Posted on 01/01/2007 8:01:28 AM PST by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
DENVER - A fleet of small planes canvassed snow-covered roads in Colorado on Sunday, searching for stranded travelers after a powerful winter storm piled drifts up to 10 feet high across much of the Plains.
National Guard troops have rescued 44 people from the storm, which buried the foothills west of Denver with more than 2 feet of snow. More than 650 people spent Saturday night in shelters, officials said.
The storm that had once stretched nearly from Canada to Mexico was still dumping snow Sunday from Minnesota to Kansas.
Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, who declared a statewide emergency for the latest storm and for a pre-Christmas blizzard a week earlier, flew over the frosty landscape on Sunday.
''You can't see where certain state highways are. You can only tell because of the telephone poles,'' Owens said in a phone interview from an airplane.
The Colorado wing of the Civil Air Patrol sent a dozen small planes over the area to look for stranded vehicles, trapped motorists or stranded livestock, spokesman Steve Hamilton said.
One traffic death was blamed on the storm in Colorado, and a tornado spawned by the same weather system killed one person Friday in Texas.
The National Guard was also mobilized in Kansas, where the storm left more than 44,000 homes and businesses without power and closed stretches of more than a dozen highways.
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius declared an emergency after parts of the state were blanketed with 15 to 32 inches of snow and drifts up to 15 feet high. The state Highway Patrol used an airplane to find stranded motorists.
''This is a very significant storm; it's in the record books,'' said Scott Blair, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
In New Mexico, authorities tried to clear a logjam of vehicles stranded along Interstate 40. The storm dumped up to 2 feet of snow on Albuquerque and 31 inches in Red River.
The Oklahoma Panhandle received up to 18 inches of snow, closing major roads. At least 5,000 utility customers were without electricity.
In North Dakota, the city of Ashley received the state's heaviest snowfall, with 16 inches.
The snow and ice also left between 5,000 and 10,000 Nebraska homes in the dark Sunday, and Omaha officials postponed a planned New Year's Eve fireworks display until Monday, citing potentially dangerous driving conditions.
The storm first struck on Thursday, but many roads in eastern Colorado remained closed Sunday. Interstates 70 and 25 reopened Sunday evening.
In Kansas, heavy snow caused the roof of the fire station in Colby to collapse, and closed all or portions of more than a dozen roads.
Once a stretch of road is cleared, snow drifts back over it, forcing crews to plow the road again, said Ron Kaufman, a spokesman for the Kansas Department of Transportation.
Al Butkus, spokesman for the Kansas utility Aquila Inc., said it could be a week before power is restored to all customers.
''We've gotten 3 inches of ice on wires and connectors, and that ice stays there until it gets above freezing,'' Butkus said. ''And the temperatures aren't moving above freezing.''
Warmer weather was forecast for later in the week.
Support Civil Air Patrol.....get lost!
It's a great organization.
I was in CAP as a cadet in junior high and high school. I loved it. What a great organization.
Heard that the SE of Colorado has 10 to 15 foot snow drifts.
Apparently many state and country roads not only not open but also not ground searched nor plowed.
There may be occupied cars under the drifts.
I was in CAP as a kid and hated it... the local composite squadron was run as a support group for some adult members' egos.
A few years ago I got reacquainted with CAP and found to my delight that many years ago the old guard were purged. The adults and the cadets work together to fulfill the organisation's goals.
Around here (eastern Massachusetts) no one stays lost for very long... it's just too built up. But fifty and a hundred miles north of here planes can go down and be lost for decades. If you survive a crash in a remote area, the CAP may be your best hope for survival.
In that case you should stay with the wreckage of your plane. In this case, people that are stranded on the road, you should stay in your car. Be careful about running the motor (CO can get trapped in a snowbank with you).
If you live in the snow belt, have boots, gloves, a hat (you lose a great deal of body heat out the top of your head), and a blanket or sleeping bag in your car.
And listen to weather reports! Weather forecasting is not like it was when I was a kid, or when I was learning to fly (1970s). It's very seldom wrong by much.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
" Vehicles also lined U.S. 50 East, which also remained closed until 8 p.m. Sunday from the Chemical Depot exit to the Kansas border."
