After Sandy, I told my friend that the NYC subway system has only shut down thrice in my life: After September 11th, during Hurricane Irene, and during Hurricane Sandy. For me, that was three too many. So you can imagine my surprise when I heard not only was mass transit shuttered, but also all non-emergency vehicles were banned from driving. My first thought was, "When the hell did we become such pussies?" Do you remember back in 2006 or so we had a sudden blizzard of 26"? What happened then? Some above ground trains went out, yeah, but the system was still on. We just shoveled ourselves out and went to work the following day.

I vaguely recall reading an article in The New York Times exploring the spike in "state of emergencies" in the past decade as a bid to acquire more federal aid for things as minor as a sewage pipe breaking. (Unfortunately I can't find the article.) I don't think this is the case now considering the predictions are so severe that it's even appearing on international news like the BBC or Le Monde, but more than anything I'm surprised about the driving ban since I've never heard it before. I know it's better to err on the side of caution, but this blizzard better be fucking huge news if the state is going to require a curfew, something that didn't happen even in Sandy.