I thought I knew what snow was all about.
After all, among other things, I lived for 10 years on top of a mountain where it snowed all winter long and in the spring and fall.
I’ve been living in Delaware about nine years now and we haven’t had much snow.
In fact, so little that I gave my snow blower away before I even moved here thinking that my neighbors needed it more than I did. But now I’m discovering that Delaware is about as screwed up as they come when it comes to managing the State’s needs especially in the area of snow removal. You know, quite often it takes an emergency to reveal a state’s flaws.
I learned that the county does not have jurisdiction for snow removal. That is a state affair. It turns out according to the leading radio station in our county, that there are only 12 snow plows in the county even though a spokesperson for the state said that there were 100 snow plows in action. Not here, my friend. I’ve been driving the county and didn’t see one working snow plow. Now, mind you, if it was a tiny county with few roads, twelve plows might suffice; but we are the second-largest county east of the Mississippi, about 1,000 square miles, so that’s a potential disaster in the making.
The proof is in the pudding, I had to go rescue my brother-in-law from a shelter because his house wasn’t plowed out for four days. That’s after he lost power from Delmarva Power. It took them four days to restore power. Okay, we understand that the snow was wet and it brought down lines. We can overlook that.
And going across the state, I only saw two snow plows and their plows were up while the road was largely impassable in spots. Now, I’m talking about Route 9, a primary road; forget the secondary roads. Even on the primary road, Route 1, there were areas that were dangerous and would get more so after the current rain freezes on the ground.
Then, we got our second State of Emergency pronouncement.
And it doesn’t seem to register with anyone.
Okay, that being said, here’s my recommendation. If we don’t have enough snow plows and we don’t have enough drivers to keep those plows going around the clock, then we have a problem.
