Icemageddon 2015 — Texas Style
We’re preparing for Icemageddon 2015, our yearly sleet, snow and ice storm that closes down the entire DFW Metroplex with a half an inch of anything. But you have to realize, folks around here can’t drive when it’s dry, if it rains it looks like a demolition derby and a bit of frozen precipitation makes most DFW folks lose their minds.
When I say *lose their minds* I am NOT exaggerating.
The local news was set up at one of the supermarkets and it was a knock-down, drag out madhouse. It’s pretty much a local joke that some folks haven’t caught on to yet but even the news people are in on it now; ‘OK folks, we’re expecting a lite dusting of snow with no accumulation but JUST IN CASE, go and buy as much milk, bread and eggs as you possibly can…’
Some folks listen, some go WAY overboard with it.
There was one woman being interviewed that had $1,400 dollars in the baskets, yes, I did say BASKETS, several of them, and they showed her and some guy loading up the car.
The news people asked her, “Why did you buy so much? Is this your normal buying?”
She said, with a toothless grin, ‘Naw, we jes don’t wanna get caught is some bad storm and then be on the news because we starved to death…’
I didn’t have to make a *store run*, we try to stay pretty well supplied all the time, it’s a thing my wife and I both picked up from our parents; it’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. That applies to more than food too. 
So, I stroll to the pantry and do an inventory and declare *WE WILL SURVIVE*, currently we have…
Batteries
Milk
Bread
Eggs
Bottled Water
M&M’s
Spicy Pork Skins
Beef Jerky
Coke Zero
I am ready for Icemageddon 2015.
I don’t drink much, it’s a rare occasion when I DO take a drink but there are a few beers in the box and a special bottle of Crown Royal that has never been opened, we have had it for well over 20 years.
I know it doesn’t age once it’s in the bottle but I got to thinking, one of my wife’s drivers gave her that bottle as a Christmas gift at least 25 years ago. It’s for an emergency only, because if I open it, I will need emergency medical help after Becky beats me with a skillet. LMAO
Here’s the serious part; Schools are closed in my area, Garland, Mesquite and Rockwall School Districts are closed, the bridge over the lake on Hwy 66 here in Rowlett is reported as icy, a few other spots around town, and the area are icing and according to the weather people it is going to get very icy in the morning.
Here’s the latest from DOTD in North East Louisiana:
Due to winter weather conditions, DOTD announces that Interstate 49 in Caddo Parish, between La. 1 in north Shreveport to the Arkansas state line, is closed immediately to traffic. Traffic will be detoured to U.S. 71.
This is from our City Government in Rowlett:
Attention Rowlett Citizens: The City of Rowlett will be delayed in opening until 10am. We will revisit early tomorrow morning if additional delays are needed. Emergency Services personnel and Public Works Staff will be working throughout the night. The city has opened the Emergency Operations Center to help monitor conditions throughout Rowlett. I will provide additional updates as available.
Please make sure your phones are charged in case you lose power. Please do not go out unless absolutely necessary.
Let me tell you something folks; there may be better places to live than Rowlett but I don’t know where they are.
We have the greatest people and the best City Officials you could ever ask for, and the folks here all stick together to help each other in times of need, so, bring it on, we will get through whatever nature throws our way, and we’ll be pulling together to make it happen!
Back in 1978 I took a job with Phillip in Borger, Texas and lived at the “Y”. The first Monday, Jan 7? I looked out the window an saw almost a quarter of an inch of snow and watched cars car traveling sidewise down the street. I had to play dodge car on the 6 block to work.
I know what you mean old buddy…it’s damn COLD down here too. Last I looked it was a chilly 72 degress….Burrrrr!
Well, Fred, I’m sure that your survival training will come in handy this time around, right?
Open note to those who think Fred is exaggerating when he said the people in the DFW area can’t drive on dry pavement:
I used to drive truck. On a trip up I-35 one summer afternoon (about 1500 hours) I was in the #2 lane, pacing the traffic. A lady came on the freeway, paced with me off my right front fender for about 1/4 mile, then slammed into my right front tire. Called the police, claimed she hit a slick spot, and that I had run over her.
The Highway Patrol officer who was running in the same lane as her, about 10 yards behind me, gently restrained her while contradicting her story, and corroborating mine. I still got written up by my company because she called them and shrieked at them for a while, in spite of the Highway Patrol report that showed I was not at fault, and did nothing wrong. I didn’t drive for them much longer after that.
