Pacific NW under seige ... by the governments in action.

Cliff mass has a nice blog that contrasts the problems of the Pacific NW snow storms to others. No matter what the problem is it has come @ a great cost. Entire pacific northwest has been under virtual house arrest since Dec 18th. It has hurt the local economy in more than one ways. With economy hurting it is the worst time for them to fail. It has not only ruined the Christmas gifts for thousands, it prevented employees from getting to work and hitting them hard on their wallets. Plowing could have also provided hard to come by jobs for 10s of drivers from construction industry. Cost of plowing loses hand over fist to cost of lost productivity and tax revenue

One of the biggest stumbling block here is, the fact that Government is running low on cash. Nobody wants to spend money preparing for an event that happens every 5-8 years. Plowing cost is not just the cost of the plows. The cost of renting and operating plow trucks. Cost of hiring plow drivers. Cost of sand/salt. There is cost in running a big operation like that in terms of choosing when and where to apply those resources effectively on the fly. I hope there is someone with a reasonable answer for complicated question.