Somebody should lose their job over this fiasco

[snarkyman]

Could somebody explain to me why the several towns and the state of MA failed to salt the roads this morning? I traveled through 7 towns on my way to work today, of those, Wincheseter, Lexington, Chelmsford and Westford got it right: the roads were bare and wet -- due to the highway departments salting the roads. However, the roads in Medford, Woburn, Burlington and Rt. 3 were covered in hard packed snow and ice. I'll repeat: Somebody should lose their job over this fiasco. I'm taking suggestions.

Comments

[sapphorlando.livejournal.com]

That happened out here, too, in both Rhode Island and Connecticut. My understanding is that this was a freak winter storm and was not expected. I was up very early and was among the few who got to see it when it hit. It was short but very intense -- a real squall, with very low visibility -- but more importantly, it hit right before dawn. In my opinion, most communities were caught off guard, and even those with a bit more readiness were not able to catch up to it as morning traffic ensued. One of the things about living where you do is that the highway departments are also at the mercy of one of the most brutal urban commutes in the nation.

Another thing you might consider is that readiness costs money. Tax dollars. If you want more readiness, like someone who sits up all night and watches the weather, or a special cadre of elite roadsanders who slide down a pole when they get a redline call from NOAA, that will cost more. I believe that most communities really do try to do their best, but they can only do so much.

Freak storms are part of New England life, just like ice storms, punishing freak heat waves, and hurricanes. It's part of what we accept in living here. To a reasonable extent, the state and our local towns cannot be held responsible for the occasional inconvenience of the weather. Likewise, our meteorologists, though among the finest in the world, are not shamen or prognosticators. They cannot actually see into the future. (And as my old friend Dom pointed out, if you could see the future, it would change it anyway. This is also what Heisenberg told us.) There's only so much that ordinary humans can do.

I know it's aggravating. I've been stuck in those Boston-area traffic jams myself on slick roads. But as the bumpersticker says, "Hate Traffic? YOU are Traffic!" As urban denizens, we create most of our own problems. There is a point beyond which the best weather prediction, the best taxpayer-funded preparedness, and the best ice mitigation plan cannot overcome the often random and freakish nature of New England weather and the sheer force of all those morning commuters. (In fact, we found here that the ice was actually *caused* by the traffic, by the constant packing and freeze-melt of many cars. Less travelled roads did not have ice.) Remember back at 'HUS when we would laugh at those weather reports that called for "unseasonable" weather? Well, this is why we were laughing.