Posted on 02/03/2008 7:12:28 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Tanks sent to deice storm-affected highways
(Xinhua) Updated: 2008-02-03 19:30
CHAOHU, Anhui -- The Chinese army has sent out tanks to clean the icy expressways in eastern Anhui Province.
Tanks roll on the Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway to deice the snow- and ice-covered road surface as soldiers shovel snow in Chenzhou, Central China's Hunan Province, February 3, 2008. [Xinhua] |
Two tanks have finished their work Sunday, deicing 110-km surface of two expressways in the province, said military sources here Sunday.
Traffic on the Hefei-Anqing and Hefei-Wuhu expressways had suffered heavy snow in the past week with thousands of vehicles stranded.
The tanks were sent there Thursday evening, but it took them more than 30 hours to cover the distance that usually costs just two and half hours in normal weather, due to the dense traffic jam on the way.
They started deicing the road on early Saturday morning, the source said.
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China had deployed 306,000 soldiers to combat the worst winter storm in five decades.
About 1.07 million militia and army reservists were also participating in the relief efforts.
Other military vehicles such as field kitchen trucks and armored cars are playing an important role in de-icing and rescue missions. More than 100 aircraft and helicopters remained on standby, air force sources said.
Armored cars are busy deicing the road surface along the Beijing-Zhuhai expressway, a south-north trunk road that have been repeatedly affected by the winter storm.
On Saturday, the air force had sent three transporters to help ship relief material from southern Guangdong Province to neighboring most-affected Hunan Province.
Meanwhile, two transporters flew to the southwestern province of Guizhou, carrying 5.5 tons of relief material and equipment including food, medicine and quilts.
By 1:33 p.m. on Saturday, the first of six helicopters loaded with relief goods, deployed by the Chengdu Military Area in southwest China, flew to Yibin, Sichuan Province. The copters were to airdrop 5,500 quilts over snow-hit areas in Dazhou and Yibin's Changning County, which on top of the snow was hit by a medium-intensity earthquake early on Friday.
Progressos are held to different standards then Conservatives. The MSM would not have said that about FEMA if a Progresso was President. In fact, when Clinton used tanks to burn women and children alive in their church, the MSM called them a cult and their church a compound.
Do you use the w409 tires all year around?
As Snuffy Smiths’ ‘ole lady once said “Po’ folks, got po’ ways”. Ya buy a set of tires and run ‘em til they need replac’n. Of corse ya rotate and balance at regular interals and keep that oil changed.
...haven’t had them a whole year, yet. It’s hard to know how others would do with them. When I was in my twenties, tires didn’t last long at all. ;-) Now, with the front end kept very well aligned, frequent enough tire rotations, avoidance of big Fords (couldn’t get good front end alignments) and much easier driving most of the time (and not foolishly taking a route through a summer pass in the winter), almost any tire will wear well for me.
If I were in the eastern lowlands, it would be good rain tires during seasons other than winter. It’s much warmer even in Ontario now than here (the Rockies).
Problem is, that most tanks are also heavy enough to destroy the types of roads they have out there. Guess they'll worry about that later. Or not...
>>Has the US ever deployed tanks and submachine gin fire during a natural (non-riot) disaster ?
I remember a blizzard when there were M-113s out on the highways rescuing people from cars. I think in Ohio.
Chicom power grid reliability, control and quality parallels that of pet food additives, flip flops, metals, domestic water quality, etc.
That might have been during the Blizzard of 1978 ? It was the worse ever blizzard for Ohio. Saw a video special on that a few weeks ago. They had some vehicles that were stranded on the interstates that no one could get to.
I was thinking late-70s or early-80s, so that’s probably it.
Yep, I’ve been some cold places, but few match the sheer misery of Hohenfels in January!
Regards,
Ok thanks!
I’m currently running Michelin X-Ice tires on my Accord. They’re currently in they’re 4th winter of use, though, and I probably should have had new ones this year.
Come spring I’m ditching the Michelin MXV-Energy (or something like that) rim protectors on my summer rims and putting some quality rain tires on - in the rain is one time I find traction really lacking around here, especially with those tires.
Fully-loaded 18-wheelers weigh about the same amount as a light tank, about 30 tons or so. I think the real problem is that tank treads are made of steel and that is what does the damage, in combination with the weight. For 18-wheelers to do this kind of damage, the tires would have to be made of steel.
I hear dissidents are great at providing traction!
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