[FreeReign]

5 feet of ice seems a bit farfetched. Probably not the doing of mother nature but instead where city crews piled it up after clearing off a sidewalk or plaza or something.

Probably inches of sleet and not feet.

The hyperbolic pictures you are seeing are places where sleet collected after heavy rain washed away the sleet.

[Yardstick]

Yep, looks like the rain swept the sleet into certain areas where it got kind of corralled and piled up, thus giving the MSM its photo-op.