The blizzard conditions caused most workers in the metro to stay home Wednesday. Not everyone had a snow day. Some people's jobs required them to hit the roads.
Jeff Casey is used to patrolling the streets of Urbandale in his police car. Wednesday, he hopped in a different vehicle. "Yup, driving a snow plow today," says Officer Casey. He spent the morning looking for drivers stuck in snow drifts. "There's not enough cover over here. It's drifting over something fierce," says Casey.
Mark Foster describes the conditions as an "exceptionally bad day." But it wasn't bad enough to keep him home from work. "People's lives depend on us. Somebody needs to be here and we're staffed 24/7," says Foster, a paramedic with Midwest Ambulance Service. The drive from New Sharon normally takes him about an hour. Wednesday, it took more than three hours. "If I'm not here, whose gonna be here?"
About the same time Wednesday morning, Michael Schweitzer was on his way to work. "No snow days, we're open all the time everyday," he says. Schweitzer works at Zanzibar's Coffee Adventure. He says the only days you'll find the shop closed are Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. "I was prepared to get up early and dig myself out and make my way to work," says Schweitzer.
Jeff Casey is used to patrolling the streets of Urbandale in his police car. Wednesday, he hopped in a different vehicle. "Yup, driving a snow plow today," says Officer Casey. He spent the morning looking for drivers stuck in snow drifts. "There's not enough cover over here. It's drifting over something fierce," says Casey.
Mark Foster describes the conditions as an "exceptionally bad day." But it wasn't bad enough to keep him home from work. "People's lives depend on us. Somebody needs to be here and we're staffed 24/7," says Foster, a paramedic with Midwest Ambulance Service. The drive from New Sharon normally takes him about an hour. Wednesday, it took more than three hours. "If I'm not here, whose gonna be here?"
About the same time Wednesday morning, Michael Schweitzer was on his way to work. "No snow days, we're open all the time everyday," he says. Schweitzer works at Zanzibar's Coffee Adventure. He says the only days you'll find the shop closed are Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. "I was prepared to get up early and dig myself out and make my way to work," says Schweitzer.
