Storm Juno

[Devonian]

(27 January 2015, 05:56)Mortblanc Wrote: What if you had a land area the size of all Great Britain, and containing a population of over 50 million people, covered with a layer of snow two feet deep, 70 MPH winds and temperatures not expected to go above freezing for 10 days. (say hello to global warming)

Right now Storm Juno is settling over the entire northeastern US.

All public transport has been shut down, no trains, no busses, no taxis, no planes until further notice. Streets are closed and no one is allowed on the roads in their vehicles either to go home or to work in an area almost the size of all GB.

Widespread power outages are predicted with large areas off the power grid due to ice and wind taking down lines.

A real life scenario, happening as we speak.

Could you ride out a week with no heat, no utilities, and only the supplies on hand?

Could I survive a week with no utilities and just my preps, yes not a problem.

Would the country cope? If we are talking about a week then Yes, I think things would largely be OK and I can't really see it being a major problem, but there would of course be problems, people would be complaining and there would also an undoubtedly be an increase in deaths of the elderly/venerable - as there is every time we have a cold spell.

However as a country we are not geared up or equipped to cope with major snow events so it's more likely to simply be a case of most of the country staying at home and going into hibernation until the roads have been cleared and power reinstated etc. A lot of people have camping equipment and barbeques etc and those that don't will simply have to make do, but I expect neighbours and family will in many areas pull together, but the worst affected (prepared) are likely to be the inner city areas and how these would cope I'm less sure, BUT, I would suspect that these areas would most likely be better served by TPTB opening up shelters etc in schools and community centres.

These types of events are not unheard of in the UK, though other than the UK wide snow (ice) in December 2010 we have been (very) lucky in recent years and the last significant event of the type you describe was probably the event in 1968 or the bigger event in 1963 - so BP is probably the only one that will remember that

However I do think we are long overdue a significant freeze of this type in the UK..............