Central Plains Snow Storm

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By NELSON LAMPE, Associated Press Writer




OMAHA, Neb. - Utility crews struggled to restore electrical service to tens of thousands of homes as grocery store shelves went bare and ranchers tried to reach hungry cattle isolated after a blizzard dumped nearly 3 feet of snow on the Plains and Colorado.


National Guard and state workers were preparing Tuesday to bring groceries into snowbound areas with Humvees and drop hay bales into farm fields.

Overhead, planes have been searching snow-covered highways and fields for stranded travelers and using heat-sensing equipment to locate farm animals in need of food. Hay could be dropped by military planes or helicopters or delivered by snowmobile. Colorado National Guard Gen. Mason Whitney said Tuesday that Oklahoma sent helicopters to help.

What no one wants is a repeat of 1997, when a blizzard killed up to 30,000 farm animals and cost farmers and ranchers an estimated $28 million, said Polly White of the Colorado Division of Emergency Management.

Ice and heavy snow also bent over electrical towers and downed hundreds of miles of power lines. At least 60,000 homes and businesses in western Kansas and 15,000 in Nebraska were without electricity, and some utility officials warned it could more than a week to restore.

"We know that customers are getting frustrated," said Beth Boesch, spokeswoman for the Nebraska Public Power District, which lost 600 miles of power lines. "We just ask people to be patient. The damage is very widespread, and it's going to take some time to put it back together."

In the snowbound Kansas town of Sharon Springs, there was still no way into or out of town for its 835 residents Monday, but at least they didn't lose power, said Bill Hassett, manager of the town's power plant.

"We're snowed under," Hassett said. "We're just in the process of digging out. We had total 36 inches of snow. Thank God we kept the lights on."

Two stranded vehicles were spotted Sunday by the Kansas Highway Patrol's airplane crew near the Colorado border, and their occupants were rescued by sheriff's deputies.

Slightly warmer temperatures on Monday helped workers trying to reopen the roads, said Kansas Department of Transportation spokesman Ron Kaufman.

In southeastern Colorado, the roof of an assisted living center in Walsh collapsed, but there were no reports of injuries, White said. The center is attached to a nursing home and residents were moved there. She said about 3,000 people were without power in the towns of Lamar and Walsh.

The Colorado National Guard, which the governor activated twice in the span of a week because of the back-to-back blizzards, helped carry emergency supplies such as medicine and baby formula to isolated homes, said Col. Hans Kallam.

At the Wooten family's ranch in canyon land along the Purgatorie River near the southeastern Colorado town of Kim, Steve Wooten and his uncle spent Monday checking on their cattle. They had moved most of the animals closer to the house but had some that had not been fed since the latest storm hit on Thursday.

Still, after several years of drought, Joy Wooten said she was thankful for the moisture.

"It's kind of hard now," she said, "but you have to think of the green grass in the spring."

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Associated Press writers Jon Sarche and Colleen Slevin in Denver contributed to this report.

end.



How many inches of snow did any of you receive?

[jigs]

we had a short 3 inches of rain, then 1/4 of ice, then another 1/4 of snow.

very slick, but as soon as it thaws a little, there will be no bottom to the ground..... I really hate it when it gets like that!

[Shorthornguy]

When the storm finally got here it was pretty well done with. We got an inch of rain and a couple inches of snow. Any moisture is welcome as we are still way behind. We are just south of the divide (Where water flows North to Lake Superior and South to Mississippi) Lake Superior is at it's lowest level in 80 years. Hope everyone gets dug out OK.

[passin thru]

Got to the last of the cows last night, now to start over. Just got power a few hours ago, man those guys are to be comended.
I need do some more dozing out now.
We are lucky, south of us I guess it is worse. They said there were no essential services available. Some places a helicopter or a NG Snow Cat are the only way to move. They said the Holcolmb power plant had to shut down once as there was no place for the power to go.
They told us we had 30 inches of snow, no way to tell.
We had fed the cows about three days of feed before this hit so I guess it helped.
The grocery store got opened yesterday, but they said no milk, bread or eggs. The fuel supplier ran out of red diesel. Many have not gotten to their cows yet and they are starting a feed drop with helicopters.
Maybe more later

[Turkey Track Bar]

[Nicky]

Hang in there, Passin thru. Hope everyone is ok

[passin thru]

Just got in and we decided to take little break. All cattle are accounted for, a couple calves just a little droopy. I think we will help a neighbor break a trail this afternoon and the regroup. Need to doze some more snow to get to some more feed. The problem is where do we put the snow that we doze.
Daughter just got relieved from work after almost 100 hours.
Son has been awesome, he just know what to do.
Wife has been busy coordinating us all and keeping us with what we need and keeping in touch with everyone.
Snowcat went by to rescue some more people, hope they are ok.
Haven't seen any helicopters today, did yesterday. Maybe we will see some dropping feed, glad we don't need it right now.
What a New Years Party
We are blessed, thanks for everyone caring. I just worry about everyone else with their problems wherever they are.

[PureCountry]

Good luck to you all passin thru. Hope nobody loses any stock through this.

[Jassy]

Hubby's sisters live in rural Grand Island area and of course lost power, so he loaded up our 3 generators and hauled em down to them on New Years Days...sounds like it could be quite awhile before they get power on..at least the generators will help keep the pipes from freezing with the furnace running. Ice and wind not a good combination. Good luck to you passinthru...and your critters.

[Nicky]

How is Shortgrass?

[Jinglebob]

I sure hope all of you in that area are doin' alright.

[Stretch]

We had about 2 inches of rain first and then about 4-5 in of snow next with some wind to follow. We didn't get any ice but it is really muddy and greasy but it sure could be worse. Sure wish I had a snow mobile or something like that to go help find cows or something. We haven't had anything bad like that for many years kind of forget how bad things like that are. Times are tough enough without stuff like this making it worse..... Hope everyone is ok....