10-05-08 DREAM - THE LIST - THE SNOWSTORM OF
THE CENTURY
NOTE: I don't know if this title means "the last 100 years" or the century
we are living in which just started.
I was working in an office late at night. The radio was on and the
announcer was talking about the weather. He said that the storm of the
century was coming and people should be warned to be prepared for it
because once it hit, nobody was going to be able to move on the roads;
power would be out, heat would be out, water would be out in many places,
there would be no ambulances, fire trucks, no emergency personnel -
nothing would be moving.
That was scary enough because I've been through some bad storm like that
where the snow drifts were higher than the cars on the street and
neighbors had to go out and shovel the roads by hand because snow plows
couldn't even get there and we had to walk through the snow, pulling sleds
to go to the store to get milk and bread for the children. (There were no
warning systems back then)
Later on in years, I've seen roads, once they were plowed with walls of
snow on both sides of the road 20 feet high.
So, I know what it can be like.
The woman who I was working with was dark-haired and beautiful. When we
heard the weather broadcast, she said she had dreamed the same thing, but
in her dream, people had been warned in advance and there was a list of
names she had dreamed and she remembered who they were.
She started rattling off the names, but she said them so fast, I could
only remember the first three names. James Scott, James Gilliland, and
Stephen Greer.
All the names were of people we would all know - names of high ranking
politicians mostly.
The first person on the list was the President of Allis-Chalmers, based in
West Allis, WI, a large company with divisions all over the country. James
Gilliland lives on Mt. Adams in Washington State, and Stephen Greer lives
on a mountaintop home in South Carolina, so that's how wide ranging the
storm was going to be.
My boss gave me instructions to write down the list of names and make sure
everyone was notified. I would write down the list and my co-worker would
give me the names from her dream.
I had a terrible time finding a fresh pad of paper or a notebook to write
the long list of name to make sure that everyone was notified of the
coming storm.
When I finally found a clean pad of paper to write on, it was getting so
late, I told her we should just go home and do it there. She agreed, so we
got into our cars and drove down the road side by side.
We came to a T intersection with a stop light. I could see it was now dawn
- the sun hadn't come up yet and the colors of things were not vivid.
The green light at the intersection actually looked white, but it changed
to red before we got there and we had to stop.
Traffic was heavy in both directions and I didn't know if anyone had heard
the warning on their radios.
Finally, I saw the light changing from red to white and it changed over
gradually it seemed.
When the red light was all white, I looked over to where the woman's car
had been next to me and it was already gone.
By the time I stopped on the gas to move forward and turn left, the white
light was no longer a circle, it was like a pillar of white light.
I made my turn and what I saw coming down the road were semi-trucks, cars,
vans, people in wheelchairs, people on crutches, people walking with
canes, all kinds of people fleeing for their lives.
I hadn't even started the list yet and people were already fleeing the
storm coming.
end
|
| COMMENTS: 10-05-08
Ruth
Ryden's channel has also said that we are going to have a very cold winter
and suggested people stock up on food, water, etc.
Namaste!
June
10-05-08 A friend in Montana reported that the animals
started developing much heavier winter coats than usual about three weeks
ago. I am seriously concerned that we truly may see a horrific winter
disaster storm coming.
By John
10-05-08 - I've got a lab/beagle mix who lives outside. He
already has a very full winter coat and we have had so many warm days this
fall and haven't had any nights below freezing yet that I know of.
Strange. I'm learning to listen to the animals though.
Peace, light and love, Dawn
|
Winter of 1886-87 stands as coldest
By JENNY MICHAEL
Bismarck Tribune
Bismarck's snowiest winter occurred 11 years ago, but the
city's coldest winter goes back farther - to the days when
Dakota was a territory.
Half of Bismarck's 10 coldest winters were prior to 1900,
and none was colder than the winter of 1886-87. From
December to February, the average temperature was 0.4
degrees below zero - Bismarck's only winter with a
below-zero average temperature.
The season devastated livestock and ranchers in the west.
Cattle, overstocked by ranchers during the summer's drought,
died by the tens of thousands as hard snow hid the sparse
prairie grasses.
Storms raged from November to February. Five minimum
temperature records from January 1887 still stand in
Bismarck, including 41 below on Jan. 1 and 44 below on Jan.
2.
"With all this severity thus indicated the air was so still
and rare that during the day, parties were seen upon the
streets without overcoats, and by no means was as much
inconvenience felt as on days fifty degrees warmer with a
slight breeze blowing," the Bismarck Daily Tribune reported
on Jan. 2, 1887.
The newspaper covered many weather problems, as people froze
to death, animals starved and snow stopped trains. People
reported having more snow across Dakota Territory than ever
before.
"Then, on 28 January, a blizzard struck which made all
previous storms that winter seem trivial," Edmund Morris
wrote in his book, "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt." Judging
by the Bismarck Daily Tribune, the storm hit Bismarck on
Jan. 29 and 30.
"It is the unanimous opinion that the storm of Saturday and
Sunday was the most severe that ever visited Dakota since
white men came here," the Feb. 1, 1887, Bismarck Daily
Tribune said.
Despite gloomy reports on the range, Bismarck life went on.
Portions of the 122-year-old newspaper mirror today's winter
issues, including talk of the need to clear sidewalks and
advertisements for winter caps. A letter about Bismarck from
a man named Ira Swain to his father ran in the paper on Jan.
30, 1887.
"I can simply say that the snow is three feet deep, the
thermometer registers 30 degrees below zero, the wind is
blowing 40 miles an hour, the legislature is in session,
there is no meat in the house and the insane asylums and
penitentiaries are crowded," the letter said.
|
The Great Blue Norther of 11/11/11
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Great Blue Norther of 11/11/11 (November 11, 1911) was
the biggest
cold snap in U.S. history. Many cities broke record highs
early that afternoon. By nightfall, cities were dealing with
single-digit temperatures on the
Fahrenheit scale. This is the only day in many
midwest cities' weather bureau jurisdictions where the record
highs and lows were broken for the same day. Blue norther is also
known as just norther.
The main cause of such a dramatic cold snap was an extremely
strong storm system separating warm, humid air from frigid, arctic
air. Dramatic cold snaps tend to occur mostly in the month of
November, though they can also come in February or March.
Kansas City
Temperatures in
Kansas City had reached a record high of 76° F
(24 °C) by late morning before the front moved through. As the
cold front approached, the winds increased turning from southeast
to northwest. By midnight, the temperature had dropped to 11° F
(−11.7 °C), a 65 Fahrenheit degree (35 celsius degree) difference
in 14 hours.
Springfield
In
Springfield, the temperature difference was even more extreme.
Springfield was at 80 °F (27 °C) before the cold front moved
through. Two hours later, the temperature was at 40 °F (4 °C) with
winds blasting out of the northwest at 40 mph (65 km/h). By 7:00
P.M.
Central Standard Time (01:00 UTC
12 November) the temperature had dropped a further 7 °F
(12.6 °C), and by midnight, a record low of 13 °F (−11 °C) was
established. It was the first time since records had been kept for
Springfield when the record high and record low were broken in the
same day. The freak temperature difference was also a record
breaker: 67 °F (37 °C) in 10 hours.
Record highs and lows were established on the same day in
Oklahoma City as well with a high of 83 °F (28 °C) and low of
17 °F (−8 °C); temperature difference: 66 °F (36 °C). This record
still holds to this day.
Freak weather
The front produced severe weather and
tornadoes across the upper
Mississippi Valley, a blizzard in
Ohio,
and the windy conditions upon front passage caused a
dust storm in
Oklahoma. Nine tornadoes were reported in the states of
Michigan,
Illinois,
Indiana, and
Wisconsin. An F4 tornado hit in
Janesville, Wisconsin killing 9 and injuring 50. Within an
hour of the tornado, survivors were working in blizzard conditions
and near zero temperatures to rescue people trapped in
debris.
Another notable cold snap
The
Great Lakes area has experienced a number of dramatic cold
snaps, albeit none so dramatic as the 11/11/11 cold wave. In the
early afternoon hours of
February 11,
1999,
many cities in the Great Lakes area saw temperatures soar to more
than 70 °F (21 °C) for the first time ever in February.
South Bend, Indiana reported a record high of 72 °F (22 °C).
By 8:00 P.M. CST (02:00 hrs UTC,
12 November), temperatures had plummeted to near freezing. The
previous record high for
February 11 in South Bend was only 46 °F (7 °C), broken by
over 26 degrees Fahrenheit (14 degrees Celsius).
|
|
|
This was the year mentioned in the dream - I lived through this
storm myself in Wisconsin
-
He figured that the
storm would reduce the number of cattle that could make
... She says the
winter of
1949 was so bad even wild animals became trapped in
...
www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe40s/life_30.html
-
Jun 24, 2008 ... turned
eight years old when the ice
storm hit Ballinger Texas in
1949. ... survived
that long cold
winter with no more than they had.
...
searchwarp.com/swa344526.htm
Jan.
23, 1949: Snowbound in the Heartland
A Nebraska National Guard C-45
photographed through the open
cargo door of another transport.
Operation Haylift dropped hundreds
of tons of hay to stranded
livestock. (Photo courtesy of the
Nebraska State Historical Society)
by Andy
Stephens
11th Wing Historian
1/24/2007 - BOLLING AFB, D.C. -- The
winter storm of 1948 through 1949 covered
193,193 square miles in four states. It
left nearly a quarter of a million people
trapped to face an icy doom in their own
homes.
Operation Snowbound was one of the
greatest humanitarian missions the Air
Force ever flew -- and Bolling ever
supported -- within its own borders.
On Nov. 18, 1948, heavy snow blew into the
Great Plains at wind speeds of up to 70
miles per hour, covering the roofs of
houses and making all travel impossible.
The winds blew down more than 1,700
telephone poles with thousands of breaks
in communication lines. The four states
most affected -- Nebraska, both North and
South Dakotas, and Wyoming -- seemed to
disappear from the American fabric.
While some of the snow melted soon
thereafter, a heavy rain fell that
Christmas -- and then the temperatures
dropped again. The wet, compressed snow
had turned into a layer of ice several
feet thick before the snow started falling
again. The blizzard lasted for three days
in some parts of Nebraska.
Air Force leadership at Bolling's
Headquarters Command, already supporting
the Berlin Airlift, now faced a second
humanitarian mission closer to home. Some
questioned if the Air Foce could support
both missions in tandem.
The Air Force pressed ahead with Operation
Snowbound, the rescue of Americans trapped
in a blizzard of near-biblical proportions
and the support of millions of livestock
crucial to the states' economies. There
was only one way to bring in food and
supplies and that was through airlift. It
was something the Air Force had become
quite adept at because of the situation in
Europe.
The Air Force didn't act alone. Through
the Military Air Transport Service, a
newly formed Air Force organization that
had absorbed both the Air Transport
Command, a Bolling mainstay since WWII and
the Naval Air Transport Service. Under
MATS the Fifth Army, American Red Cross,
Army Corps of Engineers, National Guard
assets not currently supporting the Berlin
Airlift, and the Civil Air Patrol were
mustered into a home front "Berlin
Airlift," channeling their resources for
the second great humanitarian effort of
1949.
