that blows my mind... and how long befor you can like go to the store? how do you shovel your walk to the driveway!!?? I’d be dead from cardiac arrest within minutes!! lol...
Well, if you are smart (yeah I know that is presuming a bit much these days) and you live and grew up in the area, you prep for winter every year just on a general basis.
Then you just always keep an eye on the forecasts and when events like this are predicted, you go to the store ahead of time and stock up, and then just ride out the storm and clean up, which can take up to a week.
There is simply no place to plow 5-6 feet of snow to. Snow removal with those levels of snowfall required front loaders and a line of dump trucks for the front loader to load into, then the truck drives off to dump it in the Niagara River, and it comes back for the next load.
It’s a slow process.
That’s also why a state of emergency is often declared. It’s not because of freaking out over a couple feet of snow. It forces people off the road, gives the police some authority to enforce parking bans, and allows extra resources and funding to be allocated to clean up, hopefully, unimpeded by idiots out and about getting in the way.
Many people own snowblowers and often neighbors will pitch in to help others clear out their driveways with them if the neighbors don’t have snowblowers or kids. More enterprising teens will make some good money shoveling people out.
Also, you shovel as the storm progresses. You absolutely do NOT wait until it’s over. I can’t tell you how many times in my life I was out in the middle of a storm shoveling just to try to keep up with it.