How would we cope?

[anotheoldgit]

We get flights cancelled and airports virtualy closed, at the first signs of a little heavy mist.
We get trains delayed and cancelled if a few Autumn leaves land on the rails
We get total disruption due to the winter gales.
And if 1.5 centimeters of snow happened to fall (which it might because it is winter) the whole country would come to a virtual stand still.
How would this country cope as it did in the past? When you virtualy could not see the hand in front of you, during those pea-souper fogs.
In the winter of 1947 we had constant snow from 22 Jan till 17 March. Which saw 60cms or more of snow and drifts 5 Meter deep, and yet with true British Grit (pardon the pun) we managed.
How would we go on today? after all it is winter and they have forecast some very severe weather coming from the north. Where can I get some snow chains for my tyres?

[B00]

Was snowing here in Lancs earlier- disappeared before it landed mind!

Don't you think though that as a civilisation that we've become softer? I Imagine life in 1947 (using your example) was a lot tougher than it is now, no central heating for a start. Therefore we managed because we were 'tougher', nowadays we go to pot if the wind blows in a different direction.


PS
No idea re snow tyres front- possibly Halfords? ;-)

[dot.hawkes]

Hiya uoldgit

I remember in 1962 it was atrocious and we had to be dug out of the lane to the farmhouse but we were not late for school and managed for nearly a week wihout getting to the shops.

it was snowing in Wigan as I left work at 5pm and the roads were bad but i got home ok.

[anotheoldgit]

Thanks for your answers. Yes it would appear that we are getting softer, regarding you managing without getting to the shops Dot, blimey if the supermarkets are closed fo one day, everyone goes mad the days before you would think that food was to go out of fashion, the way people stock up and that is in the days of fridges and freezers.

But on a more serious note it seems that these days those in power just do not know how to cope with emergencies, as did those of yesteryears. If they can't have a white paper on it followed by days of debate, making sure if they can afford to act and then having a vote, then setting a date of action, then nothing gets done.

Look at the organisation that took place before the outbreak of WW2, and the period after. Sand bags filled and put in place, air defence weapons and equipment put in place, slit trenches dug, public shelters built. The general public were issued with ration cards, gas masks, air raid shelters and identity cards, all free of charge.

Nowadays the ID card debate has been going on for months, still nothind done and if they are implimented we will then be expected to pay for them ourselves. Where oh where have we gone wrong?

[shaneystar2]

We were made of sterner stuff then ...very few people had a car ...even less a fridge and even less a bathroom ...in my neck of the woods at that time .
I remember the winter of 62 very well .Snow piled up the sides of the streets for months and the Medway was frozen.I lived in Kent them and still had to trudge to school in it. Shanks's pony was the order of the day.Nowadays at the first sign of a snowflake they shut the schools sometimes !
However where I live now in Norfolk we had heavy flooding back in August after torrential rain and it was amazing how people rallied round to help one another and the council were brilliant providing sandbags etc.
Still nothing from our leaders on coastal erosion and flood defences !! All the while peoples property is falling off the cliffs into the sea.
I think people in general will help one another in an emergency but this government is too busy meddling in things that should not concern them than to worry about your average punter who pays the bill. If there were to be a national emergency of some sort I hate to think what would happen .

[jake-the-peg]

We're not geared up for heavy snow because we get it so rarely. A light sprinkle for a day or so every year (don't think there was any last year) and that's yer lot!

Hardly worth investing hundreds of millions of pounds worth of snowploughs. If we got a winter like '47 every year then it'd be different and it'd be more like Canada.

Mind you I think you're looking at '47 with rose coloured spectacles:

A blizzard over south-west England and south Wales on 29 and 30 December brought snowdrifts 6 m deep. Villages were cut off, some for several days. Roads and railways were blocked. Telephone wires were brought down. Stocks of food ran low. Farmers couldn't reach their livestock. Thousands of sheep, ponies and cattle starved to death.


There were fuel shortages which lead to power cuts from 9-12 and 2-4. Televison broadcasting was shut down again.

There were food shortages imported beef was frozen so hard it couldn't be jointed and people were reported as digging parsnips out with pneumatic drills!

I think compared to 1947 we're coping pretty well don't you?

[anotheoldgit]

Yes Jake you are missing the point. I was around in 1946 and I am in no way looking back at those times through rose tinted specs. My point was if we had a winter now as we did in 47 do you think that we would cope as well as we did back then? So of course we are coping pretty well now compared to 1947.

[jake-the-peg]

I don't think I'm missing the point, I just don't think people coped very well at all in 1947!

Food and power supply systems failed, transport did places were cut off and isolated for weeks.

God alone knows how many died - One bunch of brave souls dug their way out of a Welsh village because someone was critically ill.

Another winter like that wouldn't be pretty but with air ambulances and much more widespread plant and machinery I think we'd cope better.

I'm sure we'd not resort to digging up parsnips with pneumatic drills!

[Kuin]

I understand that it snows there all year round, but it makes you wonder how people in places like Alaska and Canada cope with all their snow. I wonder what they think of us Brits when we get 3 inches of snow, and all the schools in Buckinghamshire get closed for not one, but TWO days straight. :)

[chitchat]

Why is it that a downfall of snow is now major news? We have always had snow - in fact we get less of it these days but it seems to bring the whole country to a halt. Why????