One of the key players in the unfolding
drama was the 1100th Special Air Missions
Group, headquartered at Bolling. The
1100th SAMG flew every aircraft available
to help drop feed to some of the more than
four million sheep and cattle, and to
transport some of the approximately 1,600
pieces of heavy equipment needed to clear
more than 115,000 miles of road.
On Jan. 23, 1949, alone, the Air Force
airdropped approximately 525 cases of "C"
rations, 20,000 pounds of food and 10,000
pounds of coal in Nebraska alone. Figures
for Operation Snowbound are unavailable,
but the impact made by the Air Force in
the region was quite distinct and the
Airmen were hailed as heroes in the
heartland, as well as abroad.
Operation Snowbound continued well into
April, after the last of the big storms
hit south central and eastern Nebraska.
During this period, Airmen joined with
their peers from the other services to
respond to train derailments brought about
by another snowstorm in late March and
flooding along the ice-packed Big and
Little Nemaha rivers. Many of the
30-foot-deep snowdrifts didn't melt until
June.
The operation was a monumental undertaking
for the newly created Air Force, still
less than 2 years old, but rapidly
assuming a more and more prominent social
role as a first responder for humanitarian
issues and the use of wartime science used
for peaceful applications.
Editor's Note:
A Hollywood docudrama entitled "Operation
Haylift" was released in 1950 that
recounted the Air Force's role in the
humanitarian mission. The movie featured a
fleet of the Air Force's C-119s (also
known as "flying boxcars") as well as
actual pilots who participated in the
humanitarian mission. The movie starred
Bill Williams, Ann Rutherford, Tom Brown
and Jane Nigh.
1959
OHIO
The 1959 flood
2-1-09
PUTNAM
COUNTY - Fifty years ago this month the Blanchard River was on one
of it's rampages ... along with many other rivers and streams in
Ohio.
This is the kind of anniversary we don't celebrate...we just
recall the event. We recall that the 1959 flood waters hit twice
... in January and again in February.
Snow, sleet, freezing rain, fog and rain all joined forces during
the third week in January to create precarious conditions. The
steady downpour of rain started on Tuesday afternoon and continued
through Wednesday.
Mother Nature had already dumped nearly a half inch of snow on the
county on Monday.
The rain melted the more than four inches of snow that was already
on the frozen ground.
The frozen ground could not soak it all up, the streets were
flooded and the storm sewers were overtaxed.
The Blanchard River hit flood stage in Ottawa on the morning of
Friday the 23rd.
Flood waters started to fill Sugar Street in the West end of town.
The river was rising at about two inches per hour at noon on
Thursday. That morning Findlay officials reported that the
Blanchard was rising at approximately .05 feet per hour and they
expected it to crest about Thursday noon. The measurement in
Findlay, at that time, was 773.75 feet above sea level and was the
highest in the city's history, even higher than the 1913 Flood.
(Sentinel, Jan.23rd). County schools were closed most of the week
but both Ottawa schools reopened on Friday. Schools remaining
closed on Friday were Vaughnsville, Kalida, Ottoville, Ft.
Jennings, Columbus Grove, Pandora-Gilboa, Miller City and the
school for handicapped children.
Ray Burkholder, official county weather observer, reported that
the rain and snow for the week amounted to.2.72 inches of
moisture. The 1.73 inches of rain on Wednesday was the most ever
recorded during a 24 hour period during the month of January. The
previous high of 1.64 inches fell on the 26 January 1952.
Normally the Blanchard would rise in Ottawa from 12 to 24 hours
after the Findlay crest. However the range in temperature from 5
degrees on Sunday to 54 on Wednesday might alter the rise of the
river. Because of the cold wave, much of the water on streets and
lowlands were frozen. Much of Ohio was also flooded at this time.
Many cities were experiencing the worst flood in 20 years.
Many basements in Ottawa were flooded, including the Fire Chief
Dewel Martin's, who reported four feet of water in his basement.
The water was reported to be running through the race horse barns
on the fair ground.
The ice caused extensive damage to the lines of the Ottawa
Telephone Company. All lines between Ottawa and Leipsic and Ottawa
and Miller City were also out of order, as were toll lines to
Napoleon and Lima. Service to Lima was replaced Wednesday morning.
The Ohio Power did not report extensive damage to lines. However
Pandora and Continental reported some outages for a time and five
main lines were out in the Ottawa District.
According to the Jan. 30 Putnam County Sentinel, the Blanchard
crested at midnight on Friday the 23rd. Only a portion of Route 65
was closed but Rt. 224 on West Main was closed for more than 36
hours. Flood waters rose as high as the B & O Railroad bridge,
causing an ice jam in front of the bridge, which was weighted down
by freight cars for several days. Water entered several homes on
the West end of Ottawa and many other homes were surrounded. The
Army amphibious duck, purchased by the Putnam County Civil Defense
during the past year, was put to good use in removing some
occupants from their homes and delivering groceries to many
families, who remained in their homes. Farmers near Rimer and
Kalida reported the loss of over 30 pigs due to being stranded in
areas, where they could not reach.
In addition to the closing of Rt. 224; Rt. 190 was closed near Ft.
Jennings; Routes 694, 634 and 114 were closed in the Cloverdale
and Cascade areas; 698 was closed near the River; 15 was closed
north of Ottawa; Route 115 was flooded near Kalida and
Vaughnsville, as was Route 12 near Vaughnsville. A section of N.
Locust Street near SPPS was also covered with water. Damage in the
county was placed at 66l,000 to 775,000 dollars, but no death or
injuries were reported.
Several hair raising experiences were reported due to people
getting stuck in the flood waters.
Thomas Zeller, of near Kalida, was on his way to work in Napoleon,
when his car became stuck in Greensburg Township on Friday. He was
trying to find a short-cut to work at 6 a.m. He was driving on
County Road 15, when his car became stranded. He climbed out of
the car into the icy waters in the semi-darkness and ventured to
the Norbert Vennekotter home. He waded to a fence, climbed it; and
then crawled on his hands and knees towards the house. He was
unaware he was crawling on ice which covered a ravine filled with
5 to 10 feet of water. Mr. and Mrs. Venekotter said the youth was
almost frozen stiff when they took him in. Mr. Vennekotter pulled
the car out with his tractor. After drying out Zeller was able to
return home.
The Vidette reported that several young people put on an auto ice
show midway between Kalida and Rimer on Sunday afternoon.
The earlier high water had left between 70 to 80 acres of farmland
covered with a smooth sheet of ice, so several young motorists
decided to go "coasting." The cars would come down off a small
hill and go into twirling slides on the ice covered fields. At one
time as many as 15 to 16 cars were in on the show. The end of the
show came when one car broke through the ice and became thoroughly
"stuck".
Little did the residents of Putnam County, know another flood
would be coming in two to three weeks, even worse than the first.
http://larc.hamgate.net/blizzard_of_1977.htm
More photos of the blizzard of 1977
What was the major regional natural
history event of the 20th century? No contest.
1977
Lake Erie froze over by December 14, 1976, an early
record. This normally puts an end to the
lake effect snowstorms created by winds picking up
moisture from the lake surface, converting it to snow
and dumping it when those winds reach shore. But that
winter something different happened.
It began to snow just after
Christmas and a few inches accumulated almost every day
through the next month. By late January snow depth in
Buffalo was 30 to 35 inches and street plowing was
already falling behind -- 33 of the city's 79 plows were
in for repairs. More ominous, snow depth on the 10,000
square miles of Lake Erie surface was also almost three
feet.
Although the National Weather
Service had posted blizzard warnings, that fateful
Friday, January 28, 1977 started out quite pleasant.
There was little wind and it wasn't too cold for late
January. But suddenly, just before noon, the infamous
Blizzard of '77 hit.
The temperature quickly plummeted to near zero and the
winds arrived with gusts peaking at over 70
miles per hour. This produced a wind chill that
dropped almost off the chart to 60 below. Only about
seven inches of new snow fell over the next several
days, but western New York and nearby Canada were also
inundated with those tons of snow blown in off Lake
Erie.
As one consequence, visibility
remained at zero for the first 25 hours of the storm.
Drivers found themselves being buried and many,
surrounded by the whiteout, were forced to stay in their
cars. Some of those contributed to the 29 death toll,
dying of carbon monoxide poisoning or exposure. (In
another episode carbon monoxide from a snow blower
started in an enclosed garage killed not only the
operator but his daughter in a nearby bedroom.) Hearing
of people marooned in their cars, police struggled over
drifts to bang on car roofs. They were relieved to
receive no answer because they had no way of digging
anyone out.
Ordinary snow would not have
been so bad. During this same period the east end of
Lake Ontario received almost six feet, but theirs didn't
pack the way it did in Buffalo.
Here the wind was so strong that it broke up snow
crystals and compressed them into drifts that were
cement-like in quality. At the same time buildings acted
like snow fences causing the drifts to accumulate in
some places to 30 feet, enough to bury a house.
The problem became more than
the usual too few plows; now it was plows that could not
penetrate the drifts. Some broke down, were quickly
buried and themselves contributed to the difficulty of
opening roads. The state's National Guard and Department
of Transportation, the Army Corps of Engineers, nearby
towns and commercial firms had to bring in earth moving
equipment to handle the huge accumulation.
Seven western New York counties
were designated part of a major national disaster area
and soldiers were dispatched from Fort Bragg in North
Carolina to assist in the clean-up. It lasted well into
February.
Although there was some looting
and theft during the storm, it was mostly an episode
that brought the community together. Stores and
restaurants and hotels provided food and places to stay,
often free. Agencies like the Salvation Army and the Red
Cross as well as city and county departments worked
continuously through the emergency to provide services.
Individual people helped not only neighbors but
strangers as well.
It was without a doubt our
storm of the century.-- Gerry Rising
1979
January 22, 2009
By
MATT HANLEY mhanley@scn1.com
The storm came without fanfare,
without a media blitz, without
predictions of doom.
In fact, the forecast for Friday,
Jan. 12, 1979, was rather pedestrian.
Snow likely tonight. Cloudy with
some snow or some flurries likely
Saturday.
Oh, the joys of the Blizzard of
1979 ... Thirty years ago this
month, the snow kept on coming
down for days. Digging out became
a full-time job. At top, fire
hydrants had to be cleared out so
emergency personnel would have
access. Above, two hearty
individuals try to free their
vehicle from the tundra in Aurora.
Instead, 30 years ago this month, the
Fox Valley was pelted by a powerful
snowstorm that closed roads, collapsed
roofs, stranded bowling teams and
created snowdrifts 8 feet high. Some
flurries, indeed.
The storm was powerful enough to
wipe the other big story of the day --
the discovery of 27 dead bodies under
John Wayne Gacy's house -- off the
front page.
Statewide, 57 deaths were blamed on
the blizzard. In DuPage County, six
people's final chore on this Earth was
shoveling snow.
The storm started with that
innocuous forecast -- nothing that
raised concern for a hearty group of
Aurora Girl Scouts. They headed out
for a weekend of camping in Big Rock.
"I didn't think it was too serious,
so we went ahead with the plans," said
Scout leader June Bombard.
Twenty-six girls and seven leaders
set up in a cabin, some distance from
the main lodge.
