Question was from the Coastal South,
“…How we live up here and drive in this stuff without chains!”
Here are a few suggestions and comments, please no one take offense. I’m sending them back to read all of them! And add a few themselves…
Kathy – I’ve been using a Mr. Heater Big Buddy in the living room for the last couple of years and it works pretty good.
Ecomum – Although I have central heating, run on mains gas, it’s very expensive here in the UK and I only run it for an hour in the morning, another in the afternoon, and then light my wood stove in the evening. During the day, I mostly keep warm by moving about doing chores. If I sit for long, doing craft work or sitting at the computer, I fill a hot water bottle to rest my feet on, wrap up in plenty of clothes, and, what I find makes a big difference, is to wear fingerless gloves. With warm hands and feet, I don’t notice the cold so much.
SingleMom – No article needed. No slurs intended, but it takes experience, and you learn slowly over time. The best thing for Southerners with bad roads is to just stay off them and leave the roads for emergency vehicles. If you have to go out, drive slow, steer into a skid, and don’t over-compensate. Pack an emergency bag and assume that you WILL wind up in a ditch at some point
GrammaMary – Thoughts and prayers to southern friends and the ice headed your way.
WE2 – Agreed…stay home if you don’t have to get out! But…the road crews of a city/county play a huge part. If a state is used to this type of weather, they have the machinery and the salt/sand mix to make things alot easier a lot quicker. Some of these southern state’s have NO road crews..been there in one once and watched the whole town “freeze”. Even the maids in the hotel where we were at stayed at work.
Wyzyrd – I must agree – I was totally shocked after moving to VA from Upstate NY – there was just not enough experience driving on snow to even start ‘getting good at it’. Charlottesville VA used to totally shut down on days when it snowed about as much as it did on days when it didn’t really snow in Ithaca, NY.
The Washington DC suburbs are the worst – absolutely deadly. Because of the huge Federal gov’t and diplomatic presence, every winter, there is a whole brand new batch of folks who have never even SEEN snow before, much less driven in it. Stay home and stay warm, friends.
Grammyprepper – I grew up in northern OH, in the “Snowbelt”. We learned to drive in the snow from the get go. I echo the wisdom to just hunker down and stay home if you have no experience driving in such conditions. Heck, I don’t go out if I don’t have to! As far as this particular ‘storm’, there was plenty of notice, so there is no excuse for not stocking up ahead of time!
GrammaMary – I agree with the advice to stay off the roads south. If you have to go out, other than driving slowly keep great distance from all other cars. The more the better. I just smile and say hey I am old and wise. BUT if you live next door to a very big totally empty parking lot. I mean totally empty you could do what we do to teach the teens to see how the car behave in slippery conditions. Its called doing doughnuts. Drive a bit in the middle of the lot and then go hard on the breaks. You will do doughnuts. Anyone else learn that way?