Last month, we had an ice storm, which on first appearance appeared to be rather pleasant. The weather was 28 to 33 degrees Fahrenheit where we got some snow and sleet.

After a night of this, dawn came, revealing a landscape of glittering ice and snow. At first we marveled at its beauty until we looked on the ground and saw huge tree limbs 4 inches thick and 20 feet long lying on our lawn. Some of our bamboos were bent so low with ice that their branches touched the ground.

I took our dog for her daily walk. I saw even more damage outside. Trees had fallen on rooftops; others fell across roads and fences. The whole place was a mess. I could not walk my dog because of the fallen trees. After seeing this, I realized our home was not safe because we have fir trees only 20 to 30 feet away. They may crack at any time from the encrusted ice and fall on our house as they did elsewhere.

Before long people started coming out of their homes with power saws. They cut the trees that fell across their lawns and fences. Then trucks came and workmen showed up clearing off the debris. A few hours later, our gardener came. He had our place cleaned up within a few hours. Outside, the public streets were still a mess. Before long, our city had trucks out and cleared the main roads so traffic could pass. The sidewalks remained blocked. However, today about two weeks later when I went out to walk our dog again, not only was our sidewalks cleaned up and cleared of fallen branches, but our dog walk (bicycle path) in the woods was cleaned up as well. The fallen branches and other debris were cleared away. I was amazed. Because our city had to let go a lot of people due to our recession, I thought to myself that the maintenance and care of our roads would also suffer.

However, the inconvenience was minimal. I am proud of the way our city took care of our roads, sidewalks and even our dog walk in the woods.

We live in unusual times. We also have a city to be proud of!

James C. Su-Brown, Federal Way