Death by gutter ice

St. Pete has gotten more snow this winter than in the last 100 years, or so I'm told. The streets and sidewalks are sloppy, and there are huge drifts where shovelers and plows have dumped the stuff. Cars are snowed in, causing people to double and triple park, often reducing the street to a single lane.

Last week the mayor promised to fire the entire department responsible for snow removal if there wasn't an improvement in conditions. Yesterday she fired 11 top officials.

Probably because of that, today has been a snow and ice removal extravaganza. My entire street is blocked off by police. Workers are shoveling out cars and then towing them so the plows can finally reach the the sides.

Workers are on top of the buildings, nine stories up, shoveling snow and ice onto the sidewalks down below. It's quite a sight, and many people stop to gaze. Those unfortunate to live in one of these buildings (like me) need to sprint in and out of their buildings to avoid falling snow.

Other workers are dangling from ropes and taking ice picks to the gutters. The cars that haven't been towed yet have been covered with cardboard and plywood so any stray ice chunks don't do too much damage. I watched as a crumbling brick of ice hit the lightly protected hood of a Ford Focus. Awesome. Some slabs are so big that they would easily kill a man.

Now I'm sitting at my desk, listening to a very satisfying, and very regular - "ka-chunk!" - as anvil-sized bricks of gutter ice hit the pavement below.