State capacity MN style: Stay off the roads!

Around 4pm this afternoon the temp in the Twin Cities creeped above zero ending a 95 hour streak of negative highs and lows. As far as I know there have been no deaths during this polar vortex. But down I35 W, past Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma, a tragic 133 vehicle pile up left 65 hospitalized and 6 dead in Texas. The winter weather conditions coated the interstate with glare ice jackknifing semis across the thoroughfare. Approaching cars helplessly collided into each other as they skated into the metal mangled mess.

Around the same time last week, in Minnesota, a “bridge appeared to be ice-covered when the driver crashed and nearly went over the edge…”Take a look at the video where bystanders stopped a pickup from teetering over a bridge rail into the Minnesota River. When it comes to winter weather, Minnesotans have high state capacity. As a group we have the extra skills and initiative to respond to unexpected winter weather challenges.

It’s not that the people down in the Lone Star State are hick, uneducated or inept. It’s not that they’re too poor to be responsible nor too rich so as think they’re above it all. It’s not that they are too stupid or too smart. Capacity is a combination of knowing what to do, and being able to engage when the need arises. It’s an identification process, a communication process and a step-up-if-you-are-there-and-available process.

The group has to have the expertise to distinguish the glean on the pavement as black ice, and not innocent damp asphalt. A network has strength to communicate the concern when it is reliable and trusted. Parents put in the extra ‘no’ with persistent teenagers who want to go meet their friends, errands are put off. Stories of cars sliding into holding ponds and drivers waiting through the night, half submerged, until someone comes to the rescue, are retold to confirm the nature of the situation. All these activities enforce behavioral sacrifices which lead to successful outcomes.

Our cities are well rehearsed to handle the weather, whereas the Texas Department of Transportation lacks the physical equipment to plow off the half a foot of snow from the roadways. Formal government and its preparedness are just one feature of the ability of a community to identify, communicate and respond to the challenges, or ambitions, at hand. But it’s really the coordination abilities of the whole group which delineates its capacity.