In 1943, LaGuardia Asked Citizens to Shovel Snow --

RUSH: What I need to know is... Folks, I'm just trying to get the lay of the land here, and nobody is answering my question. Did anybody survive in New York City? That's what I'm trying to find out. There are survivors in New York City? There are people alive in New York City? Okay, that's all I wanted to know. I was panicking. I'm watching the news about the blizzard. Do you know you can have a blizzard with no snow now? I got a Drive-By weather babe claiming that.

Who says you need snow for a blizzard? It's so bad (we're being told it's so bad), I was wondering if anybody lived through it, and I'm happy to learn that people did, in New York City, in the snow. Six to 10 inches. Who woulda thought people could survive that? That's unbelievable. Six to 10 inches, and people still live and breathe in New York City. Hallelujah! God bless! Greetings, my friends, and welcome. Rush Limbaugh, the EIB Network, the Limbaugh Institute...

No, I'm not mean. Folks, I'm trying to hold onto a sense of sanity and reality and realism in a world literally going nuts out there. Every waking moment is a panic and a crisis. Of course, who is going to save you? You can't. You're not capable. Mayors, governors, senators, congressmen, presidents, sanitation departments, they are going to save you. They are going to tell you when to go outside and when not to go outside.

They're gonna tell you how to shovel snow (using your knees, not your back). Anyway, it's gonna be fun. It's gonna be fun chronicling this communist mayor in New York City. ... The mayor of New York City, de Blasio, goes out there today and said that he was gonna make sure (laughing) that there wasn't gonna be any "unequal distribution of snow removal." I don't know if people remember this, but Reuters notes this. Mayor Doomberg was pilloried for his own snow redistribution plan back in 2010.

Mayor Doomberg was accused of this. With everything going on... I don't know. It just amazes me. In 2010, Mayor Doomberg was accused of putting too much effort into plowing the streets of Manhattan while letting the snow build up in Brooklyn and Queens, and that led to snow level inequality and snow removal inequality and snow plowing inequality, and we can't have that. No, sir.

I mean, the real problem was that the sanitation union was unhappy, and they held back plowing all the streets in protest of budget cuts, and then they blamed it on Doomberg. That's what was going on. Now, if you happened to hear de Blasio today, every other word de Blasio was bowing down and thanking the good people at the sanitation union. Every other sentence he made sure to thank the people of that union.

He had 15 of 'em standing behind him, the sanitation union. "Oh, what a terrific job they're doing! They're doing a great job of equal snow removal," and he warned the residents of New York, "Do not go out! Don't do diddly-squat. Make it safe for the sanitation union." He remembers what happened to Doomberg in 2010. So let's just go to the audio sound bites. This is last night in Brooklyn. This is where the new mayor lives. He lives in Brooklyn, but this is the office of emergency management. He held a press conference to talk about the winter storm impacting New York that amazingly people survived. Here is a portion of his remarks.

DE BLASIO: Stay indoors to the maximum extent possible. Stay out of your cars to the maximum extent possible. Don't go out. We want to make sure people are safe. We want 'em to be in a warm location -- and, crucially, we want to keep our streets clear so the good men and women of the sanitation department can ensure that our streets are plowed and salted. It's very important people get home as soon as possible tonight. Get to a safe, warm place. Stay off the streets.

RUSH: Don't go out! Whatever you do, do not get in the way of my sanitation union people. By the way, de Blasio also shoveled his own sidewalk today, but he put the snow on a neighbor's sidewalk. (Just an aside.) He made a point of saying, "Well, yeah, my son takes the first stretch of sidewalk, then I pick it up from that point," but make sure you don't use salt because that could harm neighborhood pets!

You have to use a pet-free snow-melt pellet or a pet-safe snow-melting pellet, and it's green. Don't dare put salt on it! It's bad for neighborhood pets. Did you know that? Yeah, well, it is. I'm gonna go back to 1943, just for contrast here. We have mayor Fiorello LaGuardia speaking to citizens about the preparations for snow in 1943. Remember what you just heard. You just heard the current mayor, de Blasio, beg people, "Stay off the street! Get home! Go someplace warm! Cuddle up! Do not get in the street. Do not get in the way. Don't do anything. Just stay out of the way."

LAGUARDIA: We must keep the streets of our city open for the delivery of food supplies, war materials, and readily accessible for our fire department. Therefore, I am appealing to the people of this city to volunteer in assisting us to keep open the sewer basins located at every street intersection and also to keep the crosswalks in as good condition as possible for the pedestrians. And we are also appealing to volunteers, volunteers who will be willing to do a little snow shoveling right in their own block.

