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Comment by lemaireB on February 13, 2008 at 9:57am

I grew up in Reno NV. Right on the foot hills of the Sierra Nevada's. If any of you remember your history classes This is the same mountain range that the Donner party was trapped on.

Firerev
you do make a good point yes there are lots of people and esp school districts that are stepping on egg shells to avoid any kind of law suit, but i still feel that they should make a slightly better effort of getting kids into school for a good education.
As for my kids if the roads are bad I will take time to get them to school my self by leaving early. No I wouldn't send them out to walk to a bus stop with the way the morons out here drive.

Clint That sounds like a good Kansas Ice storm. 2 inches of ice over night and more on the way. I dont know how many times I had to take 3 hours of chipping the ice of of my truck when I lived in Wichita. adding large amounts of snow on top of that and you have one hell of a reason not to do anything. though getting stuck on post does not really sound like a fun time.

Comment by Chad on February 12, 2008 at 9:07pm

Here in northern Maine we rarely close schools for snow, usually its the high winds causing white-out conditions that close us. We have accumulated 127 inches of snow so far this year.

Comment by mowerboy on February 12, 2008 at 8:49pm

Heres my point of view. If you had any kids in school would you want them out. On the bad roads that you didnt see any plows on. You knew what happens on those roads. Better be safe than sorry.

Comment by Capkurt on February 12, 2008 at 2:22pm

My area is getting lie yours rumdragon. Schools close for 4 - 5 " or if it gets too cold. I guess the kids don't know how to dress if it's cold out or how to walk in the snow. We're raising a bunch weaklings and wimps.

Comment by Clint M. Nelsen on February 12, 2008 at 1:54pm

Well, last year we had an major ice storm followed by a 48 hour blizzard. I had to drive in to the Joint Emergency Operations Center in the middle of the ice storm and ended up staying here on post for 5 days. I couldn't get back home if I tried, the road was closed for two days (and I only live 25 miles out). 12 days of 14 hour overnight shifts can get old in an operations center with no windows!!!!

Comment by Mike on February 12, 2008 at 1:50pm

Come to Montana... we don't shut down. It just becomes a challenge to try to get to work, Once you get there you spend the rest of the day talking about what a challenge it was.

Comment by firerev on February 12, 2008 at 9:54am

It's all about the threat of litigation. I was talking to the local school superintendent about this very issue and he said that it is often the case that he would rather call school off if there is any question because if someone is hurt or killed going to school, he and the school can be sued. Even if they win, the cost of their defense makes it difficult to take that risk. However, we do have a couple inches on the ground this morning and it is still snowing and school went on as scheduled. Who knows what the criteria is anymore. What we all probably know from working Fire/EMS is that there's a whole lot of cya going on. It's no different in our schools.

Comment by Clint M. Nelsen on February 12, 2008 at 9:36am

Yeah, it seems like every time we get snow, people here forget how to drive!!! I mean, it's not like it's a big surprise that Iowa gets snow in winter!!!
Back in 2000, I was at Fort Sill, OK, for some training. They got three inches of snow and shut the post down!!! No training, no work, NOTHING. Best of all, with no snowplows, they were using road graders and bulldozers to plow the roads!!!