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Lords47
Top Member
USA
714 Posts |
 Posted - 12/14/2007 : 05:04:45 AM
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Rhode Island commuters will be retelling their horror stories today as officials try to figure out how to avoid a repeat of Thursday's traffic gridlock. The fast-moving snow turned area roads into parking lots. Commutes that are normally measured in minutes stretched into hours.
According to Storm Team 10 snowfall totals ranged from between 6 and 11 inches around Rhode Island.
Not just drivers were stressed out in the state's big traffic jam, many school children were stuck on their buses for hours before returning home.
Kim Rose, a spokeswoman for the Providence schools, says she doesn't know how many students were affected but 60 of the district's 152 buses were still stuck in traffic with children aboard at the height of the confusion at mid-evening.
Police officers were dispatched to take the children off the buses and to their homes, she said.
Some students were returned to the school bus yard until their families could pick them up. Rose said about half a dozen students were still at the bus yard at about 11 p.m.
Rose says some students who ride buses that make multiple school stops waited for hours at school for their rides after school let out early at 1 p.m. They were cared for by teachers and administrators, she said.
She said the intensity of the storm and traffic gridlock caught people by surprise. "It was entirely an isolated, out-of-the-ordinary circumstance," she said. "We'll review the whole situation tomorrow morning."
The snowfall began about 11 a.m. and quickly intensified, leaving snowfall totals between 6 and 11 inches around the state, with totals around a foot in northern Rhode Island.
The snow had moved offshore by about 9 p.m. Dozens of employers, governments and schools allowed workers to leave early, as did about two dozen school districts. The resulting exodus snarled traffic across Providence. At least six cities and towns, including Providence, banned street parking to make the roads easier to navigate for plow drivers.
Even before the storm hit, airlines were canceling or delaying flights at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick. As the storm approached from the south, it grounded flights there, preventing the aircraft from getting to Rhode Island, said Patti Goldstein, a spokeswoman for the Rhode Island Airport Corp.
Southern New England could be in for a one-two winter punch over the next several days. Forecasters said a storm could develop this weekend off the coast and bring snow, sleet or rain late Saturday and Sunday.
http://www.turnto10.com/northeast/jar/news.apx.-content-articles-JAR-2007-12-14-0001.html |
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Lords47
Top Member
USA
714 Posts |
Posted - 12/14/2007 : 05:13:55 AM
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On the 10:30 news last night, at that time, there were still 9 buses with 52 students still stranded on the roads. Those children were released from school between 12:30 and 1:00pm. Now thats a LONG ride home!
I'm sure the school superintendant will find himself in a firestorm explaining this one. |
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mlkdrives41
Top Member
USA
2055 Posts |
Posted - 12/14/2007 : 06:38:35 AM
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Yesterday for us was also quite a challenge but nowhere near what they went through. I think we got over 8 inches. Buses went out for their afternoon runs and it was snowing at a rate of 1-2 inches per hour. It was slow going and runs that were supposed to be to their second tier pick up at 3 were there closer to 4 and the last bus (me) got back to the garage at 5. The town roads had been plowed (thank you town of Ephratah, you guys are the BEST) but the state roads were terrible--rutted and unplowed and by the time it was dark it was hard to see where the road actually was. We all had to keep stopping to clean off the windshield wipers that were clogged up with snow.
This is going to be a loooong winter and it's not even officially winter yet! |
Nothing great has ever been accomplished without enthusiasm! |
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School Bus M8
Top Member
USA
617 Posts |
Posted - 12/14/2007 : 09:05:09 AM
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| Schools around here will not let students out too early. The high schools and middle around here get out usually from 1:45-2:15 and the elementary schools 2:30-3:30. The schools may let out the high schools 15-45 minutes early but it dosn't do any good. The drivers I work with new what we were in store for as this happens about once a year. We planned on our last group of students not getting home til 6-6:30 worst case scenerio. Now the reason they will not dismiss early is because they are worried the parents won't get the message and will not be home for the little ones. When the news weathermen say the the snow is going to start at 1:30 the schools should announce and early release on the radio and tv before school starts. And not dismiss students 15-45 minutes early when a snowstorm is expected to start at 1:30-2:00, dismiss them at 11:30 otherwise the students are better off sitting in school until 7pm! |
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ICfan
Top Member
USA
1251 Posts |
Posted - 12/14/2007 : 4:39:12 PM
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Thank God, 95% of CT schools where closed the whole day. It started in Torrington around 10:15, and within 15 mins, the 1" per hour of snow started and so did the gridlock. Traffic was horrible! Plows had to play catch up with the roads, plus at normal half day dismissal the storm was at its height in Torrington with 2" per hour coming down! At 6pm in Hartford, I 91 and 84 had to be shut down to clear the roads.
It was reported that one person from Torrington getting home from Hartford took him 8 hours to get home. |
Tyler Roys Weatherman and International Fan,
http://www.freewebs.com/thectschoolbusyard |
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bus724
Top Member
USA
1609 Posts |
Posted - 12/15/2007 : 8:43:15 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by ICfan
Thank God, 95% of CT schools where closed the whole day.
Gotta love being in the other 5%  |
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william
Top Member
USA
1912 Posts |
Posted - 12/16/2007 : 11:25:21 AM
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I have very "pleasant" memories of walking off the ship at the naval base at Quonset Point, RI, right into what appeared to be the inside of a ping-pong ball and having to dig my car out of snow so high the car was completely covered.
My hat is off to the drivers who drive in those situations. We have a yard in Providence and these drivers seem to go year after year with little or no accidents. But I have to say, when I see news reports of these conditions, I'm glad I live in the golden state. |
William |
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news
Top Member
Canada
2951 Posts |
Posted - 12/20/2007 : 6:27:25 PM
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Providence mayor fires EMA director after school bus debacle
December 20, 2007 - Boston Globe
PROVIDENCE, RI — Providence Mayor David Cicilline on Thursday fired the city's director of emergency management and said a systemwide communication breakdown was to blame for children being stranded on school buses for hours during a fast-moving snow storm last week.
full story
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Lords47
Top Member
USA
714 Posts |
Posted - 12/21/2007 : 06:03:25 AM
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This is a good case of everyone points their finger at anyone else for responsibility, but no one steps up to the plate. My normal 30 minute drive home from work took me almost 4 hours. Traffic was gridlocked in almost the entire state of RI. In the first 2.5 hours of my commute, I made it a draw dropping 3 miles. Once I hit the MA border, traffic eased up, to a whopping 25 mph. Anyone who had rear-wheel drive vehicles made it no-where, and no-where fast. The snow started early, and intense. Roads were untreated. Accidents were every which way you looked, and it was almost impossible to get any rescue vehicles to them. Thankfully, there weren't serious injuries since the traffic flow was ~5-10mph. An extremely large amount of people all left work about the same time, as well as school dismissals. That made it impossible for plows to treat the road surfaces. This was a HUGE logistics problem.
William - California is looking better and better. |
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RI: 60 buses stranded in winter storm
