I got 5 inches of snow and it is
Not to mess with,
5 to 10 Feet would be disastrous!
When you have a major snow storm such as this one has been, you are not just dealing with one emergency. Households are dealing with several at a time and there is no time to rest. The house has to be kept warm. Food has to be prepared. Babies have to be fed and kept clean. Trash piles up.
If there is no electricity then just food prep and keeping heat alone are non-stop jobs. What if water is shut off? Then pans of snow have to be brought in for melting. It’s great if you have a wood stove, but it’s a cold and hard trek outside to get to the storage of firewood. If there are extremely young, old, or sick people in a household that presents more challenges. Gas meters have to be kept free from snow, water pipes have to be protected, and animals need to be cared for and fed and watered. Most of us can deal with one of those issues for a day or even a week, but have them all come at once will try even the most competent and prepared people.
A family’s patience and endurance is taken to it’s limits as there is no time to rest. This is not something that a short sprint of energy can resolve since you have to keep up that level of energy for days at a time. It’s exhausting! So let’s cut these people some slack here.
You learn to deal. I lived and drove delivery truck during the late 70’s from Sparks to Tahoe, out to Squaw Valley. You can drive on the snow, as it compacts. They only can remove snow until you are driving through canyons built by ice and snow 12’ or more. So it is compacted and the traction is nice. With that said, my truck broke an axle, we walked to a Casino and it started snowing. An hour and a half later the truck had 30 inches on it. A mechanic shop, car repair business who managed apartments (mine) on the side, got tired of living at work, and had to cut a way out through the roof and hitch rides down to Reno where it was a balmy 45 degrees. You wouldn’t believe the pictures. There were two story tall drifts, and unlike the Dakotas, the ground around was not bare and frozen. It was 2-4 foot deep too.
To think, I moved out of So Dak to get away from snow, and right into the snowshow of Nevada. It sounds like climate change(d) back.