When you live in the South, or the Northeast for that matter, you have to expect certain “issues” to arise from bad weather. Tornado season brings its fair share of torrential downpours and winter weather can mean hazardous driving conditions. Couple that with drivers who’ve never seen snow or don’t know where to go during a tornado warning, and it’s a bad mix.
You would think that growing up in the South, I would be used to such problems. But no matter how many tornado drills I endured and no matter how many close calls there were, I never got used to them. I remember sitting in my seventh grade classroom as we were getting ready to leave for the day. Suddenly the lights went out and everything went black. The teachers quickly herded us into the hall where we sat in the cover position until the tornado had passed. Thankfully, it touched down a few miles away instead of on our building, but it was still closer than I like.
Winter time wasn’t much better. When there was a threat of snow, nay even just a hint of the white fluffy stuff, schools begin closing their doors. As a kid, this was a special treat. As a parent, I’m sure it was not so special.
Things are much the same now that I live in the northeastern part of the South. The weather is similar yet different enough that we can pretty much count on getting at least one snowfall a year, maybe two. The problem with that is that it’s not often enough to teach people how to handle it.
When I lived in Utah, snow was a regular occurrence. There was a reason that the 2002 Winter Olympics were held in Salt Lake City and it was because we regularly got several feet of snow dumped on us. The first snowfall usually brought lots of ooh’s and ahh’s as we gazed at our winter wonderland. That admiration quickly changed to dread and disgust as the pretty white snow became dirty slush piled on the sides of the streets.
I will say this though: people knew how to drive in the snow. I’ve never seen so many four-wheel-drive vehicles in one area. And the snow plows – oh they were a sight to behold! Every morning well before 6:00 am, the snow plows were out doing their job. They pushed the snow off of the main roads first and then moved to the side streets. By the time I left for work, my pathway was clear. Schools stayed open and people went to work as if nothing had happened. And they drove slowly too because, believe it or not, snow is slippery.
It’s very different here in Virginia. 
(Exhibit A: This was the scene yesterday around 1:00 pm. You will notice the lack of plowed roads and the snow covered cars sitting in the streets.)
Things just seemed to shut down. No one leaves their driveways and the sidewalks aren’t shoveled. Schools close and businesses shut their doors. Even the Federal government announces unscheduled leave to those who can’t make it in.
The snow may be pretty,
and it may be a welcome site to those who are not used to seeing it.
But it creates major problems for the area.
Out west, where they are equipped for such things, most of the snow would be gone or at the very least moved within a few hours. But here in the northeast part of the South, the snow causes havoc as we do not have the equipment to handle the bad weather.
Even just walking outside is difficult.
Because of this, I decided to join the masses. Rather than try to dig myself out and trudge on in to work as I’ve done before, I decided to embrace the bad weather. I mean, when in Rome, do as the Romans do, right?
So I stayed home from work.
And you know what? It didn’t bother me a bit!
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