Posted on 01/16/2007 9:13:36 PM PST by 60Gunner
I posted a month ago about Seattle drivers who simply were not meant to go outside any any but the most mild weather, and even then only in the kind of cars that have external airbags. Aparently, Portland (Oregon) has its share of weather idiots, too, as evidenced by this video from KING 5 News. Enjoy.
BTW: Correction to the post: "Aparently" [sic] should be spelled "apparently." Sorry about that. I lost a "p" somewhere. Stupid keyboard.
Every winter we are entertained by these people on the Portland news channels. When the freeways are coated with ice they speed up. The Northwest version of the Nawlins idiots who build their houses below sea level.
I also cannot believe that I just found myself yelling at my monitor, "For the love of all that is holy! Will you *please* STOP gunning it! IT IS NOT WORKING!!" LOL!
Wow. First time driving in the snow morons.
At around .41 in the video I hear a woman scream "I have three little children inside my car, will you help me get them out"?
I hope the little kids are OK... The rest of these nitwits need to hang their dumb@#$ heads in shame and hang up the keys when the cold wind blows....
Any idea if this road has a grade.
It's like they are sliding down hill.
I live in the Ohio snow belt so this looks like a pretty mild snow fall to me.
ROFL.
I wanna know what was up with that first car whose driver never let off the gas. He looked like a pinball!
I typically don't complain about the roads here in Seattle. It snows, the road people don't do anything, people slide around, and it melts by the next day.
HOWEVER - it has now been SIX days and the secondary roads have STILL not been touched and my KIDS are going on SEVEN DAYS at HOME with no school and I TRRYYY to work out of the house but if THEY CAN"T GET THE ROADS CLEARED BY.....
(Okay - time to back away from the keyboard. Rant off)
Six days stuck at home here, too. WSDOT won't salt the roads because it's "bad for the environment".
Fortunately, I'm in the lowest, flattest part of the city (Georgetown/Boeing Field), so getting within a mile or so of here isn't a suicide mission.
Yeah - I heard that. The funny thing is Puget Sound is salt water! Minnesota uses salt by the truckload (obviously!) - EVERYTHING gets a white caking. Somehow the fishing is still great.
I didn't know that about the WSDOT not using salt for environmental reasons. Uh, how about for keeping humans safe from being hit by sliding cars reasons? Or maybe investing in more than 3 snowplows for the million plus population? Or how about sand? I can't get over that first car. I mean after they hit the first parked car, they kept pushing it, hitting how many others? Any idea where this was filmed? it looked fairly flat.
They're probably sliding down Queen Anne - that's a steep 'un there in Seattle.
I believe it is Portland.
The location is Portland, Oregon a city located geographically to the south (and ideologically to the left) of Seattle.
Correct. I didn't look closely enough. But I have seen vehicles traveling south, facing in an easterly direction on some slippery days in Seattle. It just didn't pay to have your own car parked on the street on those days.
That wasn't just snow, I suspect it was ice or ice over packed snow. And the road appeared to have a considerable grade from left to right.
Yo boo, take a look. That's why the car is in the garage.
I just left Seattle after 5 years. Other than SF, I didn't think it was possible to be to the left of Seattle! : )
Good point!
Not too bad around NOrthgate or even U-District. I was fine today, other than going to Oak Tree plaza.
Seattle drivers blow and blow hard.
I share your sentiments that at lease parts of the west coast need to slide into the Pacific in order to save the rest of the Republic. However, I lived in Portland for about 10 years and these ice storms are something you have to see firsthand to appreciate them.
Portland is situated at the western end of the Columbia River Valley. Cold air from Canada flows down the valley and meets the moist air from the Pacific ocean over Portland, and EVERYTHING is drenched with ice. The carnage from these ice storms is amazing-- power poles and trees shatter into little pieces without an obvious destructive force, such as a windstorm. There will be abandoned cars everywhere that skidded off the road as if their drivers just suddenly disappeared like in some apocalyptic science fiction movie.
However, the suburbs west of Portland (Beaverton-- the most conservative area of greater Portland), are mostly protected from the worst of the ice storms by a group of hills that separate the main city of Portland from the western suburbs.
Yeah, dude we finally had some real snow and MN-DOT is out salting/sanding roads and intersentions before and during the snowfalls. What I just saw in that video was SAD.
Here in MN the we have an army of plow guys who sit around itching to get out there like a squad of mercs without a war to fight.
The area has a unique set of weather conditions that make freezing rain common. The warmer upper air pushing in from the Oregon coast brings rain while the Columbia River Gorge funnels much colder air from the East. The lower air is freezing as the rain overrides it. The rain falls into much colder conditions, freezing instantly.
It is not like a typical snow-covered street in Michigan or elsewhere.
It is the equivalent of trying to drive on a hockey rink with ice sometimes more than half an inch thick.
You can easily fall on your butt, just trying to step out of a vehicle, even though you know the slickness of the surface.
The simple fact is nobody should get near a vehicle in Portland after a freezing rain.
In this video there is nor was an ice storm --just snow, and only 2-3 inches if that. I live here (Beaverton) and work IN Portland Downtown. This was just assinine, plain and simple.
Born in Minnesota, and have lived in Kansas, Flaggstaff, AZ, Denver, Sun Valley, ID and others )Talk about snow nad ice!!!), I have driven in and seen much, much worse.
The video was shot in Portland, not Seattle --and no ice.
KZ
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