Jan 25 2009
The True Cost of the Cold Weather
In New York sits a writer and all around good guy wondering how awful his fuel bill is going to be when his tank gets filled this week. In a small town in central Minnesota is a beautician who is kicking herself for signing a contract for the gas for her tank. The fuel has gone down in price, but she’s locked into the higher price whether she likes it or not. In Belgrade, a grandmother keeps her grandson wrapped in a snowsuit almost at all times. The heat was turned off in the city as the Ukrainian and Russian governments squabble over who is holding up the fuel. The cold there has fired up the anger of the people who are supposed to be heating their homes with this fuel, but their tempers are the only things that are getting hot.
The cold costs people more than just fuel. Broken power lines can happen after bad storms, and the cold that follows mandates that people heat their homes to prevent broken water pipes. They have to buy generaters, sometimes have to move into hotels, or put in backup wood stoves. With cold weather comes snow, the cost of snow removal. Cars get run to warm up the inside for creature comfort, wasting fuel. And the twenty below temperatures every night for several weeks, especially when there is a wind, means that the heaters in old homes run constantly.
Cold weather makes people cautious. They hold their money tightly, and rightly so, until the end of the month when they know they have enough money to pay their fuel bill. And the local restaurants suffer because foot traffic drops. Theaters suffer, too, as do fundraisers set for the dead of winter. Generosity can not be afforded. The fuel bill comes first.
A car traveling outside of Fargo Thursday night went into the ditch. Friday morning rescuers pulled out a man who remarkably was still alive. His arms and legs were so frozen that they were stiff but remakably his heart was till beating. The hospital tried to warm him, but he died before pulling out of the hypothermia. A family lost a member, the hospital lost a patient.
Budget cuts to the state budgets mean fewer dollars to help the needy with their fuel bill. On the outside of Wadena, Minnesota is a drafty old farmhouse with an ancient man inside who scrimps and saves to pay his heat. Despite his family’s urgings, he refuses help of any kind, and to move into a warmer house. He gave his word to stay on the family farm, and will do it even if the elements kill him.
The winter, for all of its beautiful swirling snow, draws more resources than most people care to admit. Its cost, monetary and otherwise, is huge. No wonder many animals migrate. They have the sense to conserve their resources; to listen to nature.
