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The National Weather Service is currently predicting up to 1.75 inches of ice for large swaths of the southern US
(hexbear.net)
If this forecast holds, the infrastructure damage from this storm is going to be catastrophic, potentially worse than a category 5 hurricane. People will be without power for weeks or potentially months and the roads will be completely impassable with downed trees and power lines.
Any comrades in these areas, please do your best to stay safe and warm. Stock up on some non-perishable food if you still have time.
my life has generally been a steady journey north and it has been a revelation how much more prepared and coordinated communities can be for extreme weather events.
the fact that southern states have not frequently had these ice storms making them less prepared to help people in crisis is wildly exacerbated by austerity politics individualizing risks by default. "oh you don't have a fully off the grid set up with food, water and fuel stockpiles? well how dare you!"
where i live now has a very resilient power grid and has been blasting out the schedule and locations of "warming centers" around town that will be available 24-7, including for sleeping over night.
the state governments of south rarely even make any effort for the more common forecasted events like hurricanes, so if this is as bad as the build up has been anticipating, its going to be really fucked up for a lot of people. and TECOT is going to gouge the shit out of everyone for energy usage is my extremely cold take.
It was the same thing with COVID. Where a lot of states had mask mandates and closed things down, Southern states were willing to shove the elderly and immunocompromised into the furnace of capitalism to keep the wheels moving under the auspices of "individual accountability"