This is an example of how bad the snow can get, yet it is still a
rare occurrence. The real take home is that the potential is there
always and it cannot be easily predicted, just as hurricane Sandy was
an example of a rare confluence of events that just happened to
produce a mega storm.
Yet capability needs to be in place should such an event arise.
Again it is distributed capability that can move on target when
needed. It is no trick to pretrain crews for mobile operations
operating 24/7 in an emergency mode with remaining crew doing double
shifts back at home. The need for the planning is now clear and I
suspect that it is now well established also.
Russia's crews are now been stress tested and will learn. This is as
bad as it gets and one needs to known what is important to keep open.
Otherwise, everyone is taking a week off whether they like it or
not.
Snowpocalypse
Russia: 'Snow tsunami' swallows streets, cars, buildings
18 January, 2013,
22:27
Unrelenting snowfalls
have caused unprecedented chaos in Russia. Over the past week, the
country has seen scores of traffic accidents, flight delays and, in
some cases, the complete isolation of some remote settlements and
towns.
On Friday, Moscow was
on a verge of traffic collapse as more than 10 inches of snow fell on
the city, which is more than half of January’s average.
Thousands of
passengers were stranded overnight in the capital’s major airports,
as several dozen flights were delayed.
Muscovites woke up and
found their cars, driveways and houses buried under a thick layer of
snow, with city workers unable to get to smaller streets.
Moscow’s Yandex app
showed traffic at level 10, the highest possible, as strong winds
created blizzard conditions and built imposing snow drifts.
Falling snow and ice
caused many accidents due to poor visibility and bad road conditions.
Moscow witnessed a 13-kilometer jam on MKAD, one of the city's main
highways, reducing speeds to 10 to 25 kph in the capital.
More than 12,000 snow
removal trucks worked around-the-clock to clean up the mess, but
their efforts did little, with the city coming to an effective
standstill.
The chair of the
Duma’s transport committee called for local transport officials to
face legal sanctions for failing to cope with the winter
weather. “Until local bureaucrats face the wrath of the law,
winter will always be a surprise occurrence. They will continue to do
nothing, as people suffer,” Mikhail Bryachak told Kommersant
FM radio.
However,
meteorologists have promised some good news for Moscow: The stormy
conditions are expected to recede over the weekend.
While the snowstorms
have caused inconvenience for large population centers in western
Russia, they have been life-threatening further east in the country.
The polar circle city of Norilsk has been buried under 10 feet of
snow – entire apartment blocks, markets, stores and offices were
buried under snow overnight.
Banks of snow were as
high as two people put together, reaching the second-story windows of
some apartment buildings. Cars, stores, garages were blocked. Norilsk
metropolitan workers were forced to dig passageways through the snow
banks to create access between the outside world and the barricaded
city.
Meanwhile, icicles up
to three feet in length have formed off the ledges of buildings,
breaking at random and causing a lethal hazard for pedestrians below.
Elsewhere, the extreme
weather continues. In the Altai Republic in Western Siberia, 12
Russian settlements were isolated because of the snowstorm. Seven
settlements, with a total population of 1,300 people, remain cut off
from the outside world due to the snow drifts. Emergency crews are
currently en route to deliver needed supplies to the stranded
populations.
Snow accompanied by
strong winds has caused flight delays in the airport of Russia’s
far eastern town of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The runway has been
cleared, but planes are not risking takeoff due to strong sidewinds.
Flights were also delayed in Russia’s easternmost cities of
Vladivostok and Khabarovsk.
More snow storms are
predicted in Western Siberia and the Western Urals over the weekend.
In the end of 2012,
Russia saw extreme winter not witnessed since 1938. The
coldest-ever December in Russia led to the evacuation of hundreds of
people in Siberia, where temperatures fell below -50 degrees Celsius;
Moscow also saw its coldest night ever for the season.
More than 90 Russians
died during the cold snap, and more than 600 people were taken to
hospital due to the extremely dangerous weather, which is 10 degrees
below the December norm.
Nearly 200 people have
died throughout Russia as a direct result of weather-related
accidents and hypothermia this season, according to official
statistics, although the extreme conditions have likely contributed
to many more fatalities.
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