Polar Storm by Deborah D. Moore

Author:Deborah D. Moore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Permuted
Published: 2018-08-21T15:40:40+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

The governor of Michigan, Alexander Markham, waited impatiently for the call to get through.

“Wade! What’s taking so damn long?” he yelled to his secretary in the next room.

“Sir, the power and phone lines have been up for less than an hour, and we have no information on how the lines are elsewhere,” Wade answered, feeling a bit impatient himself, but not with the phones. Alex Markham had been a close friend for twenty years and Wade had never seen him this harried. “I’ve got six junior senators constantly manning phones right now, trying to get through to any agency that might have snow plows to spare.” He took a steadying breath, “And if I may be blunt, Alex, yelling at them or me isn’t going to help!”

Governor Markham had been taking heavy criticism for over two weeks from mayors and the media alike for not having enough snow plows and other heavy machinery to deal with this natural disaster. Whole towns and cities were snowed in. Whenever a plow managed to clear a road, it quickly became clogged with vehicles desperately trying to leave the area. And to make matters worse, the snow kept falling.

“You’re right, Wade, I’m sorry.” The governor leaned back in his chair and rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to stem the ever-present headache.

“Line two, Alex! The road commission office in Osage Township,” Wade said in relief, and moved to the door to give the governor some privacy.

“Where is Osage Township?” Alex looked confused.

“In the Upper Peninsula, central on the shore of Lake Superior,” Wade answered, tempted to shake his head. Alex Markham was doing a decent job of governing, though he was failing large forgotten segments of his state, mainly the Upper Peninsula.

“Whom am I speaking with?” Alex said after punching the flashing light on his phone.

“Chuck Chandler. Who are you? And how did you get this unlisted number?” the maintenance supervisor retorted.

“This is Governor Alexander Markham, Mr. Chandler, and I’m hoping you can help us out.”

“The governor? Of Michigan?” Chuck said in disbelief.

“That’s me.” Alex gave one of his famous chuckles. “Tell me, Chuck, how are things up there? And before you answer that, let me tell you things are bad, really bad down here.”

“Yes, sir, they’re bad up here too. We’ve been getting one to two feet of snow a day now for the past three weeks. That’s more snow that we normally get in an entire season, and it’s been near impossible to stay on top of keeping the main roads semi-cleared. We’ve had to let the side roads go.”

“That’s a lot of snow, sure, but aren’t you used to it?” Alex asked.

“I hate when someone says that.” Chuck breathed out, getting angry. “No, we are not used to it; no one here is used to that much snow. While we know we will get snow and maybe a lot of it, being caught in a three-week, non-stop blizzard is beyond our capabilities of handling it. It would be like Florida having six hurricanes hit them one right after another.

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