Posted on 07/14/2011 3:47:30 AM PDT by markomalley
Thousands of doctors and nurses will bunk at hospitals, an emergency operation center will be set up and Southern California residents are being urged to stay home and stock up on food.
One major airline offered $4 seats to help people avoid the looming mess, selling out of tickets in three hours.
The crisis?
A 10-mile stretch of Interstate 405 — a vital artery that links population centers north and south of the Santa Monica Mountains — is shutting down for 53 hours this weekend. The closure, a necessary part of a major highway reconstruction project, is being dubbed "Carmageddon," evoking images of gridlock, road rage and other traffic nightmares that it might spawn in car-dependent Southern California.
Celebrities are among those sounding the alarm, via Twitter messages urging residents to stay off the road starting at midnight Friday.
"This weekend, LA! Avoid Carmageddon, Gas-zilla, 405-enstein, Grid-lock-apalooza! STAY HOME. Eat & shop local," Tom Hanks tweeted this week.
Beyond tongue-in-cheek apocalyptic warnings, city leaders stressed that real public safety concerns exist: Helipads have been cleared for air ambulances and 200 extra firefighters and paramedics will be on duty, some of them positioned along the shuttered freeway to protect fire-prone hillsides in the area. Four big hospitals near the freeway on the city's west side are setting up cots and putting thousands of doctors, nurses and medical personnel in hotels and dorm rooms so they don't show up late to their shifts.
(Excerpt) Read more at old.news.yahoo.com ...
Indeed part of the 405 shuts down for two days and it’ a crisis,California cry babies never grow up.
Well when you build your cities around the use of a highway, then dont panic when the thing needs to actually be fixed occasionally.
Great job, city planners!
Oops! It’s been too long since I last watched that movie. It’s a DC-10, not a 747.
as an L A resident, i suspect this will be a non-event because of advance warnings. but it is rather dramatic to shutdown the intersection of two major routes, the 101 and the 405. it seems like the powers that be are doing their advance planning. i am actually impressed, for once.
All together sing! Do You Know the Way Sans Jose? and I Left My Cart in San Francisco
You have a great memory, sir / madame! I haven’t seen that in years and it is still hilarious. I noticed “copyright 2000” — yikes! 11 years have gone by.
In preparing your bug-out plan, be aware of access to roadways being shut down either due to unmoving traffic or LEO roadblocks.
Have alternate routes, a means of identifying which routes are blocked, and a vehicle that can get through rough roads (lifted 4x4 if possible).
Reminds me why I am glad I moved away in 1979. Pouting, whining, self-centered trolls. Pick out a couple of library books, or fire up the family NetFlicks account, and settle in for the weekend. Sheesh! Or maybe they could get out an actual map and find another way to get where they absolutely have to go.
Strong opinions to follow.
Agree the you know how the self-centered trolls love to be seen {Jones}they think people want to see them-not.
Didn’t Los Angeles build this great subway system. Seems to me they should be just fine.
LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL.
Depends on the day and what sort of mood I'm in...
Makes more room for him
My first impression, as well.
Looks like granny's shifter is in "park" also.
(Click it - great short movie!)
It not like they need to escape a hurricane on anything. Stay home, what’s the problem?
Yeah, like work... when on call and looking at the same map of the same alternative routes as many 1000’s of others. I live in Santa Clarita, I don’t have many choices to get over the hill. I work in entertainment so I can’t get out of work for the weekend.
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