Excavating Blizzard Stormsy

'Right straight to the roads we go.' The news anchor seemed distraught,her face seemed paler than usual. 'A mountain of Snow has taken over Downtown...' Just then the power grid went off. Blackout.

Massive snowfall had hit Defy City for ten days now. Weather forecasters had become somewhat like demigods, everyone was eagerly waiting for the next news on the latest state of the City. However ice had been building up at the Central Powerhouse and at about midnight due to suspected Short circuits the transformers flipped. A cold city with no electricity was unpleasant and unsafe. Rescue workers and volunteers had for days been working round the clock trying to ease the situation but knowing they had no power they were now running helter skelter searching for loved ones and shelter. Anarchy was slowly taking over

It was now down to Honourable Sandy our Mayor to a sure the masses that this mass of chilling ice would not be the killing of Deft. Held up at County Hall for the last five where her office was she had been monitoring the situation with concern. But now was no time to stay cooked up in some mansion. It was time to see and be seen.

I was Mayor Sandy's speech writer between November to December 2020 when Stormsy hit Defy. Our first objective was to hit ground to see firsthand what devastation had be fell our City and to give direction to the city on the best way to shove.

Cars were obviously useless under current conditions too so were helicopters, bikes and trucks due to snow buildup and hurricane like winds that rendered driving impossible. The only options left to us were snowblowers, plows,mopeds and excavators. With a team of ten the first three had space constraints so we settled for a giant Shantui Excavator,bundled ourselves and technical equipment and setout.

Visibility was zero as we approached King Street Downtown, almost 300cm of snow had fallen and the precipitation was a record 2.8 metres if not higher. Shoveling was futile for this mess of whiteness.

Northmen Avenue just outside City Hall was havoc citizens had come from near and far and had made temporary tent homes on man available space. Sandy made a detour assuring desperate families that her adminstration was handling things. Hot meals and warming bonfires would be provided.

We then headed at a snails pace past Thinkers Road as we cleared the street to City Hall so that all making for the shelter had access an hindered. The excavation was slow and labouring though we had a mammoth machine in the excavator the snow was overwhelming.

Olympic Square Downtown was chaotic cars were buried on the street blocking the roads. We literally had to shovel over fifty just to make it to the interchange three miles away. Distraction if private property was inevitable from here on and with every mile the situation grew grim.

At minus seven degrees or nineteen fahrenheit the excavator cabin was better than the weather conditions out there. To think that members of our society were stranded on expressways in vehicles was chilling to say the least. Through the radio call two way our engineers estimated that they had already excavated over twenty million cubic feet of ice yet they hadn't even scratched the surface.

Mayor Sandy was obviously overwhelmed. 'The opposition will put this on leadership crisis am sure.' She said. Then Looking at me she asked the question I dreaded the most 'Danny what shall we do?' Thank God it was rhetoric.

Never had such a catastrophic event been recorded anywhere on Earth. We were in uncharted waters without the faintest clues on what to do next.

Lucky we had Mr. Collins our plant operator driver who as we got to know had over twenty years experience dealing with extreme weather. He ended up being the best asset we could have ever hoped for. Like a heaven sent guardian. In ten minutes he had come up with a superb plan.

'First we will free the expressway, get those poor people above ground.' Then we will exhume that big snowblower and start clearing one Lane so they can get home, Then we will go to the Electricity Plant and make it run again' He said looking straight into Sandy's eyes. Afterwards you politicians can do your thing when they are safely home..' He must have sensed that we were conflicted, politics had prevailed in our thoughts preventing us from seeing the real situation. We were being couscous.

The plan worked. Collins turned out to be as good an excavation expert as he was at speaking his mind. In five hours we had achieved our objective. The raod was cleared and vehicles were moving again.

By 0340hr We had moved all way to the Main Grid powerhouse. The excavator had left enough clearance behind to allow engineers to access the plant and to restore power. Electrical snow moulders came back to life. They were the only defense against such a storm. Spewing lava hot water form boiling ice they could clear the city in three day or less. A physical miracle had been achieved that cold night. One excavator and eleven defiant citizens who together fought against the worst Storm in history and left it a bloody nose.