Count Mayor Tom Leppert among the “victims” of Dallas’ recent record snowstorm. In a talk today to the Dallas Friday Group, the mayor recalled how he was driving his wife, Laura, to dinner that weekend when they encountered a downed tree in the street. Leppert veered sharply to avoid the tree and wound up off the road, mired in the muck and slush. At that, he said, “I did what any guy would do: I started gunning it.” Didn’t work. Then he threw the vehicle in reverse, but that didn’t do it, either.
Just then, Leppert said, a “giant tree” fell on top of the car–“and Laura thinks we’re under attack.” A policeman pulled up next, looked in the window and said, “Oh shoot, it’s the mayor.” (Only he didn’t say “shoot.”) Then a couple of guys in a big truck stopped and tried to pull the car free, to no avail, Leppert said. So they produced a chainsaw to hack at the trees–only to watch the saw’s chain fly off. Finally, though, the samaritans brought out handsaws and proceeded to rescue the mayor and his wife and “the world went on,” Leppert concluded. He added that the experience “was probably easier on us than it was on the poor policeman.”