*****
The snow started Friday night,
dropping 4-1/2 inches. That might have
been manageable except for three
complicating factors.
One, there was already 11 inches of
snow on the ground.
Two, 25-mph winds made it difficult
to keep roads -- especially rural
routes -- clear.
"The roads are like cow paths," the
DuPage County sheriff's office
reported.
Then finally, and most
devastatingly, it ... just ... kept
... snowing. Between Saturday night
and Sunday morning, another foot of
snow fell.
Chaos ensued.
Fourteen members of a bowling team
from Forrest, Ill., on their way to a
tournament got stranded and spent the
night in the Elburn police chief's
home. In downtown Yorkville, the roof
of the Homer Dixon Implement Co.
collapsed, destroying $100,000 worth
of equipment.
Fifteen cars and their occupants --
including an Illinois state trooper --
were stranded on Interstate 88 near
Sugar Grove.
And when the storm cut power to 75
homes in Elburn, ComEd decided to send
a helicopter to restore electricity.
The pilot couldn't get to the chopper;
it was snowed in, too.
"It's like the frozen wastelands of
the moon out here," said an unfazed
Ruth Harmon, who made tea and French
toast in the fireplace.
*****
Meanwhile, the Aurora Scouts
realized there was a problem. The
leaders put their heads together and
decided to move the girls, who were 9
and 10 years old, to the main lodge.
Supplies were loaded onto toboggans.
"We knew we had to move; otherwise
we wouldn't have been evacuated until
spring," said Scout leader Charlene
Killman.
They had access to a phone, but no
way to get home. To stave off cabin
fever, the leaders invented a patch
and made up requirements. The girls
made drinking water, created recipes
and shoveled, shoveled, shoveled.
On Sunday night, the girls planned
services. They prayed for rescue.
*****
Outside, the snow continued to pile
up.
"Our vehicles keep breaking down
because of the weight of the snow,"
said one plow company. "There are no
places to push snow. There is just too
much there. My partner is ready to fly
somewhere warm. We, too, are sick of
the snow."
Hardware stores ran out of
supplies.
"All we had left were coal and
grain shovels," said one clerk. "And
now they are all gone."
The clerk helpfully pointed
customers to shovels used for building
sand castles. (There's always a
comedian.)
By Monday night, county officials
estimated 20,000 residents were
stranded. Many main roads -- including
Routes 30 and 47 -- were closed. Other
streets were clogged with stalled or
abandoned cars.
"I'm having one helluva time," the
Geneva Township Highway Superintendent
said. "We've got places you couldn't
get to with a saddle horse."
*****
Finally, on Monday morning,
snowmobiles were able to reach the
Scouts.
"We weren't out of food but we
didn't have much left when they came,"
Killman said Tuesday, recalling their
ordeal of 30 years ago. "We were ready
to go home."
The snowmobiles could only take one
girl at a time so the rescue took
hours. But by the end of the night,
they were in their own beds. They
never forgot the experience.
"It was once-in-a-lifetime thing,
getting stranded," Killman said.
So, was it the worst winter she's
experienced?
Oh, no, Killman said. Sure, the
blizzard of 1979 was bad.
But it was nothing compared to
1967. That, Killman said, was a really
bad winter.
Comment at
www.foxvalleyvillagessun.com
FROM:
http://www.bolling.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123038650
|
Deadly
storm’s 25th anniversary
1984
In one
swift weekend snowstorm almost 25 years ago — February
4 — nine lives were taken; three of those, children
from the same family.
Twenty-five years ago, cell phone communication was
only a technology geek’s dream, a meterologist’s
advanced warning system was on the brink, and
well-heeled survival techniques were still being
sculpted.
The snows and winds often hurl unheeded across this
southwestern Minnesota prairie.
Such was the case the 1984 weekend of Saturday,
February 4, and Sunday, February 5.
Six people alone died that weekend one mile south of
Bingham Lake along Highway 60. Lives lost included
78-year-old Louise Janzen of Mt. Lake; her grandson,
Michael Janzen, 27 and his wife, Diane, 26; and the
couple’s three children, Joshua Lemke, age 6 and Jacob
Lemke, age 5 and 8-month-old Alisha Janzen, all of
Minneapolis.
Two other deaths occurred north of Butterfield on
Watonwan County Road 5 — Raymond Anderson, 71, and his
wife, Leola, 66, of St. James.
The ninth death, that of Albert Koep of Jackson, was
in Jackson County.
Eventually weary rescuers finished the daunting and
emotional job of rescue and recovery, shrouded with
overwhelming sadness. Pete Heinrichs, ambulance squad
member and firefighter living in Mt. Lake at that
time, among those who recovered the bodies of the
Janzen family, told the group of men — all of whom
were fathers — “Fellas, when you get home, hug your
kids!”
The Janzen family
The blizzard exploded on the area at approximately
8:10 p.m. on Saturday, February 4.
Travelers had little or no warning, and many were
“caught” en route between destinations.
The storm followed a 15-minute heavy snow flurry,
swirling in from the northeast.
As the night continued, the winds grew stronger, with
gusts registering up to 5o miles per hour during late
Saturday night and early Sunday morning. Winds
remained whipping at a clip of 30-40 miles per hour
all day Sunday, finally abating at approximately 5:30
p.m.
Along with the howling winds whipping the new-fallen
snow, the temperature plummeted, with the wind chill
dropping to 40-60 degrees below zero.
The Mt. Lake Fire Department, assisted by a pair of
Cottonwood County snowplows driven from the Mt. Lake
shop by Walt Buller and Arnold Karschnik, both of Mt.
Lake, located the Janzen car along Highway 60 at
approximately 11:15 a.m. Sunday morning, February 5.
According to reports, the car was completely covered
by a snowdrift. The family had been trapped in the car
for over 14 hours.
Mt. Lake rescue personnel, including Heinrichs, Ray
Oeljtenbruns and Dennis Peters, were unable to get
responses from the six people inside the vehicle.
However, they immediately began revival techniques.
The family was taken to Windom Area Hospital, where
all six were pronounced dead of hypothermia at
approximately 8 p.m. that Sunday evening.
Despite the fact that there were no vital signs, the
rescue crew, as well as the doctors and nurses at
Windom Area Hospital, continued resuscitation efforts
for the intervening eight hours after the rescue.
The Janzen group had apparently gone to Windom for
supper, and to visit with John and Ruth Aumer of
Windom, Louise Janzen’s daughter and son-in-law.
They were returning to Mt. Lake when they became stuck
in a snowdrift during the snowstorm.
Michael Janzen was at the wheel of the vehicle, while
the older boys, Joshua and Jacob, were kneeling on the
floor in the front seat, in front of the heater. Diane
Janzen was cradling Alisha on her lap in the back
seat, next to Louise Janzen. The car window was open
approximately two inches.
At 10 p.m. the Saturday night before, Don and Jan Dehm-
low of Bingham Lake had come upon the snowbound Janzen
vehicle.
The Dehmlows stopped and gave the family food and
milk, and offered to take the children with them. The
Janzens declined, wishing instead to remain together.
The Dehmlows, who had been shopping in Windom, had
already rescued a number of people on their return
trip to Bingham Lake, and though their car was full,
stated they could have made room for the Janzen
children.
When they made it to their home around 10:30 p.m., the
Dehmlows notified the Cottonwood County Sheriff’s
Department concerning the Janzen vehicle and the six
people stranded in it.
Don Dehmlow made a second rescue attempt of the
Janzens later that evening.
Together with Dale Minion, also of Bingham Lake, the
two men used a 4x4 pickup truck to attempt reaching
the area of the stranded vehicle.
According to Jan Dehmlow at that time, “The visibility
was so bad that the men were unable to find their way,
and the snow had drifted in so tight, they couldn’t
move.”
The complete story can be found in the print
version of the Observer/Advocate.
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Severe winter weather makes state history
1949, 1966 & 1984
By ELOISE OGDEN, Regional
Editor,
eogden@minotdailynews.com
It's been a rugged winter so far.
The Minot area had record-setting snowfall in December and is
nearly halfway to setting another record snowfall this month, plus
there's already plenty of the "white stuff" to remove from
driveways, roads and other areas.
December also was the eighth-coldest December in North Dakota
history.
Although North Dakota has had a number of mild winters, it has
had its share of severe winter weather over the years, with some of
those winters going down in the state's history with severe
blizzards.
Here are a few of them, according to the files of The Minot
Daily News, that unleashed themselves on this state:
Many oldtimers remember the winter of 1948-49 when people were
snowbound and hay had to be airlifted to cattle in the region.
Minot was the rescue hub for the 1949 "Operation Haylift" when
C-47 cargo planes flew in and out of the airport dropping bales of
hay to cattle marooned in fields through northwest counties.
"For those who lived through the winter of 1948-49 in North
Dakota, especially the counties along the northern border, the
experience can never be forgotten," The Minot Daily News reported.
During that winter of '48-49, mountains of snow were piled up
and at one time and it was estimated no more than six miles of
highway were passable. Help rushed in after disaster appeals from
then Gov. Fred G. Aandahl.
Fifth Army personnel also were directed to North Dakota with
their "Weasels," tractor-like machines, to battle their way through
the drifts and bring supplies to people stranded for days, sometimes
weeks, in buried farmhouses, rural schools almost anyplace.
People in that 1948-49 ordeal walked to work between piles of
snow well over their heads ... and they were their brother's keeper
for those who needed help.
Also, there was no major flood in Minot that spring.
Some other blizzards that have been marked significant in
North Dakota over the years include:
- March 1920. The storm took seven lives, among them Hazel
Miner, a rural Oliver County schoolgirl who sheltered her younger
brother and sister from the storm after their sleigh had tipped. The
younger children were found alive but Hazel had died. Many stories,
including a folk ballad, have been written about Hazel's heroism
over the years. There also were others who lost their lives in that
storm, including four small brothers from rural Ryder who were
trying to head home from their school southwest of Ryder with their
team and sled and became stalled in the storm. The Minot Daily News
called the blizzard "the worst blizzard since 1902."
- March 1941. This storm was rated as one of the most
ferocious blizzards in history. Before it stopped, 76 people had
died in North Dakota, Minnesota, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. In North
Dakota, the death toll was 39.
- March 1966. The storm struck the south-central part of the
state, leaving roof-top snowpiles in towns and literally burying a
passenger train near Bismarck. It took five lives, among them a
6-year-old Strasburg girl, who became lost while walking to the barn
from her home for milking chores. Her father searched for her for
hours in the roaring winds and snow until he found her in a 12-foot
drift. She was dressed in overshoes, two jackets and a stocking cap
but had died of exposure.
Blizzard reports go back many years, including in January 1888
when 65 mph winds swept across the Plains and nearly 100 people were
killed, including several in North Dakota. Several other storms
between the late 1800s and the early 1920s took the lives of North
Dakotans. A February 1923 blizzard killed 22 people and at that time
was considered the second-worst in the state's history.
A January 1975 blizzard was called the "blizzard of the
century" by a Minneapolis meteorologist. It left 55 people dead in
nine region states, including nine in North Dakota. Among those who
died in it were a Minot youth and two companions who tried to walk
to safety from a stalled car near Lakota. In Minot, some of the
snowdrifts reached nearly the rooftop of some houses, according to
reports. Some buildings and some under construction collapsed
because of the strong winds.
