Brief Thoughts . . .

It would be interesting to know what the total bill for this winter will be for all the damage to forests from freezing rain, the utility companies and also the municipal governments for snow and ice removal.

I heard some press reports several weeks ago, that a number of the cities in the Midwest and Northeast had already used most of their allocated budget for snow removal and the winter was hardly half over.

The big storm this past weekend, that turned much of the area into a skating rink from North Texas and all of Oklahoma eastward across Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia and part of Kentucky, will be extremely costly.

Oklahoma was especially hard hit as far as tree damage is concerned. Some counties reported damage to virtually every tree in the county. Utility companies reported numerous poles snapped off and utility lines down over a wide area.

There is old thinking that only southerners do not know how to drive on icy roads or snow-covered roads. That is not necessarily true. If you watched TV last weekend, you would have seen lots of video of multiple car crashes, even including big trucks. When a highway is covered with ice, it becomes a nightmare even for seasoned, experienced drivers in that kind of weather.

We do not know for sure what the rest of the winter will be like. It is near certain that we will have another winter storm threat before the month is out even in the Deep South.

I still say an ice storm is ten times worse than a snowstorm. It is far more crippling.

Category: Uncategorized