Even here in Florida, the Weather channel cannot fail to try and scare you know what out of us.
Note the warning was that the temp may go down to 36! Sure not like what is happening at the Bunker.
Precautionary/preparedness actions…
“Impacts… limit time outdoors early this morning and dress in
warm layers of clothing to protect yourself from the cold. Keep
pets indoors.
Fred,
I got a big kick out of reading the above and responses.
As you know I live in snow country, Up State N.Y. We get a couple of feet of snow and it’s cleared before you know it. The kids all moan because they don’t get snow days unless there is a blizzard or 20 below zero wind chill. It has been below zero a lot this month (new record lows), with a lot of snow to boot and everything is running normally. Of coarse we have the equipment to handle it! A couple of times we had to send equipment down to N.Y.City to help them out with a (snicker) foot of snow!
Last week was Winter fest in downtown Syracuse. The weather was in the teens and people were lining up for the chili cook off, chowder cook off and a lot of other fun winter activities. Ice skating, snow castles, food booths and pub crawls.
However we may not win the “Golden Snow Ball Award” this year. We usually win for the most snow but this year it looks like Buffalo or Boston might beat us out.
Oh well it’s sunny and up to 10 degrees right now. Summer is on the way
DFW driving is based on one factor. Speed. The folks who do 80 on bright sunny days tend to only slow down to 70 on icy days. It’s not the cowboys. they tend to know how to drive. It is the soccer moms and sales rep types. Always fun to watch the evening news in Dallas and see the news tapes of people ice dancing in cars and 18 wheelers on the freeways.
To folks that don’t know, snow is relatively easy to drive on compared to ice. I lived in Colorado for a few winters and 20″ of snow was nothing compared to 1/100″ of ice. One winter weekend in Denver we had a light rain that froze over that night. Later there was about 5″ of snow on top, but “black” ice underneath. Denver traffic almost halted because of all the wrecks. Folks were just not accustomed to driving on ice there in Denver. They thought it was no big deal because ice was so thin compared to snowfalls. They also have fleets of snow plows we don’t have.
Now I live in Garland Texas, adjacent to Fred’s Rowlett. There seems to be about a 30 mile wide strip running from Abilene Texas to Shreveport La. that gets ice storms. Pretty much follows I20. It has been that way for 60+ years I know of.Often there is snow to the north of that strip and even to the south. But, in that approx. 30 mile wide strip to include the Dallas/Ft Worth area we get ice. Horrible, terrible., tree crashing, power failing, street sliding, fall inducing ice. People in the Northern part of the country laugh at us Texans trying to cope with ice storms, but then when Northern areas get ice we sit back and chuckle.
Fred, ice is ice and snow is snow. Grew up in the NE and hunted deer in upstate New York and Pennsylvania. I think back and wonder why I sat in a tree stand in freezing rain and snow for the thrill of the hunt. What was a thrill was driving to and from the places I chose to hunt. I preferred snow to ice and back then, as now, there are people who will not slow down or stay off icy roads. Stay indoors my friend and watch again(on TV of course) all the so important they can’t stay home people defy nature and try to drive on that crap until the roads are clear. I miss the hunting but not the cold.
Ice is ice only to the point of cold the ice is… Texas ice is slick because it’s WET ice, but I have driven in North Dakota and Minnesota when it was -20 to -45 or so and the difference is night and day.. When it gets that cold it becomes DRY ice and the traction is better than concrete…
Bunch a damned Yankees try to tell us they’re better drivers but a few of us know why they drive on ice up there…
And if Yankees are such good drivers why are there so many Southern rednecks in NASCAR?? 😛
You have a point there Fred, but Joey Logano is from Connecticut.
Joey is one of a very few… Damn I like that kid.. He’s a good driver, good personality and he doesn’t take anything off of other drivers…
And to be very specific, Connecticut isn’t Yankee land, it’s New England… 😛
So … Twain had it wrong? That Connecticut dude in King Arthur’s Court was not, in fact, a Yankee?
All I know is that I once made a tacky comment about Yankees whilst in Connecticut and I was told, in words just short of violence, WE’RE NOT YANKEES.. We’re New Englanders…
What do I know? Hell, I went back to Texas…
Maybe I know MORE than Mark Twain…
Today, New England is defined as made up of the six states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. New England States