>

Here in Italy doctors were getting PTSD because, due to the limits of hospital beds and materials, they had to decide who was going to live and who was going to die.  Most hospitals had a shortage of masks because people were stealing them. Had a friend up north in the Milan area (where Covid initially started here) that was literally losing at least one person she knew every week for several months. It was really bad here.
As a truck driver currently in St. Louis, MO and looking to head home to Rochester, NY for Christmas, I have a feeling I am gonna be fucked >

Are you able to head out now?? Either way drive carefully >

My 34hr reset is at midnight CST. I will be about 6hrs ahead of the storm while heading to Ohio to pick up a load that is going to Newark, NJ. I’ll have to stop somewhere in Pennsylvania for my 10hr break and will probably get hit by it while there. Hoping it won’t be too bad for snow. High winds and extremely low temps could be an issue
Edit: Thanks for the gold whoever sent it lol. First time getting one! 
But as for an update, I stopped in Columbus, Ohio to pickup my load and it has been delayed until this evening so my dispatch told me to just deadhead home. I ran my clock out to 20 mins left and made it to the OH/PA border on I-90. 
I checked the weather and the storm isn’t supposed to hit until 1am where I am currently shutdown. I am staying ahead of the storm by the skin of my teeth. I am able to drive again by 11pm so fingers crossed I’ll make it home just in time to shutdown before the storm hits. 
Thank you everyone for the well wishes and info on conditions. 
And I thank my lucky stars too for an awesome dispatcher who always has my back.
Edit2: 2:21am EST - I made it home safe and sound. Roads were a bit dicey with some gusting winds and heavy rain and fog closer to Rochester on I-90. I made it just in time as there were signs warning that I-90 was closing to empty commercial vehicles (which I was) by 4am this morning and to all commercial vehicles by 6am. 
Thank you again everyone for the well wishes and for the awards. I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday! >

Oh fuck, man. Yeah, some of those mountains (and i say it judiciously as i look at the cascades) turn to just sheets of ice, especially when you get the freezing fog/ clouds at the top. Hopefully PennDOT is on top of at least the major hwys >


Hopefully PennDOT is on top of at least the major hwys

All 3 PennDOT employees will be standing at the front door to their office estimating 2 years to remove the snow drifts from their cars >

Usually it's a bunch of people standing around a hole in the ground watching one guy fix a pipe or something lol. >

I live on the Canadian Prairies, -36 Celsius with a -50 windchill this morning. This is day 3 of that crap. Stay warm friends. >

Fuck i experienced once -40 and it wasn’t pleasant >

It’s -44 right now! >

So just slightly unpleasanter >

I personally can't wait to read this story every year for the rest of life. >

Exactly. It’s not even been 8 years since the polar vortex of 2014. How soon we forget. >

Holy shit that was 2014? I thought it was like two years ago >

Yeah if you're remembering the one that basically nuked Texas and caused Cancun Cruz to flee to his natural habitat it was just a couple years ago. Honestly even barely that. Like 1.9 years ago. >

Was that the same one that swept into the Midwest? >

It hit just about everything from Texas all the way to here in Kentucky. I didn't lose power though. >

The most devastating winter storm since last year’s winter storm. >

Well, at least since last year's disaster you guys properly winterized your grid and fired the people that caused the outages right? >

"Why prepare when you can repair?"
Putting money towards something that "could" happen would be a waste if it doesn't happen, right?
First rule of government spending: Don't! 
If it doesn't earn money or allow you to take money, it's not worth the money.
/s >

The Preparedness Paradox >

It's been crazy to see how people fell for that with COVID.
It's like, dude, the hospitals in China and Italy had people dying on the floor. In Canada, even with health measures slowing its spread, we still ended up having to airlift people between hospitals to make room and still only ended up under capacity because enough people died.