Even Weathermen Are Snowed In : Storm Puts Plains in Travel ‘White-Out’

A winter storm howled across the northern plains toward the Great Lakes on Tuesday, making travel in some places nearly impossible as blowing and drifting snow reduced visibility to zero.

“It’s hazardous. People are going to die out there,” said Kurt Kester, a deputy sheriff in southern Minnesota’s Rock County. “The weather just doesn’t warrant going out.”

Schools and businesses were closed in parts of North Dakota, and 110 of Minnesota’s 433 school districts canceled classes. Travelers ducked into truck stops or sought shelter in farm houses.

Up to 14 inches of snow fell at Grand Rapids, Minn., with 12 inches at Bemidji and Moorhead. The snow was measured at 11 inches in Fargo, N. D., and also fell in South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin and upper Michigan.

Chill Factor 60 Below

The storm, which brought winds of up to 100 m.p.h. Monday to the mountains of Utah and Colorado, carried gusts of nearly 60 m.p.h. Tuesday that pushed the wind chill factor to 60 degrees below zero in northern Minnesota.

The conditions meant a long day for National Weather Service technician Ray Studnicka at Aberdeen, S. D. He started work at 11 Monday night and was supposed to get off at 8 a.m. Tuesday, but his replacement could not reach the office.

Then at 9 a.m.--for the first time in his 27 years in meteorology, Studnicka said--he was unable to reach his equipment to take measurements. “I was totally in a white-out and I couldn’t see anything, so I turned around and came back into the building,” he said.

In North Dakota, meteorologist Bob Nordlund said the wind at Hector International Airport at Fargo whipped 9 inches of new snow into drifts 4 feet deep in some spots. “I can’t even see the end of the runway out here,” he said.

The North Dakota Highway Department advised travelers to avoid a 140-mile section of Interstate 94, from Dawson to the Minnesota border, because of zero visibility.

Motorists Stranded

North Dakota State Radio reported some people stranded along I-94, and the Highway Patrol and sheriff’s departments sent out 4-wheel-drive vehicles to pick them up.

Air Force Sgt. Chuck Dentz, trying to get back to Minot Air Force Base, abandoned his car near Eckelson, N. D., and took shelter with a farm family.

“The road was good, and then I traveled a little bit further and then you couldn’t see nothing,” he said. “There was at least seven or 10 vehicles parked alongside the road.”

Blowing snow also stalled travel Tuesday in parts of north-central Nebraska.

“There’s no snow coming down, but the wind must be blowing at least 50 miles an hour. You can’t see the driveway to turn in,” said Jerry Alberts at a truck stop near Randolph, Neb., where 30 to 40 truckers had taken refuge.