Then you must have been born since 1972.

I’ll take the 4 days of hurricane I’ve had in 17 years in Maryland over 1700 days of snow (or more) that you’ve had in Rochester in the same number of years. Of course you have to factor in other things, like my $200 max heating bill or my $4,000/year property tax on my $500,000 house, 6% income tax or gas at $2.80/gal.

Oh yeah, how many pages is the D&C want ads?

3.5% unemployment in Maryland…..

Ask your daughter about the Erie run down I-90. (Chuckle)
It’s about a draw, in the winter.

I’ll answer for myself and not for Chuck, but….

A: Rochester hasn’t had any hurricanes within my lifetime.

Thank you for all the work you and all of the first responders do each and every day. Thank you also for keeping a blog and supporting the troops with excellent reports from the war front.

Dan Maloney
NY State Coordinator
Gathering of Eagles

Driving though that whiteout was a freaky experience. Though the skies were clear at the time of the accident, a snow squall had just passed through the area less than an hour before. (We were eating at the restaurant across from the airport and couldn’t see the parking lot for the airport at times.) The high winds just blew the new snow across the interstate in one localized section, and when we drove home we rounded a corner and went from clear roads to no road and no visibility just like that. And as quick as it started, it stopped. I’d say there was less than a quarter mile of affected road.

We feel very fortunate as our thoughts are with all the victims. Please thank your buddies for all their work yesterday for us.

[Editor: Earlier yesterday I drove a patient to Rochester General on Empire. White out at the bay and again on 590 and 104. Very difficult to drive.]

That’s never been the best stretch along there with any kind of blowing snow… combine it with a northwest wind and you’re in serious problems. But the redesign of the airport, extending the runway as they did, made it worse. In my view, a serious re-thinking of that whole area’s landscaping is in order.

1: Extend the runway over 390, ending on the hill on the eastern side of the freeway, thus preventing much of the blowing onto the freeway at the Scottville Road exit.

2: Erect snow fences along the eastern fence line of the airport so as to control blowing snow out onto the freeway. This has been a continuing issue, exacerbated by the recent re-design.

3: I’m hearing reports, Chuck, which suggest that the more serious injuries were limited to the smaller vehicles. The girl who died, for example. [Editor: I've deleted my original comment because what I had heard then and what is now reported differ. I don't know about the small cars but I assume it's true.]

As for the worst weather in New York, it depends on what you consider bad weather. Rochester is best known for its crippling ices storms, where power is lost for weeks thanks to several inches of ice forming on power lines. Syracuse, on the other hand, continually beats snowfall records and gets the most snow for the large metropolitan areas. Oswego competes with the Adirondacks with nasty storms and high winds thanks to it’s position on Lake Ontario. Buffalo, IMO, is the quietest of the large cities in New York. The snowbelt skirts just south of the city, and with the exception of an occasional earthquake suffers mostly from self-inflicted injuries in snow removal. Weather in this state can be *very* interesting at times, and can be a source of entertainment. Go to Jamestown when they get a coating of ice and watch how traffic “flows” thanks to the hills and red brick streets they have.

Thanks for your service Chuck. It was nasty where I was, and I decided to stay home and not become part of the problem. I’d like to think that this accident would be a wakeup call for Rochester drivers to slow down in bad weather, but that’s a pipe dream. Especially when old ladies are giving me the finger for going too slow while I’m doing 75 on I-490.

[Editor: You could hear the stress in their voices, but they are pros. They are nationally certified and show it.}

We’ve had some plane and train crashes but have not had a true MCI since the 1980’s. In that case it was smoke from field burning. Luckily we don’t have the weather conditions that you have there.

My daughter lives outside Buffalo and her in-laws assure me that the worst weather in upstate New York is Rochester.

Best of luck and may it be a long time before anything like this happens again.