It's safe to say that Spokane has seen it's share of snow the past two years.  It was the kind of winter you look back on in 50 years and say "when I was younger..."Fearing the snow may be a new trend, or at the very least a cycle that will be repeated this year, Spokane has taken some measures to prevent the complete chaos and congestion last year's snow caused the community.According to an article by KXLY (and numerous other sources I've read),  the City of Spokane has acquired 11 new snow plows (I'm assuming this creates 11 new jobs in Spokane? Anyone know?) and has created a system of defining different levels of "Snow Emergency."Regardless of definition, 19 inches of fluffy snow overnight is a snow emergency to me.  I was stuck in the house two days until I finally decided I'd had enough.  Shovel in hand I must have shoveled a dozen cubic  yards of snow before I became exhausted.  My neighbors, with their snowblowers (a tool I'd deemed useless in this area) were kind enough to help me finish the job.It was a couple weeks before the plows could get through and clear our road, and by that time we'd all cleared enough to get in and out ourselves.  I can imagine the tremendous strain so much snow put on a small crew of plow drivers (that weren't used to these levels of accumulation), and the budget overages that must have resulted.I'm very glad this was addressed, and now that it has - we'll probably have a mild winter!