This text is from a county emergency manager out in the western part of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan after a severe snow storm last winter.
The Mining Journal, Marquette, MI
WEATHER BULLETIN
Up here in the Northern part of Michigan we just recovered from an historic event --
may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with an historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.
FYI:
FEMA did nothing.
No one howled for the government.
No one blamed the government.
No one even uttered an expletive on TV.
Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit.
Our Mayors did not blame Bush or anyone else.
Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else either.
CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX, or NBC did not visit - or even report on this Category 5 snow storm.
Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.
No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House.
No one looted.
Nobody, I mean Nobody, demanded the government do something.
Nobody expected the government to do anything either.
No Larry King, No Bill O'Rielly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and
No Geraldo Rivera.
No Shaun Penn, No Barbara Striesand,
No Hollywood types to be found.
Nope, we just melted the snow for water.
Sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars.
Truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks
and didn't ask for a penny.
Local restaurants made food.
Police and fire departments delivered it to snow bound families.
Families took in stranded people - total strangers.
We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns
or Coleman lanterns.
We put on on extra layers of clothes because up here
it is "Work or Die".
We did not wait for some affirmative action government
to get us out of a mess created
by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades
votes for 'sittin at home' checks.
Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has
never fallen this early,
we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.
