the parkway and the highways in Virginia, as well as snowplows. It's not like we never get snow here so it's time to stop acting like it's dumb to expect better response to snow events.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, more people should have listened to the weather forecast and stayed off the road. Pre-treatment applications aren't designed to accommodate near regular traffic flows through a winter storm. It was snowing too heavily and there were too many cars/trucks on the road. It only took a few tractor trailer spinouts for chaos to ensue.

This. Plus, this was a mess all the way into DC - people couldn't make it up the incline of the exit to 210 (I think?) near DC. Then it's just a chain reaction, plows can't get through and everyone is stuck.

+1
There were just too many people on the road, and it was clear early on that the snow was heavy. It only takes one or two accidents and there's not much anyone can do to resolve it quickly. I honestly don't know why so many people were out -- the schools were all closed, the federal government was closed, I'm sure many other offices who follow the feds were closed, too -- what were all those people doing? Everyone knows that Virginia isn't used to handling that kind of snowstorm because it's not common.

No dear, “everyone” doesn’t know this.

Some of us are smart enough to understand that as the climate changes and the planet gets hotter and hotter, that snowstorms like this will be more and more common because of all the added moisture in the atmosphere.

And Virginia just elected a guy who has promised policies that will make the planet even hotter.

So I hope you like snowstorms like this. There will be a lot more in the future.

I believe global warming has already made them less rare. What were snowstorms in the past are now rainstorms.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/03/04/washington-dc-normal-average-snowfall/

Global warming will make heavy snowfalls MORE common in the future, not less so. Do you even understand what climate change even means?

[Anonymous]

Tim Kaine finally made it to DC! Whew.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m surprised we haven’t seen tweets from Jose Andres describing the meals his team is delivering to the stranded motorists and plow drivers. He certainly seems to find a way to overcome logistical challenges.

Ha. What they need are porta-potties.

Gotta feeling there were lots of yellow snow piles at the side of the road.