The storm and the chaos

[prucha25 76]

The city would rather give us toy shovels then chains. Fdny ems issued two shovels per unit one is a military spec, very short and good for digging a foxhole but not snow. The other is plastic breaks. the city doesn't want to give us chains. Couple that with the amount of new people on the job/ people the city hires with no driving experience and you get what happened. Two guys I know got stuck with a tight asthmatic a few blocks from lincoln, so they improvised and made a sled out of the stretcher using the longboards, and pulled her the rest of the way to the hospital.

[dadbo46 50]

All around general stupidity. From the genius Deputy Inspector in the NYPD Transit HQ that came up with the brilliant idea to have transit districts not field RMP's during the storm, and instead take the subway. That great idea worked on paper until the subways stopped running before the worst of the storm hit. I don't think I saw one RMP in the Bronx that had chains put on. The shops were closed, tire shops on the street were not sure about putting the cable chains on the new hybrids, or in my commands case, a new van, but the chains in our locker didn't fit this size tire. MTA Bus was equally unprepared, with numerous buses with no chains. The accordion style buses fared the worst, often taking on a jack knifed appearance and getting stuck in snow banks. I did see several NYC Sanitation trucks driving around Boston Road in the Gun Hill Area, one problem though, the plow doesn't work when kept in the raised position. Mid town Manhattan did look nice and clean this morning so that Bloomburg could go see his Broadway shows, while a good portion of the Bronx has yet to a single plow on the side roads.

"Accordian" buses aka "articulated" buses do not fare well in the snow. Westchester Bee-Line did not dispatch artics yesterday. Only 40-foot standard buses were used......and they all have snow tires.

[20y2 43]

It took them 10 hours to come up with the idea of transporting by alternate means?

Exactly. You're telling me that NO ONE was willing to take some initiative and find alternate means to the hospital, from the FF or Lt. on scene all the way to the Duty Chief? Amazing.

[20y2 43]

The city would rather give us toy shovels then chains. Fdny ems issued two shovels per unit one is a military spec, very short and good for digging a foxhole but not snow. The other is plastic breaks. the city doesn't want to give us chains. Couple that with the amount of new people on the job/ people the city hires with no driving experience and you get what happened. Two guys I know got stuck with a tight asthmatic a few blocks from lincoln, so they improvised and made a sled out of the stretcher using the longboards, and pulled her the rest of the way to the hospital.

Now THAT'S what I'm talking about, someone using their brain to solve a problem. All these crews 'stuck' for 12 hours could have gotten out and walked somewhere, anywhere.