I was a bit surprised– earlier this evening I was watching TV and the blizzard which trashed Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Southeast Colorado was actually the lead-off story. Sadly the national news has better coverage of the storm than anything locally I’ve seen so far. There have been a few short blurbs here on the local news, but most of it is just them relaying information from the Associated Press. Pretty disgusting to me since it’s affecting a lot of family and people I would consider family in Southeast Colorado, but at the same time it is a very remote area.
I also have a brother-in-law in Kansas who works for the local power company as a journeyman, and last I knew he hadn’t been home in 7 straight days. Nebraska and Kansas seemed to receive the brunt of the ice storms, while Baca County seemed to be hit the hardest by the snow.
It warmed up very nicely in Colorado Springs and Pueblo on Wednesday, so you may think that the danger is behind us for the storm battered southeastern plains.
But analysts are saying that ranchers can lose $2 billion in cattle in this storm. And that’s just the cattle industry.
Factor in collapsed buildings, people trapped in remote homes, businesses shut because they can’t get deliveries and customers can’t reach them, and a terrible disaster is looming.
Volunteers on snowmobiles, eight national guard helicopters, and even two F-16 spotter jets were involved in Wednesday’s frantic effort to save the cattle, who’ve been without food and water for a week now.
Another storm is expected to hit on Friday. The prediction is for minimal snowfall. However, wind could cause a ground blizzard, once again covering the roads that have already been plowed.
Nearly 3,000 people are still without power near Lamar and Walsh because of downed power lines caused by the storm.
However, things are looking up. Both Govenor Owens and US Senator Ken Salazar are asking that Bush declare the area a disaster area to start getting Federal assistance, and the National Guard has made it’s way down to the SE corner to help get crucial supplies in. A friend of mine that I grew-up with is in the National Guard and was actually headed back down to that area from Denver to go help with the work going on down there.
A lot of volunteers have made their way down there, including snowmobile clubs and various people trained for this sort of disaster. They’ve also got equipment from everywhere from Pueblo to the Denver International Airport helping to clear snow, and food shipments are starting to make their way there as well. All that I can really say is a big thank you to all of those who are helping out. If I felt there was something I could do other than get in the way and I wouldn’t get stuck myself, I’d head down to lend a hand.
Some updated media coverage:
- Crisis looms in snowed-in southeast Colorado - Currently the headline story for the Rocky Mountain News. Be sure to check out the slide show too.
- Race to find, feed cattle swirls across Colo. ranches
- Baca County digging out - Several good photos of Springfield CO, which is about 18 miles from my hometown of Walsh CO and is the county seat of Baca County.
- Groups scour southeastern Colorado for trapped cattle
- Situation on southeastern plains dire - Streaming video with this one.
- Ranchers Racing to Feed Livestock - More streaming video coverage here.
- Grocery Stores and Cattle Both Lacking Food
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