Houston is Closed!

[mom2rb]

The 4th largest city is closed until tomorrow afternoon. All schools, libraries, court houses and most stores are shut down. I personally have ice in my flower beds. It is bad! We are learning about black ice and the difference between sleet, freezing rain and snow. We are all in our homes watching the news and feeling bad for the doctors, nurses, and first responders that are having to drive today.

 

[AustinMommyofThree]

Austin and the surrounding area is shut down, as well. It's kind of nice to be safely snuggled into our home but we feel for those who need to be on the roads. The good news is it should all melt by tomorrow!

 

[FlightlessDuck]

That's adorable.

 

[JaxDad]

That's adorable.

 

[mom2rb]

That's adorable. What is so funny, is that my son goes to school in Erie. The first time it snowed his freshman year, he asked everyone why school wasn’t canceled.

 

[scrhsa]

So glad I drove through there yesterday instead of today!!! We knew the weather was turning bad so we left as soon as my FIL's funeral was over in East Texas . It would not have been a fun drive! I'm glad my husband had a couple of days before the funeral to be with his family!! I'm also praying that everyone else that had to travel today stays safe!!

 

[kamik86]

Hmm I wonder if that is why the weather channel has a winter advisory every time there is a mention of snow... for places that aren't used to it... I keep wondering why the weather channel thinks we need to be reminded that its winter and it will snow. (We got a dusting this morning. It just barely stuck to the roads and melted it didn't need an advisory...

 

[EMom]

It’s not the snow, it’s the ice. In Texas, we don’t have tires for that and our budgets don’t allow for de-icing roads because it happens so rarely. We have little to no experience driving on it, so accidents happen. It makes more economic sense to have people stay home for a day until the ice melts.

 

[mom2rb]

I am personally terrified of driving in snow. My husband is from Detroit and I won’t let him go out in it. I don’t care that he knows how to drive, nobody else here does. My son gets sick of me making him text me when he gets home from the grocery store in Erie. It is probably because my whole life, my city completely shuts down because it is so dangerous to be out and about.

 

[mnrose]

I feel really badly for areas not used to dealing with this weather get it. Here, of course, we are well equipped to handle weather much worse than what Houston is experiencing. Heck we are all looking forward to the "big" warm up coming tomorrow when it is supposed to get to where Houston bottomed out. LOL.

 

[Elle23]

Here in the Dallas / Fort Worth area we didn’t get anything but some miserable cold, thankfully.

The kids were super disappointed they didn’t get a snow day. I was just glad not to have to deal with the mess (I’m getting old....)

 

[gillep]

My job is based out of Houston and last night I got a text, phone call, and email, that our campus would be open today. Then at 10 am we get another round of text, phone call, email that they were closing at noon! How irresponsible to have people come in and then close 2 hours later! Thankfully my boss asked all of our management staff to change all of our meetings to calls and told our staff not to come in if possible, but some had to go in and are now struggling to get home.

Even as someone used to snow/ice I would never drive in it when I lived in Houston, no one knows what they are doing, and the large flyovers that they have are usually closed, for good reason as I would not want to drive on those when icy, which can make it difficult to get where you need to go anyway.

 

[soccerdad72]

I am personally terrified of driving in snow. My husband is from Detroit and I won’t let him go out in it. I don’t care that he knows how to drive, nobody else here does. My son gets sick of me making him text me when he gets home from the grocery store in Erie. It is probably because my whole life, my city completely shuts down because it is so dangerous to be out and about.

Erie is my hometown - growing up, my grandmother used to always tell us if you don't learn to drive in snow, don't even bother to get a license when living in Erie.

I'll echo others, however - different parts of the country are just better equipped to handle the weather than others. Feet of snow is no big deal to Erie - they just plow it and move on. Ice, however, is a different story altogether, because there isn't much you can do about it and all the driving skills in the world aren't going to help you if you hit a patch of ice.

 

[Mokat76]

San Antonio is closed, too.

 

[Hikergirl]

It’s not the snow, it’s the ice. In Texas, we don’t have tires for that and our budgets don’t allow for de-icing roads because it happens so rarely. We have little to no experience driving on it, so accidents happen. It makes more economic sense to have people stay home for a day until the ice melts.

Nobody has tires for ice but I understand where you guys are coming from.
I don't know why people give Southerners a hard time about their reaction to snow/ice storms. Don't worry some of us know you guys don't deal with this kind of stuff on a regular basis and aren't prepared for it. It is better for everyone to stay off the roads in those situations.
Even us Northeasteners avoid the roads when its an ice storm.

 

[HannaBelle]

It’s not the snow, it’s the ice. In Texas, we don’t have tires for that and our budgets don’t allow for de-icing roads because it happens so rarely. We have little to no experience driving on it, so accidents happen. It makes more economic sense to have people stay home for a day until the ice melts.

Nor do we have public transit in the suburbs and we have 1,000's of miles of highway. It is just not practical to go out the 3 days a year we get ice storms, snow would be fabulous! Ice, not so much...

 

[BrianL]

Nobody has tires for ice but I understand where you guys are coming from.
I don't know why people give Southerners a hard time about their reaction to snow/ice storms. Don't worry some of us know you guys don't deal with this kind of stuff on a regular basis and aren't prepared for it. It is better for everyone to stay off the roads in those situations.
Even us Northeasteners avoid the roads when its an ice storm.

Every region has their things. Down South, we don't get a lot of snow and ice, so when we do it's a big deal and we shut everything down, but I've been up in New England on an 80 degree day with like 40% humidity and had to constantly hear complaining about the heat! Please. We had a transplant working with us and the first time there was a line of severe thunderstorms/tornado watches she hid in her bathroom all night and was really freaked out. We just call that April. It's all about the experience you are used to.

 

[AustinTink]

Austin and the surrounding area is shut down, as well. It's kind of nice to be safely snuggled into our home but we feel for those who need to be on the roads. The good news is it should all melt by tomorrow!

It was kinda frustrating waiting for AISD to call it after everyone else in the area already had yesterday. I work in AISD but live in the LISD area. I was checking for texts constantly.

 

[cabanafrau]

Every region has their things. Down South, we don't get a lot of snow and ice, so when we do it's a big deal and we shut everything down, but I've been up in New England on an 80 degree day with like 40% humidity and had to constantly hear complaining about the heat! Please. We had a transplant working with us and the first time there was a line of severe thunderstorms/tornado watches she hid in her bathroom all night and was really freaked out. We just call that April. It's all about the experience you are used to.

"Every region has their things", but in a nutshell you find northerners or New Englanders whiners and complainers?

For the record, I'm a Michigander and I find ice storms to be nothing to mess around about. Has to be much more challenging where there is little to no resources to deal with it. Of course it is much easier to face knowing it will melt tomorrow. Here a serious icing might hang around a while, along with days of no power and dangerous cold.

 

[mom2rb]

The schools are starting to announce closures tomorrow too.