Brian Gregg,
Terrace, B.C.
Dear Sir:
The news media kept talking in early February about that disastrous snowstorm bringing only two feet of snow.
People were forbidden to drive on the streets and had to stay indoors until the storm subsided before getting out the shovels.
I kept thinking about Kitimat in the 1960s when we would drive over as a family to see my brother, Robert, and his family.
The snowfall covered the power lines and all kids were told to stay away from playing around the lines for fear they would trip over them causing either a power failure or electrocuting themselves.
When I observed the scene for myself I had to suspend my disbelief!
Robert opened his door to a wall of snow, cutting him off from the great outdoors. He got an old-fashioned bucket brigade going, digging at the snow and putting it in pails. The kids then ran with the pails to the bathroom and emptied them into the bathtub.
Someone would hose down the snow into water and it would drain off.
They did that all morning. The streets were snow canyons and so were the driveways. The houses were buried in the stuff.
Well, Kitimat means the “people of the snow”.
That kind of snowfall apparently shifted to the east coast, thanks to global warming.
Governors around New England are already talking about rebuilding [from Hurricane Sandy] with this new climate in mind.
But I think the east coast in the future will get a light dusting, perhaps only two feet.
But we, back here in the northwestern portion of B.C. will get heavy snowfalls again – back to the days when we walked waist deep in snow.
Don’t hold the garage sales for your snow blowers or shovels just yet; it’s bound to happen, eh?