RUSH: So back in 1943, 71 years ago, the mayor of New York said (summarized), "Get out there. Lend a hand and help everybody. Help us. Help us in the city. Help the fire department. Help us do the crosswalks. Do your own sidewalk. Keep it safe for everybody. Let's all work together." This mayor says, "Don't go outside. It's unsafe. You might die. Do not use salt instead of pet-safe snow melting pellets. Keep the street safe for sanitation. You do not go outside!"

It's amazing, the contrast. It's nothing more than just a little interesting contrast. Now back to the current mayor, de Blasio, this is this morning on Channel 2 Eyeball News CBS TV, special coverage of the snowstorm of 6 to 10 inches. Again, breaking news: People survived. Correspondent Weijia Jiang interviewed de Blasio while he was outside his house shoveling snow. She said, "Before the storm even hit, you said it was very personal for you because you could feel it. You said it was personal because you could see it, and you saw mistakes in the past. So what did you learn that you're gonna apply for the rest of today and tomorrow, Mr. Mayor?"

DE BLASIO: We're gonna make sure that we're very proactive when we have these situations and I'm just not gonna allow, you know, certain neighborhoods to suffer while other neighborhoods are clear. We're gonna move the resources that we have where they're needed to make sure that people get served.

RUSH: We are going to have equal distribution snow removal. We are not going to have neighborhoods suffer. (interruption) What? Let me guess. Snerdley's looking at me, and he's the giving me a "be careful" expression on his face. I understand a snowstorm killed John Lindsay and so forth. I know Queens and Staten Island usually do get the shaft, and times, but Brooklyn won't now because the mayor lives there. No, I understand.

That's why the media of New York is making a big deal of it. "Oh, no! The first day in office and a major snowstorm could kill an administration if he doesn't do it right." So he's out there. You have to understand, though, Snerdley, with liberals anymore, it doesn't matter what they do. It's all what they say. Not one thimble of snow could be removed, as long as he's out there saying it's gonna be equal.

The sanitation department could take the day off, and as long as he's on TV saying, "I'm gonna make sure that there's no unequal snow removal. We're going to have an equal distribution of snow removal," as long as he says that, the citizens of New York are gonna be hunky-dory and fine with no matter what the reality is, 'cause it doesn't matter what the reality is. All that matters is what the politician says and saying the right thing can indicate what's in his heart.

You know, liberals get credit for good intentions, and that's about it, because everything they do fails. I think the Limbaugh Theorem applies at the local level as well as it does to Obama. You just say, you just act, you just promise what you're gonna do, whether you do it or not. Let's see. This is a sound bite from the CBS 2 Eyeball News, the weather babe. Sorry. Not babe. "Caster." (interruption) What is so funny? (interruption) Yeah, but it's not a babe. It's Lonnie Quinn. Anyway, it's a portion of the chief weathercaster, Lonnie Quinn, talking snowstorm impacting New York City. This is the bite where he says you don't even need snow falling for it to be called a blizzard now.

QUINN: What makes a blizzard a blizzard? Well, for three hours you have to have at least 35-mile-per-hour winds or stronger, either sustained or gusting frequently and your visibility has gotta be down to a quarter of a mile. But notice it says nothing there about snowing. It does not have to be snowing in order have a blizzard. It's the snow that's already on the ground being picked up by the strong winds and blown everywhere.

RUSH: Right. You don't need any snow falling for there to be a blizzard. You don't need snow for a blizzard. So it's a blizzard with 6 to 10 inches of snow. When I grew up, 6 to 10 inches was not a blizzard. I know. (interruption) You know what? We went to school in 6 inches of snow. As long as there wasn't any ice, we went to school with 6 inches or 10 inches. Yeah. Anyway, folks, what this is all about is how soft the culture is becoming. That's all this is about.

We're having fun here. We're laughing at it. Six to 10 inches of snow is treated as though it could be the end of things. Six to 10 inches, nobody's capable of handling. If you listen to these government people, 6 to 10 inches, not one citizen is capable of dealing with this without being guided and having his or her hand held by either local news media weather people, the mayor, some politician. It's indicative of who these people are and how they look at people.

You just aren't capable of handling life yourself. You're not capable of doing the right thing without being told. You're not capable of making the right decision. You have to be told. This 6 to 10 inches of snow is nothing, and yet it has become a breaking news story that stops everything in its tracks. To me, it's just an indication of what government can do, what big bureaucracies made up of people who want to control every aspect of your life can do.

It just offends my sensibilities, is all, and it worries me, just the wussification of the culture.

CALLER: I was listening to you earlier on your show, and I just had a thought about the lovely new communist mayor of New York.

