Published December 20, 2008 | 
It’s one thing for Montana to get blizzards, and quite another when Las Vegas or Seattle get a few inches of snow or a glaze of ice. For the amusement of the winter veteran and the instruction of those who grew up without frozen precipitation, or who have lived in mild climates so long that they have forgotten how to turn into a skid, I offer these links:
How To Walk In the Snow, A PAMPHLET. Link thanks to matociquala. This is hilarious as well as accurate.
Winter Survival Essentials. This one is in no sense a joke. When I lived back east, I referred to my emergency stash as earthquake supplies; out here on the Hayward Fault, I’ve been calling them blizzard supplies. In any case, it’s essential to stock up. Also gives plenty of safety tips.
Winter driving tips from the guys at Car Talk.
What’s your favorite tip for surviving winter?
3 things for the car
1) a cigarette lighter to warm up the key to go into a frozen lock
2) a rug to put under one of the driving wheels to get out of a ditch
3) a AAA card… to scrape off the windshield
I used to teach blind people to travel
in winter
in Boston
on public transportation.
The 3 things do do if you feel off balance
1) lower your center of gravity (bend your legs)
2) widen your base of support (your legs)
3) add another base of support (grab something to hang on to or use as a walking stick.
I remember climbing up and down snowy hillsides with the kids at Perkins School. It was fun.
Seattle
The city is completely paralyzed. You’d think they’d be further up the curve than Houston, but no. Plus: hills. I am beginning to doubt I’ll be able to get to the airport on Tuesday.
Re: Seattle
That’s because they only get snow every ten years or so. People just don’t get used to it.
I am so glad it did not snow again this morning.
When it’s a couple three days a year that we’re snowed in, that’s fine. When it goes on for a week? We just do not have the technology to cope (no, seriously: I don’t think anyone on the block has a snow shovel, which means the sidewalks are just as you’d expect.)
40s. Raining. This we are adapted to. This our roads are built for. Ice? We cannot begin to deal.
Insulated coffee mug.
Cocoa or drinking chocolate.
Butterscotch schnapps.
No kidding. I keep having to explain to people that my commute goes from 50′ in elevation to 200′, then back to 100′, then up to 225′… in a quarter mile. It really doesn’t take a great deal of snow and ice to make that impassable. (And don’t even get me started on the road to the daycare. If it snows while I’m at work, I’m parking at the bottom of the hill and they can send Timothy down on a sled.)
Planning will keep life with no power from sucking. Up here in Canada, it’s considered your civic duty to keep supplies for maintaining your household without power or access to anything outside your home for (iirc) at least 48hrs and preferably 72hrs; longer if you can afford. Most families in Canada have received literature (in multiple languages) to this effect. It is considered inappropriate to waste public resources on your lack of preparation. The government does provide direction about long-term planning for being an independent household.
Ideally, in a crisis (bird flu, power grid failure), some form of aid and organization will be available after 72hrs, but it could be as long as a week. That means every average family in Canada should be able to shut out the world for three full days, and not be adversely affected. Families with disabled, ill, expectant, or medically fragile members have numbers they can contact to make arrangements in case of emergency. Family members should know the non-emergency number of the police nearest elderly members. I like that they discuss this up here. They started it after SARS broke out here.
Stock up on everything you really need BEFORE the Snowpocalypse is ever predicted. We do a fall shopping in which we set up our winter stock. I HATE — I can’t say this enough — trying to shop when people are in a panic. I’m trying to get a loaf of bread and 12 eggs and they’re planning for FallOut IV. It is never a bad idea to have storage for extra pet food, or to know how to feed your pets on common people food like oats and egg.
I also stock up on chocolate, toilet paper, books, batteries, coffee (those instant coffees with the creamer mixed in are far less work than drip coffee), and mix for electrolyte drinks. The idea of being stuck in a storm with kids with the flu is my idea of hell, so I always have those dissolving stomach cures like gravol and immodium, as well as everything i need for an allergy emergency.
Don’t freeze uncooked food in preparation for Snowpocalypse. If you use your BBQ for cooking one thing during the Snowpocalypse, put foil-wrapped potatoes on it; you can stomach cold baked potatoes and they’re good for you. I bake, frost, cut, and freeze a couple sheetcakes every month or so, and replace as needed. Nothing convinces kids that things are fine like a piece of cake after dinner. Also, it’s good for after-school snacks in a non-emergency.
Have a plan for where you will stay when the power is out. Put things like candles and lighters and knitting in this room. Make sure the kids know what to do if the power goes out in the night. You can get a plug-in-all-the-time-recharging nightlight/flashlight. Ours senses when the power has gone out and lights up. It was $10 and lasts 5 hours before running down.
When it looks like things will get very bad, I have never been sorry that I filled a clean (& bleach-wiped) bathtub with potable water. We have bottled water to drink, but the dogs can drink tub water and it can be used to flush the toilet (close the lid!!). I have had people tell me this is silly but I HAVE had to use this water.
Other than that, lots of moisturizer, lots of water, lots of lip balm, hand sanitizer, and a patient mind. I prefer to limit excursions. Why go through all that ice and snow only to plunge into the world of dry air and germs? My Day-Light is the winter survival tool I bought this winter. It was worth every penny of the $200 it cost. Try and get your prescriptions on file for Dec through March; this is helpful to me, and I can always have them delivered for free when I need to.
Final tips for winter: know your neighbors, have one correctly-sized snow shovel per shovel-capable person, read up at least once on how to form igloo blocks, buy one more container of de-icer, have a hand-crank radio and flashlight, own an axe and a hunting knife and a saw (at the very least a wire survival saw) even in the city, print off a first aid manual, and own a sturdy toboggan (or even a sturdy plastic sled) even if you have no children (I have never been sorry we kept the red wagon, either).
Live in California. :)
1. Have a job that allows you to work from home when necessary.
2. If you’re a veteran winter driver, stay off the roads until all the people who don’t know how to drive on ice have had their fun.
3. Wear hand-knitted woolens. In multiple layers.
4. Hot toddies. Repeat as necessary until spring.
Re: Seattle
It’s also that cities like Seattle and Portland (also under heavy snow right now) have no snow *removal* to speak of. At best, they may be able to deploy some trucks full of sand or chemical de-icer. But snow plows? Forget it.
Re: Seattle
Oh yes, I remember it well. Snowy days were a real busy time for us when we lived there. We ran an AAA towing service in the 60′s! One time I got stranded on a hill (couldn’t go up, and was blocked going down) and it took my hubby hours to come get me with the tow truck, ’cause he was so busy getting other folks! I didn’t even OWN chains yet. Got them that year, in fact!
People think that Seattle being so far north would have snow a lot, but they don’t know what that the Japanese Current keeps the weather pretty neutral and wet most of the time, not cold.
Live in California
That works for me!
Don’t tell everyone though. The place is getting crowded
Good tips. They work for all manner of emergency.
Speaking as someone who lives in way south Southern California:
Never drive on the first day of rain.
Never drive if the rain comes more than two weeks after the last rain.
It’s a rare person in Southern California who knows how to drive through water more than 6 inches deep. (Hint: Go slow. Go fast and you’ll only flood your engine.)
BTW, local agencies are now billing people for saving them from roads that were marked as closed because of flooding.