January 25, 2015

Hey, people of the 7 states targeted by Winter Storm Juno...

... how are you doing? Are you laying in provisions? Are you planning to survive the terrible storm?

So... I'm thinking about you, but I'm also thinking about Mayor De Blasio. I see that Twitchy is mocking him for being "in full emergency/panic mode." This is a big test of Mayor De Blasio and it could ruin him. You have to be ignorant of the history of New York City not to realize that.

Here's the Wikipedia entry for the February 1969 nor'easter:
The nor'easter developed on February 9, and as it moved towards the northeast, intensifying to become a powerful storm, it dropped paralyzing snowfall, often exceeding 20 in[ches]
....Thousands of travelers became stranded on roads and in airports. Overall, at least 94 people lost their lives to the storm....

Following the storm, then-mayor John Lindsay was criticized for not dealing with the snow adequately... The storm became known as the "Lindsay Snowstorm," and created a political crisis; as a result, Lindsay lost the Republican primary for the next mayoral election....
That was 20 inches of snow.  We're hearing predictions of 3 feet of snow.

55 comments:

Big Mike said...

They're blue states. Government will provide.

Skipper said...

Just legislate it away.

chickelit said...

Boston already know how to shelter in place. No one should worry about them.

Jim Miller said...

Wait a minute. We're naming winter storms now? And we're already up to J? When did this happen?

Gahrie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gahrie said...

They have been talking about this storm for a week. If you haven't prepared with extra food, candles etc, then you deserve what you are about to get. The only people I feel sorry for are those who have no other options for heat besides electricity or the stove.

MadisonMan said...

I hope the death toll is low. Buy toilet paper.

Mark said...

De Blasio ruined himself when he decided to stand with Al Sharpton instead of the NYPD.

Michael K said...

Global warming is a bitch. It does make you wonder if somebody has been altering the data

Nah. Couldn't be.

Mark said...

They have been talking about this storm for a week.

They haven't been talking about a storm of biblical proportions for a week. Friday morning it was supposed to be a couple of inches here in Westchester county.

Be said...

Twitchy, like Twitter, is just dumb.

Here, in my neck of the woods, where the NWS is predicting between 12" and 48" (the next door neighbor, who's an amateur meterologist says that his best guess is that we'll be getting like 30") we're laying up provisions, and planning out how to help each other shovel out.

Anonymous said...

Twitchy's posting is funny. I'm in Michigan, I'm going to miss it, I hope!

Laslo Spatula said...

High levels of snow on the street slow down criminals on foot. Shootings may or may not increase.

I am Laslo.

MadisonMan said...

Mark, Every meteorologist I know (and I know plenty) has been excited about the possibilities of this storm for a long time.

Iit's foolish to predict doom 4 or 5 days out. Computer simulations aren't that accurate that far out, especially for a storm like this where the heaviest snow band will be maybe 100 miles wide. However, A good forecaster would have been saying all along that this was a storm to monitor closely. Maybe they were, or maybe that was lost in translation. Communication of probabilities is a huge issue in forecasting.

Titus said...

Normally the East Coast are much stronger peeps than the midwest....other than snow.

They are wimps out here!

Thankfully, I am able to walk to Whole Foods. How fab is that? How many of you can say that?

The Miss Universe costumes are outrageous!

Anonymous said...

We need to do more to create more global warming.

Warm weather is good for humans. Cold weather? Not so much.

I say we start drilling more and driving more cars, to speed up this global warming. It is one of the 3% coldest years in the last 10,000 years, after all.

We should at least strive to get back to the mean.

Laslo Spatula said...

Whole Foods Blizzard Sale: Get your Organic Grass-Fed 'D' Cell Batteries Here!"

I am Laslo.

pm317 said...

Government will provide.

Unscheduled telework!

Titus said...

This storm is more important in the media because it is in the Northeast-the media loves the North.....east.

tim in vermont said...

I used to love a heavy snow when I lived in Boston. It took the traffic off the streets, and you could ride the T downtown and walk around with less fear for your life from the Masshole drivers. I learned to drive there, and was a Masshole too. I didn't figure that out until I lived in Denver for about three years. The first year I thought everybody in Co was a wimp. After a couple of years I figured out that I was an asshole, and have calmed down ever since, even when driving in Boston.

Mark said...

MM, I'll take your word for it. Maybe I've just been tuning too much out (too many people hitting the "PANIC" button too often). All I know is that this is taking the people in my circles by surprise.

And FWIW, it won't surprise me if this one turns out to be a bust too. Still, I'll be prepared.

Lava said...

I was at NYU in '78 and positively loved the quiet and way people acted. That was a very different time in NYC. Hopefully similar character will prevail now...even if the naming of a snowstorm bynWeather Channel is absurd.

Meade said...

MadisonMan said...
"I hope the death toll is low. Buy toilet paper."

I just now texted that wisdom to my daughter in NYC. Not the death part; the toilet paper part. I'm such a helicopter dad. Shame on me.

JimT Utah said...

My father-in-law walked across the Hudson river in his day. I walked home from 175th street, Manhattan, to Teaneck, NJ in the big snow of '47. I am confident New York, and New Yorkers, will survive. With any luck, DeBlasio won't.

Be said...

The 20 lb Heater Cats do come in handy round these parts.

pm317 said...

You have a daughter?

mccullough said...

Christie should close the bridge

chickelit said...

They should have called the storm "Janus" or at least "Janice."

Bob Ellison said...

I bought my wife a Subaru XV Crosstrek a year ago. Ha.

Fritz said...

