Quattro limits in Ohio

[Doyt W. Echelberger]

We may have record-breaking nasty snow and wind developing. At noon today, 
in my quadrant of Ohio only the 5 ton dual axle National Guard lorries are 
moving on the side streets. They are designed to pull weapons and fuel 
trailers I think....several feet of wheel clearance, front bumper about the 
height of my windshield. My neighbor in a new 4 wheel drive Chevy Suburban 
with chains managed to get out. He is a phone company line technician, and 
he was going out to keep the sub station operating.

The awesome all-wheel drive Audi quattro that has been able to wade through 
everything so far during the past few years has been stopped by these 
drifts. And now the temps are dropping and the drifts are freezing solid, 
and the quattro just slides up and sits there with the wheels spinning, 
both diffs locked.

Forecasts indicate that our part of Ohio may have to deal with -7 
Fahrenheit temperatures and 30 mile an hour winds, starting this afternoon 
and increasing to blizzard conditions later in the day. Those temps are 
around the low end of the effectiveness range for solutions of salt and 
calcium chloride, and some roads already are drifted 3 feet deep with hard 
pack wet snow.

So, I think we are going to sit this one out by the fire. That may include 
burning the furniture to keep the pipes from freezing when the ice snaps 
the power lines and disables  the furnace blower. Over 30,000 people are 
already in that situation in central Ohio, around Akron.


Doyt Echelberger
87 Audi 5ktq