A rare winter storm is bringing snow and freezing rain to parts of the US deep south, closing highways and airports in Texas and prompting a first-ever blizzard warning in southwest Louisiana.
Four people are thought to have died from cold exposure so far - two cases are being investigated as cold-related by Austin authorities in Texas, while two deaths from hypothermia were reported in Georgia and Milwaukee.
Up in the country’s north, parts of New York state are being hit by another storm, blanketed by up to 18 inches of snow.
Is this because they just aren’t equipped to handle the cold/snow?
Yes. The infrastructure in the region is not made to handle this kind of weather, because it doesn’t get this kind of weather—at least, not until recently. It’s like if you threw your computer in a bucket of water. It’s not a shitty computer if it breaks, it just isn’t meant to operate under these conditions
Places that never needed AC are needing AC now.
Places that new saw snow are going to need more heating, snowplows, and road salt. And stronger AC.
Things are going to suck. Increasingly.
The computer may not be shitty, but the government that consistently keeps computers teetering off the edges of desks, perched precariously over buckets of water sure is. These types of “unprecedented” individual events are actually part of a blaring collection of events, which when viewed together comprise a blinking neon trend. To be fair though, the cause of this trend has only very recently been identified in 1896, so politicians haven’t had adequate time to prepare.
Basically. Texas has shut down a few times before due to a little bit of snow, which people are already not prepared to handle. Apparently, they’re expecting an inch per hour, which is a lot for just about anywhere.
Driving is unsafe in those conditions when the locals don’t own winter tires, and even places like Quebec can shut down flights during snowstorms that aren’t that bad.