The snow is still coming down in buckets. Thankfully, for the most part, people are being smart. They’re staying home. They aren’t testing fate by venturing out on the roads.
We don’t get snow days very often in this part of the world—maybe once every couple of decades. As such an anomaly, it’s been nice that people seem to be enjoying it. Some are out on walks, others are showing their kids and pets snow for the first time.
However, for this to not turn into some tragic event, we must heed Governor Landry's warning. We've had too many tragedies in this city as things stand.
I spoke with Governor Landry at the top of my show today. He expressed his concerns as we round the corner from our magical snow shower of today to a deep, restless freeze tomorrow.
“What concerns me the most is that about 4-5 o’clock this winter wonderland is going to end and the hard freeze is going to begin,” Landry cautioned. “We’re going to get some severe cold temperatures over the course of the next 24 hours as the skies clear. That’s what concerns me the most. People will think ‘Oh the snow’s stopped. Now I can go out on the road.’ That creates an even more dangerous situation.”
He’s right.
As I drove into the station this morning I could probably count the cars I passed on my hands, and the vast majority of those were law enforcement vehicles.
But I couldn’t agree more with the governor. While we are all sipping our cocoa and tea today, enjoying the weather, tomorrow we’re going to start to get stir-crazy. This is New Orleans, we’re not shut-ins. We’re going to want to peek our heads back out into the wide world and test fate. But we can’t do that.
Remember, this isn’t Buffalo, Chicago, or Denver. Our city doesn't have the infrastructure for managing excessive snow and the conditions on the road will be extremely dangerous. We’re going to have to trust the city and state to get this cleared as soon as the weather cooperates. And that probably won’t be until Thursday morning, maybe later.
So enjoy it for now. But stay updated and listen to what officials are saying. Recognize that tomorrow will be more difficult to navigate than today, and we all need to practice the virtue of patience as we get through this collectively.