And then there was the ice storm of March 5-6, 1983.
A blizzard occurring April 26-27, 1984, dropped 25 inches of
snow on Minot and had high winds. Travel in the western and central
parts of the state was almost impossible. At the time, the storm was
considered the worst April blizzard on record. The Minot Daily News
reported that during that storm, several of its employees stayed
overnight at the newspaper so they could be sure they were on hand
for work the next day. Others did get to work the next day, either
by walking or catching rides.
And the most recent snow emergency the North Dakota National
Guard was called in for, called Operation Snowball, was in the
winter of December 1996 which went into April 1997.
What's in store for the rest of this winter? If you go by The
Old Farmers Almanac for 2009, there's still more snow at intervals
from now and into March and cold weather also at various times into
mid-February but then warmer than normal weather is predicted to hit
in April and May.
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NEWS
Date:
November 01, 2008 at 15:41:15
From:Mary E
Subject:
Tibet’s ‘worst snowstorm ever’, 7 killed
URL:
Tibet’s ‘worst snowstorm ever’, 7 killed
Another sign we may
be in for a cold winter?
BEIJING, China (CNN) -- At least seven people have been found dead
after "the worst snowstorm on record in Tibet," China's state-run
news agency reported Friday.
About 1,350 people were rescued in Lhunze County -- another 300
were trapped -- after nearly five feet (1.5 meters) of snow
blanketed much of Tibet this week.
The storm caused buildings to collapse, blocked roads and killed
about 144,000 head of cattle, the state-run China Daily newspaper
reported.
The seven people who died either froze to death or were killed as
a result of collapsing buildings, and one person is still missing,
China Daily said.
|
Southern US hit by rare
snowfall
12-12-08
Snow has blanketed parts of
the US states of Louisiana and Mississippi, causing disruption
and leaving thousands without power.
Up to eight inches of snow were reported in
some areas, blocking roads and forcing offices to close.
In Mississippi some schools were shut, and
forecasters warned of treacherous driving conditions.
The north-east of the country was also hit
by winter weather, with a state of emergency in place in two
states.
The snow in the Louisiana city of New
Orleans was its first in more than four years.
It caused considerable excitement, with
office workers taking to the streets to watch and photograph
the snow.
At a park in New Orleans' Uptown
neighbourhood, Sara Echaniz, 41, took photos and dodged
snowballs thrown by her son, three-year-old Sam.
"He didn't believe it was snow until it
started sticking to the ground," Ms Ecahniz said.
Eight inches of snow fell in Amite, about 75
miles (121 km) north-west of New Orleans, a meteorologist
said. In Mississippi, up to five inches of snow fell in some
southern parts of the state.
About 10,000 power cuts were reported by
Cleco Corp, one of Louisiana's largest power providers, and
some flights at Louis Armstrong International Airport outside
New Orleans were delayed.
Snow is rare in southern Louisiana, although
more northern parts of the state see it about once a year.
State of emergency
Meanwhile in the north-east of the US an ice
storm knocked out power to more than half a million homes and
businesses in New England and upstate New York.
Aerial footage of the
icestorm
Governors in both Massachusetts and New
Hampshire declared a state of emergency. Schools were closed
and travel disrupted across the region.
"I urge all New Hampshire citizens to take
sensible precautions and heed all warnings from public
officials," said New Hampshire Governor John Lynch.
Fire departments in New Hampshire were
responding to reports of transformer explosions and downed
power lines and trees.
Public Service Company of New Hampshire said
an unprecedented 230,000 customers - nearly half of the homes
and businesses it serves - were without power at one point.
The outages had far surpassed the infamous
ice storm of 1998, when some residents spent more than a week
without power, utility officials said.
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Winter Storm Claims Two Lives In KY
Fri., Jan. 30, 2009
Two deaths in
Kentucky have been associated with a vicious winter storm that
has left more than a 600,000 people without power.
Buddy Rogers with
the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management said Thursday that
91 shelters have been opened across Kentucky for people whose
homes lost power.
Rogers said downed
trees across a road in Ohio County delayed an ambulance crew
from reaching a residence where a woman was found dead. A woman
was also found dead at the bottom of her basement steps as she
retrieved a kerosene heater.
Rogers said
officials are also dealing with flooding along a few rivers due
in the state.
Officials
originally blamed the storm for another death in Montgomery
County after a man who was on oxygen died. However, officials
now say that death was not weather-related.
Associated Press
Wire Services Contributed To This Story.
|
Kentucky, Louisville seek
federal storm aid
24 Deaths
Reported
Plans for handling of debris are
set
By Jessie Halladay •
jhalladay@courier-journal.com •
February 3, 2009
As the Kentucky National Guard
continued to help victims in parts of the state hit
hardest by last week's winter storm, Gov. Steve
Beshear -- estimating state expenses exceeding $45
million -- asked President Barack Obama to speed up
federal aid.
Obama signed a federal emergency
declaration for Kentucky last week that provides
assistance with material, such as generators and
water.
Yesterday, Beshear asked the
president for a "major disaster" declaration and to
have the federal government reimburse 100 percent of
the recovery and cleanup costs during the first
seven days of the storm's effects.
At least 24 Kentuckians have died
as a result of last week's ice storm -- including 10
from carbon-monoxide poisoning -- and officials are
waiting for confirmation on other deaths, Beshear
said.
"We are in the middle of the
biggest natural disaster that this state has ever
experienced, at least in modern history," he said
yesterday.
Louisville officials said
meanwhile that, while the cleanup won't cost as much
as the one after September's windstorm, the expense
should still qualify the city for federal
assistance.
After the remnants of Hurricane
Ike pummeled Louisville in September, the city
submitted $3.4 million in cleanup expenses to the
Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Chris
Poynter, a spokesman for Mayor Jerry Abramson.
While ice storm expenses are
still coming in and no total has been reached,
Abramson said yesterday that he expects the cost of
cleaning up debris and overtime for public works,
fire and emergency medical personnel should reach
the federal threshold of $2.174 million.
That threshold is based on
overtime costs and expenses that fall outside of
normally budgeted costs. Once it is met, the city is
eligible to be reimbursed for 87 percent of its
expenses.
Part of what will drive up the
recovery costs will be picking up debris.
Three drop-off sites for that
debris will open today throughout the city.
Residents -- not businesses or contractors -- can
drop off debris for free from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
And the city's public works crews
will begin collecting debris in neighborhoods
starting Feb. 9. The mayor said that's meant to give
residents time to place it at curbside.
Crews will move from neighborhood
to neighborhood -- moving in the reverse order used
after the September windstorm.
Jack Fish, who lives on Trevilian
Way, said yesterday that he figures he has a couple
of weekends' worth of work to get all the branches
that have fallen in his yard.
Fish, who lost several tree limbs
in September, said he wasn't surprised to see more
branches down last week.
"Fortunately, I have a truck and
a chain saw," he said. "It's just the price of
having trees I guess."
'We've made progress'
Crews continued to work
throughout Louisville and the surrounding areas to
restore electricity to about 49,000 customers who
remained in the cold and dark yesterday.
Chip Keeling, a spokesman for
LG&E, said much progress had been made, but advances
could slow as crews work on circuits that contain
fewer customers and in places that are harder to
reach.
"We've made progress," Keeling
said.
But the National Weather Service
has issued a winter weather advisory for Louisville
and the surrounding area starting at 4 a.m. today.
Snow was expected to begin as
flurries after midnight, leading to a possibility of
1 to 3 inches, said Robert Szappanos, a
meteorologist in Louisville.
At least 255,000 homes and
businesses remained without electricity throughout
Kentucky yesterday, said Andrew Melnykovych, a
spokesman for the state Public Service Commission.
That does not include those who receive electricity
from municipal utilities.
National Guard members continued
to make the rounds in areas hardest hit to make sure
residents get what they needed, including food and
water.
The state has also asked the
federal government to pick up the costs of calling
up those 4,600 Guard members.
More than 7,000 Kentuckians
remain in 165 shelters across the state, Beshear
said.
Indiana improves
Duke Energy said last night that
it had only 91 customers in Indiana's Clark and
Floyd counties without electricity, down from a peak
of 40,000 last week.
The snow forecast for today isn't
as serious a threat to electric lines as last week's
ice, said Jeff Janes, Duke's regional manager.
David Hosea, Jeffersonville's
Streets and Sanitation Commissioner, said he was
watching the forecasts carefully and let all
employees leave work yesterday by 3 p.m. so they
would be rested if he had to call them back this
morning to clear snow from city streets.
Reporter Jessie Halladay can be
reached at (502) 582-4081. Reporters Ben Z.
Hershberg and Stephenie Steitzer contributed to this
story.
|
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Mississippi crew assists in winter storm recovery
Associated Press - February 1, 2009
TUPELO, Miss. (AP) - More than 250 crew
members from Mississippi were expected to be in
Arkansas, Kentucky and Missouri Monday helping
to restore power to thousands of homes hit by
the ice storm last week.
The bulk of the crews were sent to Kentucky
where demand was greater. The power outages
crippled pumping stations and cut off water
supplies.
The storm that began in the Midwest has been
blamed or suspected in at least 42 deaths,
including nine in Arkansas.
More than 400,000 Kentucky homes and
businesses still lacked electricity Sunday.
Authorities say it could be weeks before power
is restored in some spots.
Ron Stewart, a spokesman for Electric Power
Association of Mississippi, says the EPA has a
mutual agreement with other states to assist
during emergency situations.
Information from: Northeast Mississippi Daily
Journal,
http://www.djournal.com
Copyright 2009 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved.
|
DALLAS — Frozen northern Texas started thawing out Wednesday, a
day after ice-related traffic accidents boosted the death toll
from the cold snap to at least six people.The high in
Amarillo had already reached 50 by early afternoon after an
overnight low of 5, said Chris Nuttall, a National Weather Service
meteorologist in the Panhandle city.
Part of the explanation for the wild temperature swing was
fairly simple: the ever-present Texas drought. The cold front that
brought freezing temperatures wasn't overloaded with moisture,
Nuttall said, so it didn't take long for temperatures to climb
when the sun came back out.
"It's just so dry right now," Nuttall said. "There's no
moisture in the air. The moisture will kind of keep it from
warming up quite so much."
The warmup was a little slower in the Dallas-Fort Worth
area, where the slow-motion Wednesday morning commute wasn't too
big of a problem because so few drivers were on the roads. Most
schools and many businesses in the area were closed.
Dallas police reported 94 traffic accidents from midnight to
9 a.m. Tuesday, but most of them were minor.
"I think a lot of folks really listened to the weather
reports and probably stayed home," said Sgt. Gil Cerda. "I think
that probably contributed to the lower numbers. I drove in this
morning's traffic, and traffic was relatively light. I was kind of
surprised."
The temperature broke freezing early Tuesday afternoon at
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, said Jason Dunn of the
weather service's Fort Worth office. Dunn said ice accumulations
were about as expected, ranging from a tenth to a quarter of an
inch.
"It's just really cold, and with the ice on the ground, it
takes a little longer for it to warm up," Dunn said.