The storm’s effect on agriculture also is a big concern, with worries the deep snow, which was sculpted into drifts more than 10 feet high in some areas, may have killed cattle.
http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1167669887/1
We had a pretty good unit. Most of the leadership were airline pilots. We didn't get many SARs, but we did get to work the airshows. That was the best fringe benefit.
Of interest.
I had a little encounter with CAP at my private airstrip a couple of years ago that has had me scratching my head ever since.
A couple of years ago I was on my way home from a trip when I got a call on my mobile from a woman who said she was with the CAP. How she got my cell number remains a mystery to this day. She said they were chasing down an emergency locator transmitter (ELT) that was going off. She said they weren't sure whether or not they had a downed plane or a malfuntioning ELT, but since they didn't have any reports of any overdue aircraft they assumed that it was a malfunctioning ELT. She called me as they were about to break the door down and enter one of my hangars in search of the ELT that was supposedly activated. I asked her how they'd determined that the ELT signal was coming from inside my steel hanger. She said they weren't sure, but via satellite they had narrowed it down to about a 5 mile radius and my hangar and airstrip were within that 5 mile radius. I asked her from what authority she derived the power to illegally enter a private building and for that matter what gave her the right to be on my property at all? She very arrogantly said she was a major with the Civil Air Patrol and that was all I should need to know. I was dumbfounded. I told her that if they broke down the door and entered my hangar I would file federal charges against them for tampering with an aircraft, tresspassing, breaking and entering. I further explained that my hangar did not have any aircraft with ELT's. At that time my hangar was full of sailplanes (we used to run a sailplane club from my strip) and one Restricted category tow plane which does not have an ELT. Apparently, they left. When I got to the hangar several hours later there were car tracks in the parking lot, but the door was intact. I never heard from them again. I contacted the local CAP, but no one had ever heard of this woman.
I grew up in that area. We were generally pretty smart about the weather and it is so sparsely populated, hopefully no tragedies will be uncovered. There were times that I followed a road grader clearing snow deeper than my car was high so I could get home.
I have been very worried about that whole area; that storm was just sitting there.
video out of Albuquerque:
http://www.krqe.com/video/expanded.asp?ID=5592
"I asked her from what authority she derived the power to illegally enter
a private building and for that matter what gave her the right
to be on my property at all? She very arrogantly said she was a
major with the Civil Air Patrol and that was all I should need
to know. I was dumbfounded.
(...snip....)
I never heard from them again. I contacted the local CAP, but no
one had ever heard of this woman."
I don't know if you've ever heard of the (former) radio-show trickster
Phil Hendrie that does all sorts of imitations of real and imagined characters.
Your encounter with the elusive CAP "major" sounds like
Hendrie's character
Jay Santos of the "Civilian Auxiliary Police"
(a group of power-trip civilians acting as Highway Patrol wannabees;
all imaginary, THANK G-D)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phil_Hendrie_Show#Jay_Santos
With DIA re-opened, most have ignored the SE of Colorado.
I hope that no one is still waiting in their car...or worse.
The Colorado wing of the Civil Air Patrol sent a dozen small planes over the area to look for stranded vehicles, trapped motorists or stranded livestock...
Two problems with that theory. One, the tracks in the muddy spot in the parking lot. There was fresh evidence of multiple vehicles in the parking lot that is otherwise usually empty. The neighbors across the road said they had seen people in uniforms there earlier in the day, too. And, two, the person on the other end knew I owned the airport and was very knowledgable about airplanes. I think the person who called was CAP, but not from the local office.
It really surprised me that they would even think about breaking down the door. I mean, an ELT will only squawk for 24 hours or so before the battery goes dead. I see no reason to break the door down for something like that.
Thanks for the ping.
My daughter and some friends drove up I-35 from Dallas to Chicago this weekend - rained all the way, and I worried until she called after arriving safe & sound, thank the Lord.
"Month or so ago we had a "500+ year flood"
And the more dams that come down, the more 500 yr floods you'll get....
I hope your ready for it???
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