CALLER: Yes. I think his constituents are gonna be very happy. He can guarantee, he can absolutely guarantee equitable treatment of all the neighborhoods in the snow removal. The beauty of communism is, he can do nothing and everybody will be treated equally.

RUSH: (laughing) I like that. Do nothing, and everybody is treated fairly. Do nothing, and everybody is treated the same.

RUSH: Yeah. Well, that's the dream. But the point is he's not gonna do nothing. That's the problem. This guy is gonna do a lot, under the guise of equality and --

RUSH: Well, it's gonna be fun to watch, to an extent. It's gonna be painful at the same time.

RUSH: It's gonna be fun to watch, 'cause here again, what you have are a bunch of people now in office who think they've got all the answers, and they're gonna put their dream in action here, and there's gonna be total fairness, total equality, equal redistribution. There isn't gonna be any pain. There isn't gonna be any suffering. It's gonna be utopia now.

Do you know you can have a blizzard with no snow now?

Actually, this is not only true now... but, AFAIK, has always been so. All you need are winds above 35 mph, sustained for 3 hours or more, and visibility 1/4 mile or less. To get the visibility requirement only takes snow in the air... no accumulation required.

My grandmother was born on the date of the white hurricane AKA The Great Blizzard of 88. March 14, 1888. Fortunately for her and her family she was born in Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. But there’s a book on this storm. 20-60 inches of snow. drifts up to 50’ over 400 people died.

I remember going back to the 1950’s people in Queens complaining about favoring Manhattan at the expense of the outer (i.e., other) boroughs when it came to snow removal. I remember the blizzard of 1978, my sister, who lives in Queens, did not have the snow in front of her house removed for two weeks. There was like two feet of snow. It’s hard to bring home groceries by foot.

5 posted on 01/03/2014 2:55:36 PM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Doing the same thing and expecting different results is called software engineering.)

The snow was a PITA. No blizzard. But to here politicians talk it was a crisis. Cuomo closed the LI Expressway for goodness sake. It was totally uncalled for.

The wusification of America goes on unabated.

Ps I had fun blasting through the berms the plows made with my 4x4.

In around 1960 we lived in Groton Conn. on the 3rd floor of a pre-Revolutionary War house. We had to park on the street and in the night the snow plow would come through and just push the snow up and almost cover our car. Do they still do that?

So back in 1943, 71 years ago, the mayor of New York said (summarized), "Get out there. Lend a hand and help everybody. Help us. Help us in the city. Help the fire department. Help us do the crosswalks. Do your own sidewalk. Keep it safe for everybody. Let's all work together."

I heard about that blizzard from my parents. The difference is, in 1943, there were no snowplows-- the only way to clear the streets was to use shovels, so the Mayor asked everyone to go out and shovel; otherwise, many of the City streets would not have been cleared for weeks. Now that there are City trucks with plows, it is more efficient for people to stay out of the way while the plows clear the streets.

Yes, I read about the blizzard of ‘88 a few years ago and was shocked to find out what a lethal storm it was.

One point that was made in the piece I read was that there was no radio or any weather forecasting, really. So the storm just took people by complete surprise.

The weather in NYC is very variable. I always remember 2 Chirstmases that I know must have been within 3 years of each other because I was dating the same guy. One year it was about 65 degrees and the other it was about 5 degrees. Very unpredictable, esp. in the winter I think.

The difference is, in 1943, there were no snowplows-- the only way to clear the streets was to use shovels

Sure look like plows to me.

An over night dusting in the Sierra Nevada. When the snow burm in your driveway is 4’ tall - then you have a problem.

“The difference is, in 1943, there were no snowplows— the only way to clear the streets was to use shovel”

—

You have got to be kidding.

I have seen the photos of the 1943 blizzard, showing armies of city workers shoveling snow off the streets. If snow plows existed, they certainly weren’t in wide use.

They did exist in 1938,and so did I. I remember them well.

NYC apparently didn’t have what they needed for such a severe storm.

In the 40’s and very early 50’s a Sanitation Dept Truck full of large shovels would pull up to the corner. A 25cent deposit was charged. You shoveled as long as you liked, for 50cents an hour. Snow was shoveled to the four corners. Large mounds were made, great “forts” to use in snow ball “fights”. When you returned the shovel you received your hourly pat and the deposit. There were supervisors to prevent “cheating”. Today I can imagine every kind of “cheating”. NYC has long lost it’s “neighborhood” concept.(except for the “hood”)

The difference is, in 1943, there were no snowplows-...

Some of the most effective snowplows I have seen were in small towns - they put a blade on a dump truck, filled it up for weight (usually sand or salt), and put chains on the wheels.

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