Storm Keeps First Responders Busy

On Wednesday afternoon, April 10, the anticipated repeat blizzard arrived in Western Nebraska, dropping snow, reducing visibility and closing roads.

The Cheyenne County Sheriff's Office was kept busy keeping people safe in the storm. Some of the exceptional busyness was a result of drivers circumventing road barriers or trying to use an alternative way around a closed road, which then made things worse.

Wednesday afternoon, the temperature for the Sidney area was 10 to 11 degrees below normal, according to the National Weather Service in Cheyenne, Wyo. Temperatures dropped from 50 to 20 degrees that night. Wind speeds were at 33 mph with 40 mph gusts and an average wind speed of 21.9 mph. Humidity ranged from a high of 96 percent to a low of 83 percent.

Thursday morning, Sheriff Adam Frerichs posted on social media that county roads had been closed, also encouraging people to stay home and safe. He said the wind was causing impassable drifting on some roads.

A deputy was stuck in a drift after responding to people who needed rescuing. Two men from out of state were driving a rental car and tried to go around road closure signs by using their GPS to navigate the county roads. The route lead the two men onto a minimum maintenance road south of Potter where they became stuck.

On another incident, a deputy responded to men in a truck who also attempted to bypass the road closures, resulting in their truck entering a ditch south of Lodgepole.

The incidents resulted in the deputy getting stuck while trying to get people to safety.

By 9:40 a.m. Thursday, Interstate 80 was closed from Lexington to the Wyoming State Line. By Thursday evening, Cheyenne County roads were getting cleared and ready to reopen. According to the North Platte office of the Nebraska State Patrol, accidents were fairly minimal, a credit to the Nebraska Department of Transportation closing roads early in the storm.

The weekend continued a series of cool weather and showers followed by warmer weather. Thursday is predicted to have a chance of rain and snow showers with a high in the low 50s.