Stranded wrote:

25" of snow Saturday. The farmer who has been handling snow removal
here for the past 33 years didn't even attempt it. Driveway is 660
and steep but he has tackled this much snow before. Called others
from the Yellow Pages, no dice. Another foot of snow expected
Tues.-Wed. Death by starvation. Never thought I'd go out this way.

Many of those unemployed folks have flocked to the states where the
economy is in fairly decent shape, Texas in particular. The apparent
unemployment rate in TX is lower than most states, even though it
appears higher than it really is due to all the unemployed folks
flocking here to find work.