Emergency Responses Low During Blizzard

While last week’s blizzard was fast and ferocious, it didn’t result in a lot of calls for service by local emergency personnel.

“In 16 years this was the most uneventful blizzard we’ve ever had,” said Cheyenne County Sheriff Adam Frerichs.

Frerichs, and Region 21 Emergency Management Director Ron Leal, both agree that the state’s action to close the interstate early, before the storm was actually on top of the area, was the biggest reason it was so quiet.

Last April was just the opposite, when local emergency services rescued more than 100 people off of the interstate after that storm stopped traffic in its tracks, stranding many after accidents halted the flow of vehicles. Earlier this winter in eastern Nebraska, pileups involving dozens of vehicles resulted in similar problems. Those were lessons taken to heart as this latest storm approached.

“The State of Nebraska did an excellent job closing the roads prior to the event,” said Leal.

Both Frerichs and Leal realized the move wasn’t popular with the traveling public, particuarly when there were hours between the closure and when the storm began to produce snow. But, they agree, it minimized the chances for accidents and people becoming stranded.

Locally, roads became trecherous early on, with rain freezing on roads, followed by blizzard conditions. But by that time, officials had closed virtually all roads.

County roads remained closed through Thursday, some into Friday as crews worked to clear them. Frerichs said even after the snow stopped falling, winds blew roads back shut in some areas “as quick as they were opened.”

The storm produced an estimated 7-10 inches of snow throughout the county. The National Weather Service in Cheyenne reported the Gurley area had 9-10 inches of snow, with Sidney receiving about eight inches. NWS didn’t have estimates for other areas, but unofficial estimates across the county gave similar accounts, with local bands of heavier or lighter snow in some areas.

Wheat Belt Public Power District reported that the severe winter storm caused minimal problems. The first outage was experienced March 12 around 11:30 p.m. from thunderstorms in the Sidney area. The problems were difficult to locate, and customers were off into the morning hours.

Several outages were scattered throughout the system from Sidney to Lewellen and south of Chappell from that thunderstorm. Nine outages were reported from the blizzard.

High West Energy, which supplies rural power west of Sidney, reported it lost a substation on the 13th, which shut power down southwest of Sidney and into Colorado. Other than that, High West had only a smattering of outages, and had about 20 poles break off.

“It could have been a lot worse,” said High West Engineering Manager Lloyd Sisson.

Sidney Police Department reported only two accidents through the storm, one each on the 13th and 14th. The department performed 29 motorist assists during the period.

Likewise, the Cheyenne County Sheriff’s Office investigated just once accident during the storm when a semi truck slid off the road.

But the Sheriff’s Office did perform a vital mission Wednesday evening when a deputy was called upon to relay vital medicine to Sidney Regional Medical Center.

Frerichs said a baby born prematurely at the hospital needed medicine unavailable locally. Deputy Collin Hauert followed a State of Nebraska snow plow to meet with a deputy from Logan County Colorado with the medicine from the Sterling hospital. Hauert and the Logan County Deputy met near Peetz, where Hauert received the medicine and returned to Sidney.

It is reported the baby has since been transferred to a care facility on the Colorado Front Range.

The hardest hit segment during the storm were local ranchers. With spring calving in full swing, the cold, wet, wind-driven snow was about the last thing ranchers needed.

There have been reports of calves lost due to the cold, and also of cattle wandering away from home during the blizzard.