I guess I won' t go to the beach tomorrow like I did today.

paminwi said...

Just checked Yahoo weather because I have 2 kids who live in the city. Yahoo says 1-3 inches tomorrow. That is something to be worried about? Maybe they are just tough becausectheyvarecthe up in Wisconsin.

paminwi said...

Yikes: because they grew up

Tank said...

No golf then?

Another shove south.

Richard Dolan said...

Are you planning to survive the terrible storm, she asks. Why, yes, indeed, those of us in Brooklyn certainly do. Nothing much to prepare. So might as well read althouse.

Heavy snow in NYC is beautiful for 10 minutes or so, and then reverts to the tiresome, misplaced nuisance it always was. In Lake Placid, Stowe and elsewhere nearby (more or less), in contrast, it would be a blessing.

tim in vermont said...

Winter storms show that people really do like adversity, on some level.

Original Mike said...

Juno? We're up to "J" already? Here in the North, we haven't had a single storm yet.

richard mcenroe said...

Hugo de Blasio is telling commuters to stay home but keeping the schools open...?

Bob Boyd said...

Not a good time to try out that stylish new Rick Owens number.

The Godfather said...

I grew up in Connecticut. We got the snow that didn't fall on New York City. Twelve inches, 20 inches, we shoveled out the sidewalk and driveway, got in our cars (regular 2-wheel drive sedans, but with chains) and went about our normal activities. I was gone by the time of the 1973 (?) ice storm, but I know from others that it was pretty bad. Nobody had any electricity for a long time, which meant no heat, which meant, eventually, your water pipes froze. The Governor was off on a skiing trip and didn't come home during the crisis. After that, he opted for a non-elective career.

In Washington, DC, where I spent most of my adult life, every snow storm caught the city government by surprise. The late, great Mayor Marion Barry had a fool-proof snow removal system: It was called Spring. He kept getting elected over and over again I guess by people who thought that was a pretty good system.

I am not a snowbot.

holdfast said...

We're pretty ready for it here in CT - gas tanks are topped off, genny is prepped and lots of easy prep food laid in.

Which means it will likely be a total non-event. We shall see.

RecChief said...

I'll point out that the 1969 storm is described as a generic "nor'easter" and nowadays, some jackass thinks you have to come up with a peppy name for every fucking snow storm

Anonymous said...

Nothing is ever as bad as the media claims it's gonna be.

furious_a said...

This is all happening because DeBlasio killed that groundhog.

Paul Ciotti said...

Some in the media are predicting up to three feet of snow in NYC Monday. The Weather Underground, on the other hand,says a mere eight to twelve inches. I bet the Weather Underground is a lot more accurate.

JSD said...

During the Blizzard of 78, I worked for a beer / liquor distributorship. Massachusetts was shut down for days. During the storm, every store owner trudged down, opened and sold everything. Shelter in place with that bottle of Allen’s Coffee Brandy and scuba tanks Canadian Ace. Afterwards, the package stores were flat out empty. The overtime checks were awesome.

Robert Cook said...

"De Blasio ruined himself when he decided to stand with Al Sharpton instead of the NYPD."

Oh, please. The NYPD warrants much harsher criticism than De Blasio's tepid admonishments, and his advice to his son to be careful when dealing with the police was entirely well taken.

Paco Wové said...

"We're naming winter storms now?"

The media apparently decided this was a needed thing about a year or two ago. It gives them one more thing to hyperventilate and screech about. Because they weren't shallow and hysterical enough already.

Kyzer SoSay said...

Cookie, go work as a beat cop for a day, then get back to us about every opinion you've ever had about police work.

wildswan said...

Looks like a dangerous storm on a narrow path which passes right over New York City. Threatening a lot people. Giving DeBlasio a chance to stand tall - or slip on the ice. I predict that the high winds of the storm will be nothing to the wind afterward about how great DeBlasio was.

heyboom said...

I prepared for this storm by moving to Southern California 30 years ago.

Anonymous said...

There was a big storm in 1978 that dropped about 2 feet of snow on the Northeast in 24 hours. During the big storm of 1978,CT Governor Ella Grasso made sure that she was seen on TV helping to answer phones about the storm. It was said that her very visible stewardship during the storm helped her get reelected in November. Unfortunately, Ella Grasso died of cancer during her second term.

Anonymous said...

Godfather, I had forgotten about CT Governor Meskill being on a ski trip during the 1973 ice storm. There was no electricity for 3-5 days. I recall hanging around the fireplace in 45 degree temperature. Ironically, it wasn't that much colder outside, as ice storms don't occur in 10 degree weather.

CatherineM said...

DiBlasio says this is the worst storm ever? I think we get a doozy every year. Glad Cuomo is closing roads. It's the dummies who think they can drive, get stuck, block roads...They are bad already from the drifting and it's only a few inches.

When we got 26 inches in 1996, Guiliani did a great job. All roads where cleared by the next morning to get to work (for all of us not within walking distance to subway). Gold standard. At least now, we can telecommute!

MrCharlie2 said...

^ MrCharlie endorses this message.

Happily holed up in NJ bear country, hope the all poor New Yorkers live through the night. Defintely not bad up in the hills, but the coast may be a mess by Tuesday

Anonymous said...

Boy am I confused about this story. The Weather Underground says NYC will get a total of three to five inches of snow Monday and one to three inches Tuesday. And that's enough to shut down the city. I was looking at the Times Square weather cam a while ago. Looks like some slush on the street and little else. Cars and people going about. If anyone's life was in danger I couldn't see it.