The areas that actually receive heavy snow are adequately prepared. Where I lived (Fairbanks) heavy snowfall was uncommon, nonetheless a 12" snowfall is not a problem.

Some of this was that the people themselves are prepared for it. Many people (myself included) have snow plows for their vehicles, and if you came across a pickup truck that didn't have four wheel drive it would be a rarity. A high percentage of the families have at least one four wheel drive vehicle. Consider also that at least six months of the year the roads are icy or snowy and thus the people know how to drive in the stuff. One year a new Department of Public Works manager who came from the East coast thought it would be a wonderful idea to show these unsophisticated Fairbanksans how it should be done and salted the roads. We damn near ran him out of town on a rail. When temperatures remain below freezing for months at a time, all he accomplished was to make the roads slippery at lower than expected temperatures, and as a useful side effect cause rust damage to the cars.

I suppose in a way it would be like someone from Arizona asking someone from Seattle "How do you deal with all that rain?" and you look at them and say "Hunh?" It's your normal environment, you don't think there's anything there to deal with, it's just the way things are.

tanstaafl.