The Category 5 Blizzard

NOTE: This entry forwarded as an e-mail from my sister is the reference in the opening P.S. of "Country Roads." I had earlier copied it, ostensibly the creation of Mike Kappel, the husband of one of my sister Sue's classmates, but somehow lost it into the ether. Mike and Judy live in a fine house dug into a hillside in the country west of Yankton, SD. So I'll put that e-mail in again under the "Borrowed" category because I did not write it, but I did admire its doughty Great Plains spirit. It is another version of what I meant to demonstrate with my ice storm anecdote.

"The Category 5 Blizzard...
Here in the Northern Plains we just recovered from a historic, may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" with a terrible blizzard that dumped up to 24" of snow with 50 mph winds that created a whiteout beyond hurricane proportions, that broke trees in half, stranded hundreds of motorist[s] in near-lethal snowbanks, closed all roads, isolated scores of communities, and cut power to tens of thousands of people.
George Bush did not come . . .
FEMA staged nothing.
No one howled for the government.
No one even uttered an expletive on TV . . .
Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards . . .
No one asked for a FEMA trailer home . . .
No national news anchors moved in . . .
We just melted snow for water, closed Interstate 20, sent out caravans to pluck people out of snow-engulfed cars, fired up wood stoves, broke out oil lanterns or camp lamps, and put on an extra layer of clothes.
Even though a "Category 5" blizzard of this scale has never before overtaken the region this early in the "blizzard season," we know it can happen, we know how to deal with it ourselves, and we didn't even give the blizzard a name.
Everyone in South Dakota is fine."