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State: We could get a presidential disaster declaration
By adamg on Tue, 02/10/2015 - 12:33pm
State officials have begun talking to FEMA about a declaration, which would free up federal funds for responses to the snow, in particular to the initial blizzard.
Meanwhile, the Vermont National Guard is sending us some heavy equipment to help with snow removal - in addition to the 500 Massachusetts Guard members who were deployed yesterday for the same purpose. New York and Pennsylvania National Guards also plan to send help.
But at a press conference today, Gov. Baker and other state officials said no, this series of storms is nowhere near as bad as the Blizzard of '78: We don't have people freezing to death on 128, the entire state wasn't shut down and modern communications and technology have made snow response much better.
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Comments
Somerville could use some help, too, imho.
Let's hope that Somerville also obtains and uses some decent, up to date heavy snow removal equipment.
Have you left Somerville at
Have you left Somerville at all during the past 2 weeks? Somerville is in great shape compared to the surrounding towns and cities and has done a great amazing job keeping the squares clear for businesses. I've been able to walk and drive throughout Somerville during and after each storm. Wish I could say the same for Cambridge where my office is located.
The whole regions needs assistance, not just select municipalities.
As far as I'm concerned,
As far as I'm concerned, Somerville has been doing really well. Them taking the time to bring in heavy machinery to clear out the snowbanks on Highland bus stops alone has made a huge impact on getting able to get anywhere. The community path has also been great when it takes abutters a while to clear their snow (I'm looking at you unnamed mechanics shop along Highland).
Excellent idea
It should be declared a federal disaster and free up federal $ . If some places routinely get it for hurricanes and tornados, why can't we get it for really bad snow storms?
Dumping snow in the harbor
Yesterday I heard that 4 communities had already applied to the state DEP (Dept. of Environmental Protection) and were given waivers to dump snow in the ocean or rivers. Boston is considering applying.
The T outage is not as bad as in '78 when the state was closed for several days, including the T, which was a considerably smaller system then, with less clean-up work to do. Baker is right about it being worse, with highways even shut down hampering the movement of EMS, fire, police, and equipment.
Boston is a mess
Bring in the National Guard so we can get on with our lives and businesses can get back to work.
Easy there...
What, exactly, is the National Guard going to do (besides get people all worked up)? This isn't at that level yet.
Help remove snow... ya genius
Help remove snow... ya genius.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2015/02/10/baker-calls-na...
Thanks
I don't know where these people come from, who think the National Guard is all lawyers like Scott Brown. In another thread, somebody was arguing that they aren't soldiers.
Yeah, that's a great use for them...
"Hey, deploy the National Guard and have them come shovel my sidewalk!" Awesome. It'd be nice if people actually went back to coming together as a community instead of hiding and waiting for the government. Here's a novel idea: I'm sure there are plenty of people experienced in operating heavy machinery who might need some work.
Plow
More bodies, more shovels, more plows. More everything.
See my response above...
There are plenty of able bodied people who need work and can move snow.
Don't know if it was said or not
...Is there a state of emergency?
When VERMONT acknowledges
When VERMONT acknowledges that it's bad enough for them to send snow equipment, you know you've got a real situation on your hands.
Yes! Bring in the Green Mountain Boys!
If anyone around here paid attention to things outside 495 and saw what Vermont AOT (yeah, that's right, it's AOT) and partners were able to accomplish in the three months after the utter devastation inflicted by Irene, we'd all be advocating to just outsource the whole clean up thing to them.
More seriously, if you know anything about what happened up there and saw what can only be described as a miraculous display of human resilience, you undoubtedly feel the same way.
I consider myself privileged to pay the additional 1% that was added to the lodging tax to help pay for that recovery each time I can get up there (which is not nearly enough).
Accept the Help
Boston should accept any help given during this time. I grew up in the Midwest, and we were able to handle the snowfall with appropriate measures, however, this city is not built or maintained to appropriately respond to so much snow. We have kids missing school, parents unable to go to work, and a countless number of sidewalks/streets in need of attention.
This much snow at once...
doesn't happen in the Midwest (I grew up there too). This is Canadian or Buffalo-level of snowfall in this short a time frame.
If the low comes in over us again, we'll get another one; the conjunction of cold arctic air under warm ocean air gets you extra snow!
Lake Effect League
We are definitely playing in the Lake Effect League this year - and Worcester is topping the league! Boston is also winning!
http://goldensnowglobe.com/current-top-10-snowiest-cities/
Re: Baker on Storm of '78
So does this mean we can't tell '78 survivors to shut up?
http://www.universalhub.com/2015/time-blizzard-78-survivors-shut
I was really looking forward to that.
I hope we never get there
considering we would need a bunch of people to die to match the severity of 78, I'm hoping we never get a chance to tell people to shut up about 78.
That's the frustrating part
VT can do that because they haven't been getting all the snow we've gotten. That's a bit frustrating for skiers, though the skiing is still very good. Even areas out west are having a bad year and looking at Boston with envy.
Am I right to assume...
...the Boston parking ban is still in effect?