The Austin area had its share of icy headaches Wednesday
morning. Austin television station KXAN reported that a 20-car
pileup snarled traffic on a busy overpass in the northern part of
the city. One person with minor injuries was taken to a hospital,
the station reported.
Most of the damage was done Tuesday, when five people died
in separate traffic accidents. Four of those deaths were in West
Texas. Another person died Monday in Vernon, about 185 miles
northwest of Dallas.
Authorities were investigating if weather played a role in
the death of the unidentified man Tuesday night in Dallas. They
were looking into whether the man slipped on a patch of ice and
fell off a bridge when he got out of his car after a crash.
About 1,500 travelers spent the night in terminals at
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, said airport spokesman
Ken Capps. About 185 of the 900 daily flights there were canceled
Tuesday and another 125 were canceled early Wednesday, he said.
Airport officials said they were expecting operations to return to
normal as temperatures moved above freezing.
"It was a tough couple of days for our passengers, but our
airport operations and customer service teams worked very hard to
keep everyone as comfortable as possible," Capps said.
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Steamboat Springs —
Skiers and riders on Mount Werner romped in a snowfall of
historic dimensions Thursday, as the Steamboat Ski Area put up a
second-consecutive month with 100 inches or more of snow falling
at mid-mountain.Steamboat
Springs had recorded 13 inches of snow in the preceding 24 hours
when the official measurement was taken at 5 a.m., pushing the
January total to 104 inches and nearly 125 at the summit. The
century mark has been eclipsed 15 times in the past 30 years,
but back-to-back months reaching that level have been a relative
rarity. Although the event has become commonplace this winter
and last, no one is yawning — Thursday’s conditions were enough
to make Cole Richter and his friends laugh out loud.
“We went up and skied East Face, and it was
one constant face shot all the way down,” Richter said. “We
laughed all the way.”
Steamboat skiers are being reminded of last
winter, when the ski area saw 126 inches of snowfall at
mid-mountain in December 2007, followed by 129 inches in January
2008 and 104 inches in February. It was a snow record that had
never been seen before and led to the all-time record of 489
inches for the season.
Richter, who has visited Steamboat for 19
straight winters from his home in Madison, Wis., is spending his
first full season at the resort. He had the foresight Wednesday
night to rent a pair of fat powder skis that made his Thursday
skiing experience that much better.
“When I got into some of the tracked stuff,
they just pushed right through the push piles,” he said.
In spite of the fact that most of the fresh
snow on the mountain had fallen during the day Wednesday,
Richter and his companions found plenty of untracked snow
Thursday.
“The snow was falling so fast yesterday,
your tracks were filling up every third run,” Richter said.
Somber side
Steamboat Ski Patrol Director John Kohnke
introduced a sobering note to Thursday’s news, reminding skiers
and snowboarders that the deep snow piling up around the base of
evergreen trees on the upper mountain poses a danger.
Steamboat recorded two fatalities last
winter attributable to people who fell head first into tree
wells and succumbed before they could be rescued. Both deaths
took place along intermediate trails in Morningside Park. A
22-year-old man from Massachusetts suffocated in the deep snow
and a 45-year-old man from Pennsylvania died under similar
circumstances.
“Deep snow conditions require extra
caution,” Kohnke warned. “Always ski and ride with others and
stay clear of tree wells and other natural and manmade obstacles
on the mountain.”
So much snow
Steamboat was emerging Thursday night from
a week-long storm cycle that had produced 46 inches at
mid-mountain and 56 inches at the summit.
Since the ski area opened Nov. 26, snow has
fallen 44 out of 67 days, with 28 of those days recording four
or more inches. So far this season at mid-mountain, Steamboat
has seen a total of 244 inches — or more than 20 feet — of
snowfall.
Since the winter of 1979-80, Steamboat has
recorded 100 inches of snow seven times in December and eight
times in January. December 2008 and January 2009 combined to
produce the fourth incidence in resort history that the mark has
been recorded in back-to-back months.
Kevin Larson, of New Orleans, skiing
Steamboat for the first time in a decade, discovered Thursday
that he didn’t have to go up the big mountain to find untracked
snow. He and a companion instead opted to ski historic Howelsen
Hill.
Carrying skis over his shoulder on Lincoln
Avenue at dusk, he talked about his day.
“We found lots of that powder, but every
time I went into it, I bogged down and stopped,” Larson said.
|
CNN) -- A
massive winter storm system that left a deadly swath of
ice and snow from Texas to Maine pushed into Canada
early Thursday, leaving emergency officials to tally the
damage.
The storm caused at least 17
deaths and cut power to more than a million homes across
the Midwest, according to state emergency management
agencies.
While the massive storm dropped
sleet and ice across the Mid-South and Midwest, it
changed to a snowmaker by the time it reached the
Northeast, the National Weather Service said.
Snowfall amounts topped 10 inches
in portions of New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, Ohio,
Pennsylvania and Maine. Sixteen inches of snow fell on
Sunapee, New Hampshire, while Eminence, Missouri,
collected five inches of ice and sleet.
The storm left "absolutely
everything in northwest Arkansas ... at a standstill,"
an Arkansas police officer said.
Watch ice damage
trees in Arkansas »
"It's hard to walk, let alone
drive," Fayetteville, Arkansas, police officer Dan Baker
said. "It looks like tornado damage."
He added, "Our officers are
wearing metal cleats just so they can walk the streets."
iReport.com: Send your wintry weather photos, videos
Northwest Arkansas has been hit
hard, and schools and universities were closed
throughout the state.
See the impact
of the storms »
"It's like a ghost town," Barbara
Rademacher of Rogers, Arkansas, said Wednesday morning.
"It's just white and ice,"
Rademacher said while looking out her kitchen window at
a street devoid of traffic and littered with the
ice-weighted branches of oak trees.
"The roads are impassable, and
there are shelters set up in every community because
there are so many people with power out," she said.
The storms were extending their
reach into the New England states Wednesday.
The National Weather Service
issued freezing rain, ice and winter storm warnings from
Texas up through the Ohio Valley and into New England
As of Wednesday, the Oklahoma
Corporation Commission reported at least 27,621 homes
and businesses affected by power outages across the
state. The commission office was closed Wednesday
because of the icy conditions.
For Dorenda Coks, assistant
manager at City Bites in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the
winter blast was a completely new experience.
The Jamaica native is
experiencing her first winter in Oklahoma and wasn't
prepared for the cold.
"You just try
to stay warm," Coks said.
|
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About 114K still without
power in north Arkansas
Associated Press
(2009-02-02)
Many north Arkansas residents will spend another
week without electricity as utility crews work to
replace thousands of poles and eventually work house
to house to restore power.
About 114,000 customers were without service Monday
morning, a week after the start of a stretch of
freezing rain that left two inches or more of ice on
much of the northern part of the state. A peak of
about 350,000 homes and businesses had no
electricity after the storm.
Arkansas Electric Cooperatives had about 65,000
customers without power Monday morning. Entergy
Arkansas had 49,364 customers out, mostly in the
Blytheville, Harrison and Yellville areas. Entergy
Arkansas spokesman James Thompson said service would
be restored to the bulk of Entergy customers by late
Wednesday night, although others may not get power
until Friday or Saturday.
Arkansas Electric Cooperatives peaked at 198,000
customers out during the winter storm; Entergy
peaked at 111,000 outages.
Crews working to restore power have been discovering
additional broken or downed poles. Arkansas Electric
Cooperatives vice president of systems Doug White
said Sunday the utility's count of broken poles in
its service area had surpassed 11,000. Workers have
to clear the area of debris, then it takes an
experienced crew 1 1/2 hours to install a new pole,
he said. White said materials suppliers were working
around the clock to supply poles, line and other
items needed for repairs.
Entergy Arkansas said thousands of its own workers
and other utilities were taking part in the
restoration effort. Entergy brought in additional
off-road equipment, including tracked bucket trucks,
bulldozers and two helicopters for aerial
assessment.
The Arkansas Forestry Commission said it provided
bulldozer and chain saw crews to a half dozen areas
in north Arkansas.
Mel Coleman, chief executive of the North Arkansas
Electric Cooperative, asked Sunday that residents
not approach line crews.
"We have seen this grow to a major problem today,"
Coleman said in a news release. "This is very
dangerous to the public and to our workers."
Damage assessment got under way Saturday, with
local, state and federal officials looking at damage
to bridges, roads, water treatment plants and other
infrastructure. Insurance adjusters also continued
to get a look at the storm's effects.
Freezing rain began falling Jan. 26, and nine deaths
were attributed to the storm, including that of
Trumann Police Chief Larry Neal "Red" Blagg, who was
killed Tuesday by a falling limb.
Hundreds turned out for a Saturday funeral for Blagg,
39, who was remembered as a husband and father who
worked to keep drugs out of the community. Blagg
worked at the Trumann department for 17 years.
2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
© Copyright
2009,
UALR Public Radio
|
2 fire deaths may be
storm-related
LG&E still has 83,000 lacking
power
By Martha Elson, Peter Smith
and Jeffrey Lee Puckett
The Courier-Journal • February 2, 2009
A fire that killed two young
brothers in Louisville early yesterday morning may
be connected to last week's ice storm, while
hundreds of thousands remained without power across
Kentucky amid hazards from power lines, carbon
monoxide and flooding from the thawing ice.
The victims of the fire in the
Park DuValle neighborhood were Kierren Lindsey, 9,
and Kaden Labron Lindsey, 4, said Sgt. Salvador
Melendez, a Louisville Fire & Rescue spokesman. Both
died of smoke inhalation, according to Jefferson
County Deputy Coroner Rita Taylor.
Power had been restored to the
home on Woodland Avenue near 32nd Street about an
hour before the blaze, which was reported about 3
a.m. The family had been using candles, but a cause
hasn't been determined, Louisville Fire Chief Greg
Frederick said.
At 4:30 p.m. yesterday, 83,000
homes and businesses served by Louisville Gas &
Electric still lacked power, down from about 205,000
on Wednesday.
"We've made good headway," Chip
Keeling, a spokesman for E.On U.S., the parent firm
of LG&E and Kentucky Utilities, said during a media
briefing. Some 2,700 workers are "going to keep
working 24 hours a day" until power is fully
restored, he said.
E.On officials estimated that
power wouldn't be fully restored until at least
Wednesday and as late as Saturday.
Across the state, more than
360,000 homes and businesses had no electricity
yesterday afternoon, the Kentucky Public Service
Commission said. At the peak of the outages, more
than 700,000 were without power.
The mild weather yesterday made
it easier for crews to work, but the soggy ground
made it harder to bring heavy vehicles to damaged
power lines, Keeling said. He said in some cases
workers had to climb poles instead of using more
efficient bucket trucks.
Worker is injured
A utility worker was taken to
University Hospital with burns after touching a live
wire on Natchez Lane in the St. Matthews area
yesterday, Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson said. The
worker was conscious and expected to be OK.
An unconscious woman was rescued
by firefighters after an acquaintance who hadn't
heard from her called police. The woman had suffered
carbon monoxide poisoning from an improperly
ventilated generator, said McMahan Fire Chief Paul
Barth.
