Getting cold in here

Buffalo snowstormI recently went to see Avenue Q, which features a great number on Schadenfreude. It was a little chillier in Manhattan today, enough that we closed the windows last night. In Buffalo, they are snowed in. They closed the airport–which never happens. There are motorists stuck out on the interstate. And as much as I want to be sympathetic, there is a piece of me that is singing “sucks to be you!”

On the other hand, my chair invited me and the other new guy, Quinn Saunders (Ontario?), out for drinks yesterday and informed us that Connecticut winters are neither the picturesque snow of Vermont, nor the rain of New York, but sleet and slush. Oh, what fun.

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10 Comments

  1. Posted 10/13/2006 at 2:44 pm | Permalink

    It truly does suck a great deal when all power around campus is out and UB closes. And then there’s a driving ban… So yes, it does suck to be here.

  2. Posted 10/14/2006 at 9:43 am | Permalink

    Alex,

    It does suck yes but this is time is sad. There are some parts of Buffalo that you can recognize anymore. The landscape changes a lot when there are no trees. I would rather have the 2001 snow that having this one day storm that killed all my flowers and trees.

  3. nyctobuffalo
    Posted 10/14/2006 at 7:37 pm | Permalink

    And as much as I want to be sympathetic, there is a piece of me that is singing “sucks to be you!”

    Well, when the terrahists nuke Manhattan, and you’re, you know, dead, I suppose there will be a part of me thinking the same thing.

    Seriously. This isn’t a funny snow storm. This is really ugly, unfun, destructive, and a huge pain in the ass.

  4. Amal
    Posted 10/17/2006 at 10:38 am | Permalink

    Funny how your true colors come through when you’re stripped of the luxuries (electricity) you’ve been accustomed to.. and have always taken for granted.
    Some people band together with friends and neighbors to be strong and come through it, and some take it to an ugly “nuke Manhattan” place.
    Buffalo will get through this, we always do.

  5. Dan
    Posted 10/18/2006 at 3:04 pm | Permalink

    The issue is, most Bufflonians (Buffalotians?) *are* prepared – but not in the middle of October, and not for something like this. This storm was the most severe October storm in the 130+ years they’ve been keeping track of such things. 370,000 were without power. FEMA and the National Guard were called in. Many citizens died.

    On a scale from 1 to 10, we’re ready for everything up to a solid 7. This was a full-on 10. I was in my yard Thursday night after a white-knuckle drive home trying to brush snow off my Japanese maples. The entire time I was out there, I heard crack after pop, some gut-wrenchingly close: tree limbs and entire crowns were cracking and collapsing under the weight of all that snow. You can’t blame the citizens of Buffalo for not being ready when the trees themselves certainly weren’t, either.

  6. alex
    Posted 10/18/2006 at 3:22 pm | Permalink

    Dan: I’m running on the defensive here :). I’m not even really blaming Buffalonians for failing to predict extreme weather. I do think that the power company could do a better job of delivering power during storms. But I give up.

    I hope everyone is digging out OK, and my wishes are with you, despite what I may have said above.

  7. Dan
    Posted 10/19/2006 at 12:05 pm | Permalink

    I think you hit a nerve with some of us – lots of folks are on edge, and the last thing they want to hear is “you should’ve known better”. No blame on you, I know how you feel. I used to live in Rapid City, SD, and when I see that they’re sitting pretty at -30 F in January, the Schadenfreude kicks in.

    Thanks for the well-wishes.

  8. STEEL
    Posted 10/20/2006 at 9:02 pm | Permalink

    Alex,

    Power outages in Buffalo are extremely rare (if ever) and the extent of this one is unprecedented in the city and ,metro. Its like you are asking Buffalonians to be prepared for a meteor strike because they know that meteors strike the earth. Snow in Buffalo does not cause power outages. Trees falling on power lines cause power outages. Power does not go out in Buffalo every time it snows. On top of that snow of this magnitude this early in the year has never happened. The trees were still filled with green leaves and the trees could not bear the weight of the snow. The power company can not divert power to lines that have been knocked out!

    By the way isn’t NYC notorious for having power outages and the we have to hear ad-nauseam about riots and people stuck in elevators?

  9. alex
    Posted 10/20/2006 at 10:00 pm | Permalink

    Power outages in Buffalo are extremely rare (if ever)

    That certainly wasn’t my experience. We had more power outages in five years in Amherst than probably anywhere I’d lived in the previous 30–for what it’s worth.

  10. STEEL
    Posted 10/22/2006 at 11:00 pm | Permalink

    Well I can’t speak for Amherst. I lived in Buffalo for 25 years and never experienced a power outage…ever

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