We Can Handle This, We're Yankees

Historic weather events have always been the ultimate crucibles for society.  Over the past 2 years we have faced five significant weather events: Record snow accumulations in the winter of 2010/2011, Tropical Storm Irene, the October Snow Storm of 2011 (Alfred), Hurricane Sandy (I refuse to call it "Super Storm" Sandy.  We only have so many superlatives.), and now the Blizzard of 2013 (Nemo/Charlotte).   Seeing the complaints being made on Patch is very disappointing, and it makes me believe that we are becoming impatient, inflexible, narrow-minded, self-centered and overly entitled.  We are better than this.  We're New Englanders, and we need to deal with this with the quiet determination and ingenuity that defines what it means to be a Yankee.

Some perspective:

• According to the National Weather Service, Manchester had 32 inches of snow, and it snowed for about 24 hours.  That's roughly 1 1/3" of snow per hour.  Other reports have said that peak snow fall rates were between 2 and 3 inches of snow per hour.
• Manchester maintains 550 lane miles of road.  Most of that is made up of residential streets.  The priorities generally are: #1 arterial roads, #2 feeder roads, and #3 residential streets.
• Manchester has a limited number of resources, both money and equipment.
• There are only so many ways to remove this amount of snow, and there isn't an app for that.
• It took many days to dig out from the Blizzard of '78, and Gov. Ella T. Grasso shut down the state for three days.

Some questions to ask before you start complaining:

• Do I really know what it take to maintain roads with snowfall rates in excess of 1 inch per hour?
• Do I know how much it costs or the availability of private contractors during major weather events?
• Did I adequately prepare myself for this storm given the more than copious warnings provided on TV, radio, and the Internet?
• Do I really know what it takes to manage a municipal government during catastrophic weather events?
• Do I know how many people ignore the parking bans and make it even more difficult to plow the streets?
• Is there anything I can do other than point out problems that people are already working on?
• Am I willing to pay more in taxes or sacrifice other town services that I use in order to maintain the capacity to clear snow or storm debris caused by extreme events in the same speed as average events?

I understand.  This much snow is not fun unless you are a kid.  I get cranky every time it snows because I have a long driveway.  I spent 6 hours outside yesterday cleaning up snow (including shoveling off my porch roof), and I have to go back outside today to finish the job.  There are so many other things that I would like to be doing right now rather than deal with this.  I would want to complain too, but then I realize that I'm one person among many dealing with the same problems.  Why make one more problem for someone else to deal with?  What can I do to solve my problems, and how can I make it easier for the people trying to solve the bigger problems that I can't solve as one person?

As the old saw goes, if you aren't part of the solution, you are part of the problem.  This is another opportunity to see what we are made of.  This is an opportunity to pitch in if we can.  If nothing else, all you have to do is take care of yourself and stay out of the way of the people trying clean up from this.  If you have nothing else that you could be doing right now, why not learn how to do things for yourself and claim part of that Yankee spirit of self determination.  Start here: http://www.instructables.com or here: http://www.wikihow.com.  If you want to help more during catastrophic weather events, why not join the town's CERT training.

C'mon Manchster, we're better than this.