Yesterday we had a blizzard that had been predicted for three days. With innumerable warnings and news breaks into local TV shows for at least TWO days.

Heavy snow, winds to over NINETY mph and temps below freezing. And we GOT IT too. Our highest wind speed was 97 mph and here we had 60 mph. It was something to watch. The real severity of it lasted a solid 4-5 hours.

DESPITE all the warnings....people still went out, got compromised, requiring EMS, Search & Rescue and Local LE to risk their lives saving these folks.

Don't know the entire story leading up to this, only the outcome. But two SMALL boats went out onto a large lake two hours into the storm and capsized. One person drowned and five had to be rescued by the local SO S&R boat crew. Then a third boat was pushed against rocks at shore and those folks had to be rescued as well.

Maybe there were some emergency circumstances WHY they needed to be out on the water? But none have been revealed.

I did a career out here in LE. The stupidity of Joe Average has never ceased to amaze and mystify me. But the boaters yesterday take it to a new level.

Then we had multiple car wrecks in ZERO visibility, HOURS into the storm. Right at the start, maybe caught off guard , I can understand. But hours into it!

Thankfully yesterday no EMS/LE responders were hurt, that they reported.

I'm sure I'm becoming less tolerant, but I think the general populace is becoming even stupider and more clueless.

Rant mode...off

There is a hiking area north of MQT that is referred to as Hogback Mountain. Steep and rocky trail to the top of the hill.Pitch black at night. The number of idiots who try the hike in flip flops and tank tops amaze me. With no gear at all. Or water. In our weather. Frequently with small kids, too. Or drunk / high.
This is why I am OK with billing the costs involved to the idiots who need "rescued".

It's almost summer time in the valley of the damned, metro Phoenix. There isn't a week go by that several units of Phoenix Fire and Phoenix PD have to respond to one of the local mountain hiking trails because someone decided to take a poorly planned hike in 100+ degree weather.

They go off trail and get injured, or are not physically prepared for the hike, or don't bring water or a myriad of other reasons. It drains valuable resources.

We have a "stupid motorist law" for people who cross flooded crossings. It should be expanded to stupid hikers.

My answer is, once it is announced roads are closed, etc. it's on the individual. I see no reason why first responders are "required" to respond. A home fire, medical emergency at home-ok. You go out on the lake or drive on the roads, we'll see ya next spring.

quote:

Originally posted by FN in MT:
I did a career out here in LE. The stupidity of Joe Average has never ceased to amaze and mystify me. But the boaters yesterday take it to a new level.

Yeah, we had a somewhat famous rising star local musician who decided to go out duck hunting in a boat with a buddy in the middle of a nasty ice storm a couple years go. Not surprisingly, both died after the boat capsized in the middle of the storm and they froze/drowned.

It was all over the media and the interwebs for weeks afterwards, about what a tragic loss it was to his family, to the community, to the music scene, etc. etc. The local news still checks in with his widow every year or so, to let everyone know how she's doing. Yet not one mention of "Okay dumbasses... Don't go out in an open top boat in sub-zero temperatures during a wind/ice storm, or YOU WILL DIE!"

The ones that bother me are the ice fishermen in the springtime that get caught on an ice-flow and can't bet back to land.

I say the helicopter should drop a credit card machine down on a rope before rescuing idiots that are out there ice fishing in 50F weather.

Idiots that do stupid stuff like that should be billed for the expenses and resources it takes to rescue them. I don't care if it takes them years to pay it off.

I'll bet most Coast Guardsmen have a lot of good stories.

agreed. Lot of dummys out there!!!!!

I worked EMS and FD with a volunteer dept. for 45 years. You would not believe how stupid people are. It increases as the weather get worse. Then 1/2 the town sees the trucks leave the station and has to follow 'em to see what's happening so they can go back to the coffee shop and tell everybody.

Growing up in a state with 1,300 miles of coast line, swamps and 30,000 lakes.....you get very used to seeing people do dumb ass shit.

I agree that people are stupid... However part of the blame is on the sensationalist media. Forever warning of stormpocalypse, end of times events, stay tuned here!

Then... Some baby little storm that doesn't mean shit. People start to tune it all out

News meteorologist pimping every snowfall as an apocalyptic event. Rarely do they get it right. Add to that the sure knowledge they will be rescued by the heroic efforts of rescuers.

“The weatherman doesn’t know shit, and even if he is right it’ll all work out.”

YooperSig,
I went to Northern Michigan University, so I know the trail you are talking about. One night a buddy and I got drunk and called our girlfriends to go clime the mountain. Middle of the night, no moon out, blacker than the inside of a cow, and two of us drunk! God looks after fools and drunks I guess as we got back down and no one got hurt. Just one of the many dumb ass things I did in my misspent youth.
Rod

Sig Sailor:
Sugarloaf is for tourists. Hogsback is for the hardcore.

quote:

Originally posted by az4783054:
It's almost summer time in the valley of the damned, metro Phoenix. There isn't a week go by that several units of Phoenix Fire and Phoenix PD have to respond to one of the local mountain hiking trails because someone decided to take a poorly planned hike in 100+ degree weather.

They go off trail and get injured, or are not physically prepared for the hike, or don't bring water or a myriad of other reasons. It drains valuable resources.

We have a "stupid motorist law" for people who cross flooded crossings. It should be expanded to stupid hikers.

As a fellow "Zonie" I would agree with making the stupid hikers pay. My wife grew up at the base of Squaw Peak and it always pisses her off when she sees a rescue on the news up there because it is almost guaranteed to be someone with no water or inadequate clothing.

BTW - The idiots who get their cars stuck oin washes are know as a "Hispanic Titanic"

YooperSig,
There were several students each year that got broken bones falling off Sugarloaf. I am a Yooper born and raised, but we had students from the city who's idea of a wilderness trail was a 4 foot wide trail with blacktop and moms pushing baby carriages. Then we always lost a few that went out on the pier to get a close look at the big waves. Darwin hard at work, I guess.
Rod

quote:

Originally posted by reflex/deflex 64:
News meteorologist ....

So, it’s not the fault of the people who go out without being prepared for whatever might happen, or don’t pay any attention to what is happening when they’re out—?

Being in a prime attraction area for hikers and others who come here for the outdoors experience, we have many such incidents of people needing to be rescued but very few are due to their getting snowed on when they didn’t expect it. No, it’s not the weathermen who are at fault, it’s the people who assume that they can do anything, anytime, anywhere, with inadequate preparation, and if they get into trouble, someone else will get them out of it.

That entitlement attitude becomes obvious when talking to many of those people. Our team has “rescued” people whose only emergency was that they were tired and didn’t want to walk any more. One man became irate with me and refused to believe that there was no state S&R group that would be more responsive to his demands than the county team (they’re all county teams, and mostly volunteers at that). Another demanded a helicopter because he was tired and evidently believed that someone else would pay for it.

Sig Sailor:
You will not be surprised to learn the big lake is still snuffing folks out.
And Snowmobiles killed 10 in the UP last winter.
Or I should say the sledders killed themselves. Including two dudes who managed to run head on into each other. In the middle of frozen Lake Gogebic!

How timely:

“Soldier climbs over safety railing and falls into active volcano.”

Link (at Army Times).