She was one of two people treated
for monoxide poisoning in the previous 24 hours,
officials said yesterday.
"I am urging people to continue
to check on family members and neighbors," Abramson
said.
The number of Kentucky deaths
confirmed to be related to the storm has increased
to 16, the state Division of Emergency Management
said yesterday.
Spokeswoman Monica French said
those deaths were due to carbon monoxide poisoning,
accidents or hypothermia.
She said two more deaths are
being investigated as storm-related.
Four deaths in Louisville have
been linked to the storm.
Three people -- William Matthews,
62, his wife, Beverly Matthews, 54, and their
adopted daughter, Mona Stephens, 46 -- died of
carbon monoxide poisoning Friday at their western
Louisville home, which had a generator going in the
garage.
And Nywot Chol, 44, of Louisville
died early Saturday after burning charcoal in a
grill inside his apartment in the Lake Dreamland
area; carbon monoxide poisoning is suspected.
Other problems
Officials said a garage fire
yesterday was attributed to the use of a kerosene
heater.
The Louisville Water Co. said 11
water mains have broken, believed to be from
pressure from the frozen ground.
A warm front moved into the
Louisville area yesterday, with the temperature
reaching 54 degrees. The comparatively balmy weather
will continue through today, with highs in the low
40s, but another cold front will move in tomorrow
and stick around until Friday, said Joe Ammerman, a
National Weather Service meteorologist.
"Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
will be the really cold days," Ammerman said. "If
the surface temperature drops below freezing then
what's melted can refreeze."
The Metropolitan Sewer District
said its crews have been clearing clogged catch
basins to enable water to drain, and it urges
residents to clean debris around any catch basins
near their homes.
Officials said they have received
about 75 calls about frozen pipes bursting in homes
-- sometimes when power is restored and frozen pipes
begin to thaw out.
Western Kentucky
Some of the worst problems have
been in the western half of the state, where
Kentucky Army and Air National Guard members are
helping clear debris to let utility crews reach
remote areas. They also have been going house to
house in rural areas to check on residents.
"It's going to be a long haul for
us," Gov. Steve Beshear said yesterday as he toured
hard-hit areas in and around Elizabethtown. "We've
thrown everything we have at it. We're going to
continue to do that until everyone is back in their
homes and back on their feet."
On Saturday, the governor
mobilized the state's entire National Guard,
throwing about 4,600 members into the storm recovery
effort.
To aid efforts in Western
Kentucky, the Kentucky National Guard will take 50
Humvees to areas with limited access for
house-to-house checks of the homebound and to help
reach downed transmission lines.
The Kentucky Air National Guard
123rd Airlift Wing flew 100 Guard members to
Columbus, Ohio, yesterday afternoon to pick up the
Humvees, said Sgt. Phil Speck, a Guard spokesman.
The Humvees will be driven back today and "dispersed
throughout the state in trouble areas," primarily in
Western Kentucky, Speck said.
The Kentucky Air National Guard
deployed 173 airmen to Hardinsburg early yesterday
to aid relief efforts, primarily for house-to-house
checks.
"They're having some real access
issues in Western Kentucky because so many trees are
still down," said Andrew Melnykovych, a PSC
spokesman. "Hopefully when these crews working the
Louisville area and Lexington area are done they can
head out to the western part of the state."
Fires pose danger
Numerous fires have been reported
over the past week in Louisville as people left
without power tried to heat their homes by other
means.
Frederick, the Louisville fire
chief, said that when power is restored, people
should make sure to extinguish candles or turn off
heaters they had been using.
In the Park DuValle fire, a
sibling, Kijana Maddox, 13, was transported to
Kosair Children's Hospital suffering from smoke
inhalation, Melendez said. Kijana was treated and
released, according to the hospital.
An uncle, Trevor Maddox, 18, was
at the house with an 18-year-old male friend and the
two helped get Kijana out of the house, Melendez
said.
The two also tried to help the
brothers, who were in a back bedroom, but the fire
was too heavy, Melendez said.
The fire spread to two adjacent
homes, but nobody appeared to be home there, he
said.
It took about 35 firefighters
roughly half an hour to get the blaze under control.
Trevor Maddox told firefighters
that he and his friend smelled something that
"didn't smell right," Melendez said.
Because of the cold weather and
slippery conditions with snow and ice still on the
ground, firefighters "were facing a very challenging
situation," Melendez said.
A water main break also flooded
32nd Street, and Melendez said it could have been
related to the use of water in the area by
firefighters.
The house that caught fire was at
3112 Woodland, and the others were at 3110 and 3114.
The house at 3112 was essentially
a total loss, and the two adjacent houses were
significantly damaged, Melendez said.
Reporter Peter Smith can be
reached at
psmith@courier-journal.com or (502) 582-4469.
Reporter Jeffrey Lee Puckett can be reached at
jpuckett@courier-journal.com or (502) 582-4160.
Reporter Martha Elson can be reached at
melson@courier-journal.com or (502) 582-7061.
The Associated Press contributed
to this story.
|
| Ice Storm Causes 5 Traffic Deaths,
Power Outage In Oklahoma, Texas
1-27-09
Windsor Genova - AHN News Writer
Oklahoma City, OK (AHN) - A severe winter storm on Monday
caused road accidents that killed five people in Oklahoma and
Texas and cut power to some 5,200 customers in the Sooner State.
Two people died in Oklahoma while three were killed in Texas,
according to authorities.
In Chandler, Oklahoma, a truck driver skidded off an icy
turnpike killing him. An accident on Interstate 44 near Afton
killed another motorist.
In North Texas, a slippery overpass sent a vehicle crashing
into an ambulance killing one person, Vernon Fire Department
Chief Kent Smead said, according to the Associated Press.
Slippery roads also killed a 46-year-old motorist in Jasper
County and a 39-year-old woman in Christian County when their
respective cars smashed into a tree, the Missouri Highway Patrol
said.
The Emergency Medical Services Authority responded to 30
accidents in Tulsa and more than 50 car accidents in Oklahoma
City.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry placed 77 counties under
a state of emergency
|
|
Trumann police chief hit by icy tree limb, dies
Associated Press - January 28, 2009
TRUMANN, Ark. (AP) - The police chief of
Trumann was killed while helping his community
during the winter storm yesterday. Chief Larry
Blagg was killed when a tree branch laden with
ice broke and fell on him as he was helping move
fallen branches. Trumann Mayor Sheila Walters
says Blagg went into cardiac arrest. The
40-year-old police chief died on the way to the
hospital. The winter storm is moving east this
morning but left about 500,000 homes and
businesses in Arkansas without power and the
roads in the northern part of the state iced
over. At least three other deaths in Arkansas
were blamed on the weather.
Copyright 2009 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved.
|
Weather deaths climb to four
in France, 15 Europe-wide
Europe News
Paris - The death
toll Saturday climbed to four in France in
a fierce winter storm that has claimed 15
lives Europe-wide, French officials said.
French
meteorologists said it was the worst storm
to hit the country in ten years, and
compared winds which reached 184
kilometres an hour in Perpignan to
hurricane Lothar which swept across
western and central Europe in December
1999.
Two people were
crushed by trees which fell on their cars.
A 78- year-old man was felled by flying
debris on his property. A woman who
depended on a respirator to keep her alive
at home died when the electricity went
out. In total, 1.7 million households were
without power in France alone.
The airports in
Bordeaux and Toulouse were closed for
hours-long stretches. Train service and
car traffic was mostly stilled by fallen
trees and utility poles.
French President
Nicolas Sarkozy planned to visit the
affected area on Sunday.
Authorities placed
15 departements in the area on high alert
and advised the public to stay indoors.
The Red Cross was called in to assist
stranded travellers.
Streets were blocked
by uprooted trees and railway lines were
also affected, with trains stranded which
were carrying hundreds of passengers. The
Aquitaine bridge was closed to traffic.
Winter sport facilities in the Pyrenees
were also closed.
Many people were
left homeless when winds ripped the roofs
from their houses. Tens of thousands of
French residents were also incommunicado,
as the storm disrupted both landline and
mobile phone service.
|
|
Harry
Scull Jr / Buffalo News
A car sits up against the guardrail Wednesday
after spinning out of control in the snow on the
Youngmann Highway in Amherst. More than seven
inches fell in the metro area, causing the usual
traffic problems and fender benders.
01/29/09 01:38 PM
Record snowfall hits on Blizzard Day
But storm can’t
compare with behemoth of ’77
By Brian Meyer and Maki Becker
NEWS STAFF REPORTERS
1-28-09It’s January. We’re in
Buffalo. So, yes, it snowed. Wednesday,
the anniversary of the infamous Blizzard
of ’77, all of Western New York got a
healthy helping of snow — at least a
half foot in most places.
Weather watchers measured 7.1
inches of snow at Buffalo Niagara
International Airport, breaking the
record for the day set five years ago
when 6.6 inches fell at the airport.
“Six point six is pretty good,”
allowed National Weather Service
meteorologist Steve McLaughlin. “I guess
you could call that a record.”
But the storm that hit us
Wednesday, compared with the one 32
years ago, was really quite mild,
causing only the usual traffic tie-ups,
spin-outs, fender benders and all the
headaches that go with such things.
There was just a little wind. The
temperatures stayed in the seasonable
mid-20s range. And the bulk of it wasn’t
even lake-effect snow.
The snow fell rather evenly across
the region Wednesday, although a few
Southern Tier towns in the higher
elevations had more, particularly
Perrysburg, which saw 11 inches.
As evening came, the wind started
to pick up and the area was subjected to
a quick burst of blowing snow, said
meteorologist Bill Hibbert. Gusts of 30
to 35 mph were reported, but that was
expected to diminish by morning.
The weather system was actually
“the same storm that went from Texas to
Maine” and is wreaking all sorts of
havoc in other parts of the nation,
McLaughlin said.
Kentucky and Arkansas have been
particularly hard hit. More than one
million people are without power
nationwide. The storm has been blamed
for at least 23 deaths since Monday.
In Buffalo, the situation was
nowhere near as serious.
But with Mayor Byron W. Brown
facing heavy criticism over plowing
problems from the last substantial
snowstorm, the city’s Public Works
Department was busy trying to keep up
with the steady, heavy snowfall that
fell throughout the day.
“Sometimes, a quick foot of snow
is easier to deal with,” said Public
Works Commissioner Steven J. Stepniak.
“This snow event has been a pretty
constant grind.”
Throughout Wednesday, the city had
between 32 and 35 pieces of
snow-fighting equipment on the streets
at any one time — the norm for a major
snow event, Stepniak said. While much of
the focus has been on keeping main
thoroughfares open, crews also plowed
many side streets, he said.
“One of the important things was
to get to the residential streets around
the schools,” he said.
There were no major plowing-
related problems reported around Buffalo
public schools, said district spokesman
Stefan Mychajliw.
City Hall received about 140
snow-related complaints during the
storm, based on figures compiled by The
Buffalo News after visiting all nine
Common Council offices and the Mayor’s
Call and Resolution Center. Some of the
calls may have been duplicate complaints
involving the same issue, officials
noted.
