Snow Joins ands with Foreclosures to Freeze the Country
As foreclosures continue to blow whipping up unabated employment storms, snow drowns Washington in a cold frozen carpet of woes. For the second time within 6 weeks snowfall has paralyzed the capital. Is it burying capitalism?
For continuous four days the offices of the Federal Government have remained closed. It is likely that the government will not be able to function till 16th February.
Some counties (Louden being one) have already notified that schools would not function till the 16th inst. This makes the shutting down to nearly a fortnight. It is embarrassing to the Federal Government to admit defeat to such a super power – Mother Nature in the form of snow.
This is the third time the government in Washington had to shut down due to the fury of Mother Nature, since Obama took over the presidency. He is ordering holiday on a daily basis looking at the skies and reading weather reports but even if he did manage to keep the wheels of administration running it is woefully clear that the Federal Government is pathetically ill equipped to handle such an emergency.
When the shops opened on Monday 8th, the shoppers razed the shelves like locusts. America relies heavily on trucks for delivery of goods to the retail shops. It meant no fresh supplies could come unless the roads were cleared. It is unclear when the gods will show mercy. There are snaking queues in front of shops. Panic buying has set in. Shoppers returned home to find the power off and that the freezers would fail to store the perishables. At a certain time during the last weekend the mid-Atlantic was without power affection nearly half a million citizens. In Montgomery County, power went off on Friday 5th and returned only on Monday 8th – that too only during the day. Those dependent solely on electricity for cooking went without meals.
Nature’s has timed itself with economic woes of the country with districts, counties and budgets of states compelling lay offs and trimming services. Maryland, bordering Washington, has spent extra $10 million for clearing snow prior to the last one. Virginia used reserve funds ($25 million) to tackle the latest freeze. If another storm comes there will be added repairs for road maintenance and allied works.
90% of the snow removal work in Virginia is done by hired Mexican and Latino workers – mostly illegal immigrants who agree to lower wages. They have never seen snow in their native land leave alone dealt with them. As such their work is shoddy. It took 48 hours to cross the roads to reach Washington where normally it takes 15 minutes. Public transport – never reliable at the best of times, is right now in tatters like the economy.
