Seattle at a Standstill

Driving home from work I listened to KIRO FM and all the stories of the people stuck on the I-5. As I listened I hit the breaks, and my car began to slide sideways. I quickly let my foot off the break and turned into the slide, my heart racing.

Driving down a hill with a stop sign bellow me, and the headlights of other cars coming toward me, I tried again to slowly hit the breaks, pumping them to get a controlled stop.

They say with anti lock breaks you no longer have to pump the breaks to keep from sliding, but I beg to differ. I have them, and I had to. My car sliding sideways down a slick road made it very clear that all the computer assisted technology isn't always a replacement for quick thinking, and reflexes.

Seattle was still crawling along hours later, many people unable to get home hours after they got off work. Many businesses were closed the next day. Schools notified parents via email, websites, and automated phone calls that they would be closed as well.

A city filled with people brought down in a matter of hours from a snow storm.

The snow was expected to keep falling in sporadic spots until 9am, along with a colder wind and temperatures bellow freezing.

In fact it snowed off and on until late the next day when it finally began to rain in earnest and the snow melt away.

Of course it wasn't the snow, it was the ice that caused the probloms. The snow didn't stick very much, it was quick melting and freezing back over on slick roads making driving, especially over the bridges that connect across the Puget Sound, traitorous.

Even a 747 at SeaTac slid off the end of a runway causing the airport to shut down for a few hours as they took measures to adjust for the weather, causing delays for many holiday travelers.

All in all Seattle weathered its first snow storm of the season with only a day and a half in which we were homeward bound. It will be interesting to see how city officials manage deicing of the roads should another storm happen.