About two-thirds of all complaints
involved unshoveled sidewalks or
requests to clear walkways, officials
said. More than 30 calls involved
complaints about unplowed or unsalted
city streets. Another dozen callers
raised concerns about slippery
conditions on the Kensington Expressway,
which is maintained by state
transportation crews.
In the first few hours that the
Mayor's Call and Resolution Center was
open today, City Hall received more than
70 plowing-related complaints. The vast
majority of the calls involved
conditions on side streets, said Robert
A. Kreutinger of the Citizen Services
Division.
Kreutinger said some callers
requested that plows to return to their
streets because vehicles had been moved
since public works crews last came
around. Illegally parked cars are a
common problem crews face when they try
to remove snow on narrow streets,
officials said. The city is poised to
make changes in alternate-parking rules
on many streets.
About 90 people also called the
mayor's hotline today to complain about
unshoveled sidewalks or to seek help in
cleaning walkways. Nearly a dozen of the
complaints involved sidewalks that
border city-owned property.
Overall, City Hall officials said
the volume of complaints was relatively
light, given the steady snow that
blanketed the region from the predawn
hours through the evening. Council
Majority Leader Richard A. Fontana said
he thinks many residents recognize the
difficulty of keeping roads clear when
snowfalls last for long periods.
A block club leader whose group
represents residents on dozens of
streets in Lovejoy and South Buffalo
agreed with Fontana. Arthur Robinson
Jr., president of the Seneca-Babcock
Community Block Club, said people
realize crews can only accomplish so
much when an inch or so of snow blankets
streets every couple of hours for
prolonged periods.
Over the next couple of days, the
temperatures are expected to remain in
the low to mid-20s, and the Buffalo area
may be treated to some very minor
lake-effect snow showers.
Come Sunday and Monday,
temperatures are expected to rise close
to 40, McLaughlin said.
bmeyer@buffnews.com and
mbecker@buffnews.com
Updated: 01/27/09 02:15
PM
This
January is 18th coldest in 139
years in Western New York
By Gene Warner
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Are you starting to feel
that this is an historically
cold January?
Well, you're right, and
now the National Weather
Service has the numbers to
prove it.
So far, with five days
to go, this has been the 18th
coldest January in the last
139 years.
For the record, the
average daily January
temperature, through Sunday,
was 18.7 degrees.
And there’s nothing in
this week’s forecast to change
that finger-numbing pattern in
the next few days. The
National Weather Service is
calling for overnight lows in
the teens and daytime highs in
the 20s through the rest of
the week.
And here’s more good
news: Forecasters are now
predicting that the region
could see an additional 6
inches of snow overnight
tonight.
It’s all making for a
memorably miserable month.
“We don’t see a big
January thaw coming,”
meteorologist Tom Niziol said.
“Based on the forecast for the
rest of the week, this almost
guarantees that we’ll be in
the top 20 for the coldest
January.”
Niziol, working with
National Weather Service
statistical guru Dave Sage,
used each day’s average daily
temperature — the average of
the day’s high and low
temperatures — and then took
the monthly average of those
daily numbers.
The coldest January on
record?
The blizzard year, 1977,
when the average daily January
temperature was a frigid 13.8
degrees. The warmest was 1932,
when the average January
temperature was 37.2 degrees.
The top five coldest
Januarys in the Buffalo area
all date back more than 30
years, and all but 1977 date
back more than 60 years.
Does that say anything
about global warming?
“Those few statistics
are not enough to make an
objective statement about
whether this has anything to
say about global warming,”
Niziol said. “But those are
fascinating statistics.”
While anyone who has
ventured outside on a daily
basis can testify to how cold
it’s been, this hasn’t been an
unusually cold winter season.
December ranked as 74th
coldest out of 139 years, or
almost right in the middle.
But that changed this
month.
“We got locked into a
pattern across Eastern America
that essentially opened the
gates for several outbreaks of
Arctic air from central Canada
across the Great Lakes,”
Niziol said.
Despite how cold it’s
been, Niziol pointed out that
this January has failed to see
a record-breaking cold day.
The coldest reported
temperature this month was
minus-3 degrees on the 21, but
that was seven degrees warmer
than the record low for that
date, minus-10 degrees in
1985.
Some people might be
surprised that the coldest
January ever was during the
Blizzard of ’77, an event
perhaps better known for its
high winds and ridiculous
amounts of blowing snow.
Niziol, who has lectured
on the subject, called that
the “perfect storm” of nasty
conditions, including a
38-inch snowpack before the
blizzard, sustained winds of
30 mph, consistent
single-digit temperatures and
an unrelenting storm that
lasted for four days.
“That’s what made it a
life-threatening event and
translated into 29 deaths,” he
said.
Compared with that, this
month is Miami Beach.
gwarner@buffnews.com
|
|
France, Spain pick up
the pieces after fierce storm kills 24
AFP, BORDEAUX, FRANCE
Tuesday, Jan 27, 2009,French
and Spanish rescuers on Sunday scrambled
to reopen railways, douse forest fires
and restore power to nearly a million
homes plunged into darkness by a violent
storm that killed 24 people in southern
Europe.
“The priority today is to
re-establish the electricity as quickly
as possible,” French President Nicolas
Sarkozy said as he visited a town in the
southwestern region that bore the brunt
of Saturday’s storm.
The majority of the deaths were in
Spain, where four children died near
Barcelona when the roof and a wall of a
sports hall were brought down on their
heads by winds that in some places
reached more than 180kph.
They were playing baseball outside the
center in Sant Boi de Llobregat as the
storm — which saw 20m high waves
battering the Atlantic coast — gathered
force and they ran inside to shelter.
Witnesses said they heard a loud sound,
then saw that the roof and part of a
wall had crumpled.
The storm was one of the fiercest to hit
western Europe in a decade. It blew in
eastwards from the Atlantic Ocean,
barreling across southwest France and
northern Spain — ripping roofs off
houses, pulling down power lines and
flattening hundreds of thousands of
trees.
On Sunday it battered Italy, where a
young woman was swept away to her death
by a wave as she was walking on a beach
near the southern city of Naples.
Rain also triggered a mudslide onto the
main highway south of Naples, killing at
least three people and injuring four,
the Italian news agency ANSA reported
citing firefighters.
Firefighters who pulled the dead and
injured from the mud did not exclude
that other people could be trapped under
the landslide, which occurred on the
main highway linking Salerno and Reggio
di Calabria.
The winds had lost some of their force
but were strong enough to destroy a
restaurant in Imperia on the
Mediterranean coast and to force some
Italian ferry operators to cancel their
sailings.
In Portugal, police and firefighters
rescued 600 people who were stuck on
roads blocked by snow and ice, officials
said.
Eight people were killed in France,
including four who inhaled carbon
monoxide from electricity generators
they used amid power outages in two
separate incidents.
Two drivers were killed by falling trees
on Saturday in the Landes department,
while flying debris killed a 78-year-old
outside his home. A 73-year-old woman
died in the Gironde department when a
power cut halted her breathing machine.
Twelve people died in total in Spain,
including a woman who was crushed by a
wall, another who died after a door
lifted by the wind slammed into her, and
a police sergeant killed by a falling
tree as he was directing traffic.
Hundreds of Spanish firefighters —
backed up by 14 planes and helicopters —
battled three separate forest fires
sparked by electricity pylons brought
down by the tempest in northeastern
Spain.
The fires were under control by Sunday
evening, officials said.
|
|
|
|
|
(Tulsa, Ok)--The mayor
of the small east Oklahoma
town of Westville says the
place looks like a war
zone. It was one of the
hardest hit communities as
an ice storm tracked
across Oklahoma. Mayor
Brian Sitsler says it will
be some time before all
the electricity is back
and debris is cleaned up.
Yet in the middle of the
crisis he is proud of
Westville citizens who
have stepped forward to
work together and get the
town back on its feet.
(Tulsa, Ok)--With
hundreds of Muskogee area
homes left without
electricity because of the
ice storm the Tulsa
Chapter of the American
Red Cross opens two
shelters. One is in
Muskogee at the First
United Methodist Church,
600 East Okmulgee. The
other is in Checotah at
the First Freewill Baptist
Church, 713 North
Broadway. Red Cross
spokesperson Nellie Kelly
says if more shelters are
needed the Red Cross is
prepared to open them up.
She also points out during
this weather crisis the
Red Cross is in need of
blood donations. Two blood
centers are open in Tulsa.
At 11th and Highway 169
and 71st and South
Memorial.
(Tulsa,Ok)--Smashed cars
and trucks are lined up at
auto body shops around the
state hit hard by an ice
storm. Brent Patterson at
Sherrell Paint and Body in
Tulsa says they are so
busy repairs may take
longer then normal. He is
seeing plenty of front end
damage from
vehicles skidding into
poles or other vehicles.
Patterson notes the kind
of damage from this recent
ice storm is dfferent then
car damage from the
infamous December 2007 ice
storm. He says back then
many cars were totaled
when tree limbs fell on
them. This time most of
the damage can be
repaired.
Burying Power Lines
By
Paul Crockett
@
June 30, 2007
(Tulsa, OK) -- Keeping the
lights on. A report on
burying powerlines
requested after December's
ice storm is now ready for
the state's corporation
commissioners. Commission
spokesman Matt Skinner
says they found burying
all lines would be cost
prohibitive. He says they
do recommend burying the
lateral lines, the kind of
lines that run behind
homes, in most cases. They
also suggest making the
entire system more
resistant to the weather.
The commissioners will now
consider whether to make
rule changes based on the
report.
|
Shocking cold wave drops temps to 40
below zero
By AMY FORLITI –
Jan 14, 2009
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Temperatures
crashed to Arctic levels Tuesday as a severe
cold wave rolled across the upper Midwest on
the heels of yet another snowstorm, closing
schools and making most people think twice
before going outside. Early Wednesday, the
cold front swept into New York, sending
temperatures falling from the 30s a day
before to single digits or below zero. It
hit 8 below in Massena, on the St. Lawrence
River in northern New York, with the wind
chill making it feel like minus 25 degrees.
In Michigan, temperatures Wednesday
morning ranged from minus 17 at Ironwood in
the western Upper Peninsula to 10 degrees in
the southwestern Lower Peninsula and 12 on
Beaver Island. Ironwood earlier recorded a
temperature of minus 23.
Thermometers read single digits early
in the day as far south as Kansas and
Missouri, where some areas warmed only into
the teens by midday.
The ice and snow that glazed pavement
was blamed for numerous traffic accidents
from Minnesota to Indiana, where police said
a truck overturned and spilled 43,000 pounds
of cheese, closing a busy highway ramp
during the night in the Gary area.
The bitter cold snap was responsible
for at least one death Tuesday.
A 51-year-old man in northern
Wisconsin died from exposure after wandering
from his Hayward home early Tuesday,
authorities said. His son reported him
missing and said he was prone to
sleepwalking, and deputies followed
footprints in the snow to find the man about
190 yards from his house, Sawyer County
Chief Deputy Tim Zeigle said.
Some Minnesotans took it as just
another winter day, even in the state's
extreme northwest corner where thermometers
bottomed out at 38 degrees below zero at the
town of Hallock and the National Weather
Service said the wind chill was a shocking
58 below.
