As MCC Highways swung into action last week, schools were closing and roads became unpassable. Food stocks ran low and heating fuel supplies became scarce.

Supermarket shelves in some areas were cleared of essential goods such as bread, milk and toilet paper, Oil merchants had their 'phones inundated with pleas for Kerosene and then the weather forecasters gave heavy snow warnings for Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, we all sat back and held our breath.