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(Lht Hrralb

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1979

i And It Snowed...

(Contjpupd from Page 3) People there could not contact their local Civil Defense people Business life suffered greatly both on the famed Washington's Birthday (Monday) and on Tuesday when the county began shoveling out. Banks were closed, including the Marine National Bank. Union Trust Company and the First People's Bank. Savings and Ix>ans were closed Monday and Tuesday as officers and employees of these financial institutions shoveled their way out of snowy driveways. • Small loctU grocery, stores did what amounted to a land-office type business Tuesday, bread, milk and other staples were the quickest to go with newspapers being in good supply. Although people have been warned for years nqj to shovel snow thousands of local residents cast those warnings aside Tuesday and did what county and township snowplows could not or would not do. they began digging themselves out Road conditions were, at best, deplorable. It was our understanding that snow plows stopped their labors at 10:30 Monday evening. Judging from the ‘main roads in Cape May County House this was true.

Rescue squads were told to use U S. Route 9 to carry the sick and injured to the hospital in favor of the Garden State Parkway whose entrance ramps were hiocked w ith snow. Like hundreds of other •housebound' residents we walked to a local grocery m Cape May Court House on Tuesday afternoon. Our trip to the center of town took us. at a leisurely pace three hours from our home to the business and back. We passed many other residents who were stranded in the snow ami whose cars were unable to get out their driveways. We were equally amazed at the number of ‘ emergency '' vehicles on the road zooming up and down as if the world were coming to an end. coming from nowhere and going to the same place. Many resembled ordinary passenger cars. Only one piece of heavy equipment did we see and that w as a road-type grader, traveling westward with his plow raised doing nothing for snow removal. Other snowplows around Cape May Court House apparently had nothing else to do on Tuesday afternoon since two passed us on Mechanic Street with their plows (Continued on Page 15)

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Avalon Youngsters Loading For Journey In A Gvil Defense Truck