"It's really not so bad," Robert
Cameron, 75, said as he and several friends
gathered for morning coffee at the Cenex
service station in Hallock. "We've got
clothing that goes with the weather. ...
We're ready and rolling, no matter what."
"It's so beautiful. There's not a
cloud in the sky," said Keith Anderson, 66.
But he said that's not stopping him from
skipping town at the end of the week to
spend a couple of months in Nevada and
Arizona.
Outside, one of the station's gas
pumps froze up at least once, and assistant
manager Terrie Franks had to go out to apply
deicer spray.
"You definitely have to have gloves on
because touching the cold metal — your hands
are frozen," Franks said by telephone.
The weather service warned that
exposed flesh can freeze in 10 minutes when
the wind chill is 40 degrees below zero or
colder.
At about 8 a.m., temperatures were
minus 40 in International Falls and minus 35
in Roseau. Farther south, Minneapolis hit 18
below zero with a wind chill of 32 below and
black ice was blamed for numerous accidents.
Two northern Minnesota ski areas,
Spirit Mountain in Duluth and Giants Ridge
near Biwabik, announced they would close for
a second straight day Wednesday because of
the dangerously low windchill.
In neighboring North Dakota, Grand
Forks dropped to a record low of 37 below
zero Tuesday morning, lopping six degrees
off the old record set in 1979, the National
Weather Service said.
Schools were closed because of the
cold as far south as Iowa, and authorities
in Grand Rapids, Mich., issued an extreme
cold weather alert and went out urging the
homeless to seek shelter.
AAA Michigan responded to 1,450
motorists across the state Tuesday morning,
mostly to assist with dead batteries,
spinouts and minor accidents after an early
snowfall, said spokeswoman Nancy Cain.
The leading edge of the cold air was
expected to strike the Northeast,
mid-Atlantic and South late Tuesday and
Wednesday. And meteorologists warned that a
second wave could drop temperatures into the
single digits Thursday and Friday in the
mid-Atlantic region.
The storm that blew through the upper
Midwest on Monday dropped 6 inches of snow
on Minot, N.D., on top of about a foot that
fell late last week, and Bismarck collected
4 inches. Bismarck, Fargo and Grand Forks
all broke snow records for December, each
with more than 30 inches. They were outdone
by Madison, Wis., which accumulated a record
40 inches for the month, the weather service
said Tuesday.
Road departments have had little time
to clear away the snow between storms, and
North Dakota officials said snowplows would
be pulled off the roads Tuesday night in the
central and western parts of the state
because of strong winds.
"Four-wheel drives are useless —
people are just snowed in," said Rhonda
Woodhams, office manager for Williams
County, N.D. "People are calling in saying
they're out of milk and diapers for their
kids, or they have doctor appointments they
need to get to. We're doing our best. And we
don't need no more snow."
"It's like a sea of whiteness; people
can't see the road," said Rebecca Arndt, a
spokeswoman for the Minnesota Department of
Transportation in Mankato. "When the white
fluffy stuff starts to blow, it is not
pretty."
What was left of that snowstorm was
blowing eastward along the Great Lakes, and
the weather service posted winter storm
warnings Tuesday for parts of Michigan,
northern Indiana and Ohio's northwest
corner. Up to 11 inches of new snow was
possible in Detroit.
Winter weather advisories were in
effect from North Dakota to Ohio and
northeast into northern New England.
Associated Press writers Roger
Petterson in New York and James MacPherson
in Bismarck, N.D., contributed to this
report.
|
5 killed as ice storm
Midwest and South
By
SEAN MURPHY – Jan 26,
2009
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A
winter storm stretched from Texas into
Midwest on Monday, knocking out power to
hundreds, making roads treacherous and
leading to at least five traffic deaths.
As the storm moved
across Oklahoma and sections of Texas,
highway and emergency crews braced for icy
conditions in Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky
and the southern slices of Indiana and
Illinois.
A truck driver died in
Oklahoma when his semi skidded off an icy
stretch of turnpike near Chandler,
authorities said. The victim's name wasn't
immediately released. Another deadly
accident also occurred on Interstate 44 near
Afton.
The storm knocked out
power to about 5,200 customers Monday
evening, 4,977 of which were in the west
Oklahoma City suburb of Warr Acres.
In Tulsa, the Emergency
Medical Services Authority responded to more
than 30 accidents in less than one hour. Two
ambulances were involved in crashes on slick
streets, but no serious injuries were
reported.
In Oklahoma City, EMSA
responded to 219 emergency calls by late
Monday afternoon, including 75 slips or
falls and more than 50 car accidents.
"EMSA paramedics in
Oklahoma City are currently in disaster
mode," said spokeswoman Lara O'Leary. "We're
literally running from hospital to call."
The storm forced the
cancellation of classes at schools and
universities across the state, including the
University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State
University.
Gov. Brad Henry
declared a state of emergency for all 77
counties in Oklahoma, a move that paves the
way for seeking federal assistance for ice
storm damage.
In North Texas, one
person died Monday after a vehicle hit an
ambulance stopped at the scene of an
unrelated wreck, said Vernon Fire Department
Chief Kent Smead. The accident was caused by
ice on a nearby overpass, he said.
Schools closed in
dozens of Kentucky counties and highway
workers salted roads in advance as
forecasters warned of potentially severe
snow and ice storms.
Highway crews have been
preparing some areas in northern Arkansas.
"The way it's shaping
up, it looks like it's going to be a major
ice storm," National Weather Service
meteorologist Chris Buonanno said.
Law enforcement
agencies responded to dozens of
injury-causing accidents throughout the
Ozarks region and into southeast Missouri.
The Missouri Highway Patrol said a
46-year-old motorist died Monday afternoon
when his sport utility vehicle slid off a
Jasper County road and hit a tree. About 80
miles east in Christian County, the patrol
said a 39-year-old woman died when the
vehicle she was riding in ran off an
ice-covered road near Rogersville and hit a
tree.
Dozens of public school
systems from southeast Kansas across
southern Missouri called off activities
Monday night and canceled classes Tuesday,
when a second, heavier wave of ice and snow
was expected to reach the region.
Many colleges followed
suit. Southeast Missouri State University in
Cape Girardeau was closed for Tuesday, while
Missouri State University in Springfield
canceled classes Monday night and was
waiting to make a decision about Tuesday's
classes
|
Europe Recovers From Killer Storm (25.01.2009)
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,3974113,00.html
18 Deaths
A major storm took the lives of people in Spain,
France and Germany this weekend. Millions more are
recovering from the damage Sunday, Jan. 25, in the
wake of a storm dubbed Klaus by weather officials.
-- The storm, which produced wind speeds of up to
194 kilometers per hour (km/h) as it tore across
Europe, left a swath of destruction in its wake,
with roads blocked, buildings destroyed, phone
service out in much of southern France and train
passengers returning home after spending much of
Saturday in immobilized trains. Eighteen people
are thought to have died. Spain suffered the
highest death toll. (...) As the affected areas
recovered from the storm Sunday, French energy
provider EDF said millions of people remained
without power across southern France and noted
that repairs would take more than a day. Tens of
thousands lacked phone service of any kind. Some
families were homeless after the storm ripped the
roofs off their houses. Authorities lifted bans on
road use in France, though they noted that many
trees continued to be in danger of collapse. In
Spain, winds intensified two wildfires, forcing
15,000 people to evacuate their homes. In Galicia,
a school and a swimming pool lost their roofs.
Experts, in radio reports, compared the storm to a
devastating winter storm which struck France and
other parts of western and central Europe in 1999.
Climate experts said the storm's destructive
strength was further proof of the dangers of
climate change |
Arkansas Ice Storm was Worst in
Modern History
Reported by:
KARK 4 News
Thursday, Feb 19, 2009
@12:10pm CST
Last
month's ice
storm was the
most destructive
in Arkansas'
modern history.
Although the
number of
customers
affected was not
as great as the
two back-to-back
ice storms of
December 2000,
the damage
caused by the
2009 storm was
greater.
That's according
to Entergy
Arkansas in a
filing with the
Arkansas Public
Service
Commission
(APSC) on
Monday. The
power company
asked the
commission to
issue an
accounting order
that would allow
it to defer
storm
restoration
costs. Such an
order would
prevent any
immediate
financial impact
on the company
from the large
cost of
restoring
service
following the
January ice
storm.
Although no firm dollar amount was specified in the filing, the company
disclosed an
estimate in the
range of $165
million to $200
million.
Meanwhile,
the commission
has opened a
docket in which
all the affected
electric utility
companies may
file specific
proposals for
the recovery of
extraordinary
storm
restoration
expenses
associated with
the recent ice
storm. Entergy
Arkansas plans
to file its plan
for cost
recovery in this
proceeding after
it has made a
complete
accounting of
its expenditures
made to restore
service after
the ice storm.
At the peak
of the outages
on January 28,
111,818 Entergy
Arkansas
customers were
without power
across the
northern
counties of
Arkansas.
Entergy Arkansas
brought in more
than 5,000
linemen, field
support
personnel and
tree trimmers
from Entergy
Arkansas’ sister
operating
companies in
Mississippi,
Louisiana, and
Texas, as well
as numerous
contractors and
employees of
other utility
companies from
as far away as
Florida. By
February 9th
Entergy Arkansas
had 100 percent
of its customers
restored.
Damage was
extreme and
extensive. There
were almost
5,000 utility
poles down or
severely
damaged, and
more than 700
distribution
transformers
damaged.
In
comparison, the
dual ice storms
of 2000 had
4,100 utility
poles down or
severely damaged
and 526
transformers
damaged. The
combined
restoration cost
of the 2000
storms was $195
million.
Entergy
Arkansas, Inc.
provides
electricity to
almost 684,000
customers in 63
counties.
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13: A
snowstorm blanketed the Eastern Seaboard from North Carolina
to Maine ... The scale
ranks the severity of an East Coast
snowstorm based on snowfall
...
www.greatdreams.com/weather/weather_extremes.htm
-
There was a heavy
snowstorm during the night and the snowplows all met on our
corner so ... It was one
of the worst
snowstorms in a century in Washington,
...
www.greatdreams.com/winter-2003.htm
-
The region's first
snowstorm of the season was blamed for hundreds of traffic
....
Snowstorm Blamed for 14 Deaths By APRIL CASTRO, Associated
Press Writer ...
www.greatdreams.com/winter_2001.htm
-
Despite recent
snowstorm, snowpack levels near record lows
... It is still possible
for heavy
snowstorms to erase the deficit, but that prospect diminishes
...
www.greatdreams.com/weather/winter_records-2004.htm
-
After leaving a bundled Deja with a baby sitter, Misty rode the
bus for hours in a December
snowstorm to gather documents -- birth certificates,
...
www.greatdreams.com/homeless.htm
-
I listened to what he had to say, and then I heard a radio weather
lady say there was a huge
snowstorm coming. I said, "I recommend they close the .
...
www.greatdreams.com/weather/weather_anomalies.htm
-
NEW YORK (AP) - Hundreds of airline flights were canceled Saturday
and fleets of road plows were warmed up as a paralyzing
snowstorm barreled out of the
...
www.greatdreams.com/weather/massive_floods_in_history.htm
DREAMS OF THE GREAT EARTHCHANGES
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