Thanks for the snow driving tips! I've practiced
all week. From solid sheets of ice, to 14" of snow (nothing to a real mountain man), and now patches of solid ice with totally cleared road. Our infrastructure is not equipped to manage this too well. It's so infrequent that it's not worth the considerable capital expense. So we do the best we can with what we have every 5-6 yrs. The County has ONE snow blade they rig onto an old dump truck which broke the very first day. Thankfully many fine gents from the community have policed their own local roads with their own personal tractors.
I did finally get out the little Jeep Cherokee 4x4 with Select-trac and ran in "4-full" as I was worried about the transfer case. The little rig is clean as a pin (from an 82 yr. old lady) and I only paid $3k for it, it's my daughters. With street tires it does pretty well but is horrible on ice as to stopping. The Expedition AWD is so much better probably due to it weighing 6K lbs. Also a couple times on solid ice without provocation it has pitched sideways! A real butt clincher. I'd not want my daughter to experience that but it's a trait to note. The Expedition has been solid as a rock, an amazing foul weather vehicle.
As to the water situation. We are running at full summertime production levels. It's amazing how folks leaving water dripping and the dozens of household broken and frozen pipes have taken their toll on production. If a system lets their tanks get too low and pressure drops below a certain level they are forced to enact a "precautionary boil order" until sampling can prove no siphon contamination from illegal plumbing has occurred. That's one reason for licensed plumbers and plumbing codes. We have had a few main breaks but even in horrific weather we can isolate them and keep losses to a minimum. Some places are not so lucky. In event of a power outage we have diesel generators to continue right on with 2500 gallon tanks feeding them. 2-3 days runtime. Those systems with boil orders must have had some very unusual situations. A rolling boil for 3 minutes will cook any microorganisms and kill any virus that ever could have been in the water. You could do that to muddpuddle water and drink it with a large degree of safety. Of course that is ONLY water you cook with or drink directly, brush your teeth etc. You can continue to wash/clean with about anything.