Friday, February 1, 2008

Ground Hog's Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow is Ground Hog's Day & I'm asking Punxsutawney Phil to PLEASE not see your shadow, I'm ready for an early spring!!

Over the last 2 days, we've had at least 3, possibly 4, natural avalanches (I can't keep track, we've had so many highways closures due to bad snow conditions) occur on the main pass that crosses the state of Washington. I think in that time the pass has only been open for about a total of 4 hours & since it's the main thoroughway for trucks to transport goods you can imagine the lines & the money it's costing trucking companies to have their trucks just sit there & wait. Two hours after the pass was reopened from the first avalanche, the second one trapped two cars but fortunately, no one was hurt. They're saying with the three primary east-west routes in Washington & Oregon facing indefinite or periodic shutdowns due to severe winter weather that Washington state estimates that the closure of these passes are costing Washington $20 million a day in lost commerce.

You can imagine with the amount of snow that we've been receiving the excellent skiing conditions, however, two of those ski resorts, skiiers can't get to because the roads have been closed due to avalanches & avalanche control. And the resorts are reporting financial losses as well due to closed roads.

So Punxsutawney Phil, remember, no seeing your shadow tomorrow!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't think the local groundhog is going to show his face around here unless he gets a good boot from his handler. Considering all the snow that was dumped I'm not even sure the poor fellow is going to be able to burrow out of his hole. At least we don't have avalanches thank goodness.

Michelle said...

I'm with you girl - here's to an early spring! Love your new header!!!