The onslaught of a winter not seen in a hundred years was bearing down with a blanket of ice and snow across America. Mismanaged cities downsized due to debts that could no longer be paid to support the needed complement of police, fire fighters, and maintenance crews. Affluent communities fell into a state of decay tangled with broken power lines no longer able to withstand the crush of ice and snow. Copper thieves brought darkness to abandoned streets. Arches of ice frozen in space hung above broken water lines. Trees that had stood for centuries fell on houses and cars. Hundreds of these...