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?
I am a transplanted Yankee living on the Mississippi gulf coast. One big problem that I talk about every winter is 4wheel drive does not mean 4wheel stop. Many of us, in the south have 4wheel drive vehicles set up for “muddin”. Everytime we get some snow or ice I see people in 4wheel drive vehicles going down th road at high speed.I’m sorry, but 4wheel drive will not help when you are sliding sideways. The only thing that works with any vehicle is SLOW DOWN!!
I agree with you pappa bear! We see that same thing up here with 4WD, people think they can just cruise along and 4WD will keep them out of the ditch – NOT!
To my mind the biggest danger is other people on the road. Some idiot goes too fast, etc. and you are the one who gets hit and pays the price…
My pet peeve! My son was stuck on the interstate for several hours the other night because a trailer truck was going too fast on an obviously snow-covered road and rolled on a straightaway. Nearly all of the accidents on bad roads are because someone thinks their vehicle size, snow tires, or 4WD will protect them no matter how fast they go. Please — Slow down. You might walk away from an accident, but what about the people you hit?
I recall one time years ago I had my first 4WD, a Jeep CJ5,and I took my Dad to see a friend the day after a snowstorm in Massachusetts. His friend lived on a farm out in the hills in the northwest part of the state. Having the Jeep I took the back road rather than go the long way around on the state road. Sure enough we met a farm truck coming the opposite direction on the one lane dirt road. I just pulled over into the snowbank, let him go by, and then pulled out onto the road with no problem. I proudly said to my Dad “See, if we had taken your car we would have had a problem.” Dad replied “No, If we had taken my car we would not be on this road.” AH THe Wisdom of age and experience.