signal-boosting, especially for Americans

[sabotabby]

rachelmanija and many of her neighbours are trapped in their homes after the recent huge blizzard.

She would like people to contact Gov. Newsom and San Bernardino, CA, officials and tell them to send help. For those of us not in California, the request is to ask Pres. Biden to declare San Bernardino a disaster area.

This is a natural disaster, compounded by human mismanagement. The city sent out snowplows, creating huge ice berms that are trapping people in their homes.

Rachel posted about this to her journal, and is asking everyone to please pass it on.

Comments

[greylock]

the request is to ask Pres. Biden to declare San Bernardino a disaster area.
I dreads to think how this will be spun.

The city sent out snowplows, creating huge ice berms that are trapping people in their homes.

I don't know snow, so how serious of a deal is this? I...

I actually don't know. Flooding and fires I can do, but this is beyond my comprehension.
Is it a 1 week issue, or more?

[sabotabby]

I can't tell if you're kidding or not, so I will respond with a personal anecdote. I used to work with an ex-army guy. A few years before, there'd been a huge ice storm that swept through large swathes of Quebec and Ontario. Our mayor at the time in Toronto famously called in the army to dig us out, which was treated as a joke both inside but especially outside the city. (Though in Toronto, IIRC, we were pretty grateful and glad they dug us out right away!) My co-worker and I were talking about this, and he'd been stationed in Quebec at the time. Instead of the experience that the guys sent to Toronto had—which, for the most part, was digging out people who had heat and power and were joking around with them—he was working in an area that was more rural and had lost power. Which meant after a day or so he was digging out a lot of corpses. He said there were many more dead people than anyone had ever reported.

Now, this was obviously quite bad (as well as why I don't get quite as upset about military funding as other leftists) and years later he was still traumatized by the experience. But the massive difference here? Canada actually has the infrastructure to deal with extreme winter. Like, not well, not if you're homeless, etc., but our homes have insulation, our vehicles have snow tires, everyone owns a shovel, and yeah, our army has snowplows. California has none of those things. Recently a bunch of Texans froze to death in weather that Canadians consider no big deal because they barely have a state to begin with, let alone one with the infrastructure to deal with a winter storm emergency.

So yes, very serious, unknown length of time, people will die, and this is a major disaster.

[greylock]

I have never seen 3cm of snow, much less 3M. I'd have assumed it ices up and removal isn't that hard, assuming you have cold weather clothes, but I have no comparison beside de-icing my freezer.

I am familiar with Texas' issues, mostly because Brave Sir Ted ran away.

Thanks!

[sabotabby]

There are many different types of snow. But yeah it will ice up and you can't use a shovel on it, assuming that you have a shovel and are physically fit.

[greylock]

We get snow maybe once a year, on one mount. It is so alien to me.

[franklanguage]

Well, there ya go.

[frandroid]

Snow is not fluff... It's not quite as heavy as sand, but cut the weight by 2/3rds. So imagine they've been buried under 3 feet of sand. Everywhere. And it's cold. And it's brought all the power down. And you can't drive anywhere, because sand.

[dewline]

My dad was still alive when that Ice Storm hit. My brother was on his first marriage at that point, and half my nieces and nephews still hadn't been born yet, I think.

And yeah, these things are deadly to people outside of the cities. Using the military for SAR work and disaster relief operations is not a thing I'm ever going to complain about. It just makes too much sense to put them to that kind of work, and yes, it brings its own sets of trauma in ways that peacekeeping and combat won't.

[sabotabby]

I am kind of softer about the military than some leftists for a few reasons but this is one of them. Like even in a utopia we need people who can do this kind of thing and I was happy to see my taxes go to the soldiers who dug us out.

[frenzy]

I thought this was already done:

https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/03/01/governor-newsom-proclaims-state-of-emergency-in-13-counties-due-to-winter-storms-activates-california-guard/

Or does this mean it was declared at the state level, but not the federal level? sorry, please, thanks.

[sabotabby]

I don't know how the American government does these things.

[frenzy]

I sort of had a feeling you wouldn't know. But thought i'd ask when google failed me.

[xturtle]

This is a state level emergency, which lets him release funds. It's fairly useless if he doesn't activate the national guard at this point, because functionally it's equipment and people to physically move snow that they need. The state of emergency will allow counties to call on others for equipment and staffing, so there should be some additional help, but there's some likelihood of more snow, so more would be better.

State emergency declaration typically needs to be made before federal declaration can be made. Calling US emergency response a "system" is like calling three raccoons in a trench coat Bob, with the same amount of imagination required, but at some point FEMA will likely come in to help a few and throw some ill-thought-out contracts to friends of their current leaders.

[frenzy]

Thanks for explaining it to me!