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Which cities will you find large numbers of people going about their daily business in what others would consider extreme weather? Examples: going to the hardware store during a hurricane, going to school in a blizzard or -20 temperatures, getting groceries in 120 degree heat, etc.
Location: Miami (prev. NY, Atlanta, SF, OC and San Diego)
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Nobody is going to a hardware store during the middle of a hurricane unless they suffer from dyslexia or are a roving reporter for the local weather station (even then….). They go either before and/or after.
Extreme temperatures are no hinderance to people in cities for the most part. In the heat, people take air conditioned vehicles to their air conditioned destinations. In the cold, people dress warmly, and ride in heated vehicles to heated destinations.
In hurricanes and tropical storms, no one goes about their daily business, as businesses get shut down, and there is a real threat of physical damage and injury. In actual blizzards (high winds, cold, near zero visibility), people stay home as they do not want to get stuck outdoors, and many/most businesses are shut down.
Unless people physically can't go about their daily business due to roads being closed or impassible, if businesses/schools are closed, or if there is actual risk to life or limb (rising water, high winds, extreme cold with blowing/drifting snow), people will tend to go about their business anyway.
Snow and ice response is dependent on location. For example, just a threat of snow in Houston will shut down schools and businesses, and cause panic buying at grocery stores. In northern cities, it may take several inches (or sometimes feet) of actual snowfall to interrupt daily business.
This is not happening almost anywhere. If blizzards are bad, roads can be impassable. Growing up in Louisiana, during a storm schools are closed, gas stations may be out of gas, everyone is home. Heat like that will also have people inside unless it's normal like in Phoenix (which means it's not a natural disaster). So, none.
Growing up in Wisconsin I don’t remember the schools ever closing for cold or snow. This was when everyone walked to school and back 4 times because you went home for lunch. No one was driven because the one car the family owned was at work with dad. Now a tornado or a hurricane is obviously a different story.
People adapt to their normal environment. If it 0 degrees and snowing in Alaska, people still go about their normal business.
Extreme weather means extreme compared to normal conditions. Nobody but EMS and crazy/stupid people go out in extreme weather. They hunker down until it passes.
Living in St. Louis, that was a hearty group. Sub zero temperatures and snow on ground left the citizenry undeterred. Report to work and school as usual. That doesn't happen where I live now.
Large % of people everywhere go about their business normally during tornado outbreaks. There could be a massive EF-5 tornado barreling towards a town and you can bet there's still going to be large numbers of people just doing normal stuff. Some dude's house could be In the process of being destroyed by a tornado and you can bet there's some guy less than a mile away who thinks "kinda windy today" as he walks into a convenience store to buy some beer and chips.
During a typical tropical storm normal life definitely can continue for a lot of people because quite frankly they aren't that big a big deal normally. They occasionally cause significant flooding, which can become a big deal, but that's not typical. In many places it's basically going to feel just like a rainy, windy day.
Nobody is going to a hardware store during the middle of a hurricane unless they suffer from dyslexia or are a roving reporter for the local weather station (even then….). They go either before and/or after.
I used to recruit physicians, back in 2009-2011. I worked with a couple of hospitals in the Syracuse, NY area, and they booked interviews with Gastroenterologists and Radiologists through our firm.
Both candidates flew in and out of Syracuse that winter (I think it was February in one of those years--maybe 2010), and there was a good snowfall of at least about 10-12 inches+ coming down. The airport was cleared for landing and takeoffs with minimal delays, and there was already about 2-3 feet of snow on the ground there.
The hospital said the airport was almost always open for "regular business" if heavy snowfalls came, which was often during the winter.
Syracuse, NY seems to have regular heavy snowfall and rolls with it like no problem whatsoever.
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