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Storm brought swarm of e-tips
Some suggestions mirror mayor'sBy JOSH SHAFFER, Staff Writer
RALEIGH -- They include the half-baked and the hysterical -- brainstorms typed in by dozens of Raleigh residents driven mad last month by glaze and gridlock.
One man suggests the city create fake blizzards for drivers to practice navigating -- and making them mandatory as part of everyone's driver education.
Another offers this: Raleigh should buy tons of salt and deliver it free to every resident. Four buckets apiece.
Another wants the city to place 50-gallon barrels of salt along highways so drivers can just stop and pull out a scoop.
Others just poke fun.
"You guys must be useless," wrote Ashlea Simpson from Washington state. "An inch of snow IS a mere dusting. Hope you survive this 'disaster.' "
The Jan. 19 storm that crippled Raleigh with a half-inch of snow brought a thick stack of e-mail messages from around the country.
Mayor Charles Meeker, City Manager Russell Allen and members of the City Council all got a healthy pile.
The storm made national news after routine commutes turned into 12-hour slip-and-slides, and 3,000 children were stranded at school overnight.
Many writers were sympathetic.
"God is in control of weather and HE can change it as quickly as HE pleases," wrote Susan Reynolds from San Antonio. "In fact, in the Bible it says that the weather will be crazy in the last days."
But the bulk of the messages offer advice that is starting to translate into policy.
Last week, Meeker presented a five-point plan for avoiding chaos in future storms.
As part of that plan, he proposes that the city declare a "weather emergency" and ask people to stay off roads until salt and sand can be spread -- an idea that shows up repeatedly in e-mail messages to the city.
The writers also call for pre-treating roads with salt rather than waiting for the first flakes to fall, another element in Meeker's plan.
"In Illinois, if the [Department of Transportation] even hears that there might be inclement weather coming, ... IDOT has the trucks all loaded and sitting on the side of the road," writes one anonymous transplant.
Meeker called the e-mail messages helpful, but their advice is far from unanimous.
Some call for a light-rail system to move people quickly and safely. Others say scrap the light rail and spend more money on salt trucks.
Some want police to keep vehicles from blocking intersections. Some want tire chains that deploy automatically. Others want red lights that change in response to traffic flow, not a timer.
Another pitched this idea: Use infrared thermometers to measure the pavement temperature.
The council is already debating the merits of a new weather policy, which includes a request that people stay off cellular phones except for quick emergency calls, and their suggestions will continue to trickle in over the next few weeks.
But creating fake snowstorms for practice?
Meeker chuckled.Staff writer Josh Shaffer can be reached at 829-4818 or jshaffer@newsobserver.com.
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