I actually got to use my sportage in 4x4 today. Man, was it fun... Its been snowing here for about 2 days now, and its going to snow until tomorrow morning. I went out is about 10 inchs of snow and never had so much fun..

Cool! The last snow storm in PA dumped 18 inches overnight out my way. Had the Kia in the garage, so I just opened the door and drove out. Weeeeee!!

we're going to get anywhere from 16 to 18 by tomorrow morning. Funny thing is the most snow we got this winter was about 3 inches.

yeah, global warming, huh?

Yea, let it warm Baby, let it warm. I'm sick of this cold weather.

We just had Tropical Cyclone Larry (Catagory 5, 290km winds = 180 mph) wipe out a complete provincial city. One in two houses with no roof, EVERY property damaged - 80% beyond repair, complete write of of all fruit orchards in the area (supplies 90% of tropical friut to Australia), hundreds of millions of dollars damage (some estimates up to a billion dollars)
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and not one reported death so far....

We had military and civil assistance on the ground as soon as it was safe to do so. Everyone up there (residents and emergency services) has rehearsed for just such an occurance.

Kind of puts your FEMA to shame....

Agreed

it also puts those people to shame who would rather disobey orders to leave town than get to safety. it also puts to shame mayors and governors of various towns that would rather sit back on their haunches and say it was FEMA's fault for not moving when their own city and state plans were not followed, which would have saved many lives. in the US, the federal government is second in command in internal dealings of any sort, that includes disaster preparedness and disaster relief. it is the local and state governments that are supposed to be on their toes to kick these processes into action, to be prepared and to execute the functions necessary to get localities back on their feet as quickly as possible. apparently, someone did not get the memo. marshall law is declared as a last resort.

i applaud your citizens for listening to their government, or scientists, whomever made the call. this shows a good and healthy instinct for survival, which is something that fades rather quickly when so much is handed to you for such a large part of your life. it also shows that the world has learned from the mistakes of others and that is positive.

but- sorry to hear about all the loss. money's not easy to come by these days, especially a billion dollars worth. hope all goes well in the clean-up and reconstruction.

Dave is absolutely correct.

States rights in the US constitution prevent the federal gov. from interveining (sending troops, releif, etc.) until they are "invited" by the governer or state ledgislature. Kinda puts a kink in our response affairs. I was in Orleans' just after it happened, working insurance situations for my company. I encountered a very ungrateful bunch of folk. ( I'm sure that there we're many there gratefull too!)

However, glad to hear that the Aussies learned from our mistakes. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/patriot.gif" alt="" />