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Blizzard isolates much of south state

A severe blizzard riding winds up to 80 miles an hour all but paralyzed most of Southern Minnesota this weekend.

The storm, which hit the entire Upper Midwest on Friday, stranded hundreds of motorists in Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota.

Hundreds of persons spent the night where they work because there was no way to get home.

MOST CITIES in The Journal area had been isolated by the storm. Activity in New Ulm and other area towns had been brought to a virtual standstill.

Area law enforcement officials and volunteers worked long hours attempting to locate residents reported missing or to deliver supplies via snowmobiles, but the blizzard, the worst in Minnesota in at least nine years, in many cases made the task an impossible one.

Most hotels and motels in the area were filled with people who saw they could get no further. However, everyone contacted by The Journal Saturday said the storm apparently took very few people by surprise.

There was hardly any indication of travelers having to check in at private homes.

A major problem was massive power outages in many areas.

NICOLLET COUNTY

The Mankato district office of the Minnesota Highway Patrol reported that 75 per cent of the power in Blue Earth and Nicollet counties had been out since Friday night.

Five persons were stranded in a car near a trailer court at North Mankato.

REDWOOD COUNTY

In Redwood County, a problem occurred somewhere between the Redwood Electric Cooperative’s Franklin and Seaforth substations.

“We had a unit trying to get out of Clements (REC’s home base) but they couldn’t even get out of town,” an REC spokesman said.

The outage killed a 31-mile stretch of REC line, affecting some 1,200 Redwood County customers and another line that goes to North Redwood and Delhi.

Typical of the ordeal law enforcement officers have been going through is that of Redwood County Sheriff Vince Bestick. At noon Saturday, Bestick had been on duty 28 consecutive hours without a break.

SIBLEY COUNTY

Mrs. Toddy Kroells, Journal correspondent from Arlington, said, “In the past we’ve had people at our house during blizzards. We’ve got the extra room and we offered it by telling police, but nobody needed it.”

At Arlington, a school bus went into the ditch four miles from town and was pulled out.

The Arlington Hospital faced a brief problem when the furnace stopped due to an electrical malfunction, but city electrician Chuck Berberick scooped his way to the hospital with a Payloader and solved the problem.

Snow was disheartening for Mr. and Mrs. Harold Bade of Arlington, who, after many years of talking about it, finally were to have had a chance to fly to California for a vacation. They were scheduled to leave Twin Cities International Airport Saturday morning.

Mrs. Kroells added that people with electric heat in Arlington flooded local plumbers with questions on how to keep their toilets from freezing up. The plumbers told questioners to “use antifreeze.”

Mrs. Ernest Plieseis, Journal correspondent from New Auburn reported that her husband was “going to go into town. It’s only a block away. He got half a block and turned around and came back home.”

Journal Editor Bill Macklin was snowbound at the farm home of Sen. Earl Renneke, R-Gaylord. Macklin reported electricity was out at the home and only homemade candles were keeping the temperature in the home above freezing.

WATONWAN COUNTY

In Watonwan County, much of the countryside is without electricity from its Interstate Power supplier.

Typical of reports from area sheriff’s offices was from Watonwan County: “Sections of St. James were out of power. LaSalle is out. South and east of St. James around Lewisville and Odin are still without power (at noon Saturday) and the trucks can’t get through.”

At Madelia, more than 50 persons were stranded, including WCCO-TV newsman Barry Peterson and a cameraman who reportedly were assigned to head south from the Twin Cities and go as far as possible into the blizzard. The WCCO men were staying at the Madelia Fire Hall. Snowbanks at Madelia also were reported to be as high as garage roofs.

RENVILLE COUNTY

An Olivia High School senior, Barbara Honzay, was struck by a car when she stepped off a school bus after classes were recessed at noon.

She was taken to Renville County Hospital at Olivia, where she was treated.

“She was just sore,” a hospital spokesman said. “She would have been released but because of the blizzard we weren’t releasing anybody.”

The car was driven by John Sandgren of New Ulm.

BROWN COUNTY

A spokesman for the Brown County Rural Electrical Association told The Journal at 3 p.m. Saturday that about 200 people in rural Brown County have gone without power since Friday night.

PEOPLE WHO rely on electric heat then face three options: go to a neighbor’s home with gas or fuel oil heat, rely on back-up heating measures (space heaters, fireplaces or wood-burning stoves) or huddle and wait for the storm to subside and the trucks to get through.

Complicating matters are outages of telephone lines.

The New Ulm Rural Telephone Co. reported scattered failures with major problems at Klossner and Courtland. Area sheriff’s offices also said parts of their areas were without telephone communication.

Springfield policeman Steve Smith also said there weren’t many travelers unable to get hotel or motel accommodations there. Several persons were given shelter above the police station.

Drifts along the west edge of Springfield are as high as the garage roofs, one resident said.

A FOOT or more of snow fell across much of the area and was heaped into 10-foot and 12-foot drifts by winds of 30 and 40 m.p.h. with winds gusting from 60 to 80 m.p.h.

Temperatures were expected to plunge to 20 below by Sunday morning.

In Brown County all roads were closed.

A Weather Service spokesman said the blizzard would “rank high in storms” but predicted it would not be quite as bad as the Armistice Day storm of 1940.

New Ulm Daily Journal

Jan. 12, 1975

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