Huge Snowstorm Rolls Across Great Plains

Crews on Tuesday gradually reopened major highways that had been closed by the Plains’ first blizzard of the season, stranding post-Thanksgiving travelers. Thousands of people remained without electricity.

It’s been a few years since there’s been a blizzard like this one here on our corner of the northerm plains. The Chief shut down last night when the electricity started flicking off and on for a while. We never did completely lose the power, although nearby areas were not so lucky.

Utility officials estimated that 50,000 customers were blacked out across eastern South Dakota on Tuesday, and many communities in North Dakota had no electricity. Nebraska also had scattered outages. The morning’s low at Grand Forks, N.D., was 14 degrees.

It was also 14º here at the Chief’s location this morning, and again tonight. (Just about enough to convince you that it’s winter!) Right now at 11PM CST there are still 40,000 in the state with no power yet. (Been there, done that – it ain’t fun – hence the Chief’s backup pair of Coleman generators ready to keep the spark going as needs be.)

For those of you not out on the edge of the grid, this led to going around unplugging various items of digital electronics like satellite equipment (C-band, DishNetwork, and 2-way direct internet), computers, etc, to avoid damage from voltage spikes occurring as the juice flipped on and off.

Another note: at times blogging may ne a bit lessened on the weekend, since we have entered what some consider to be the High Holy Days of deer season.

Yes PETA, THIS Daddy kills animals up close and personal, and likes to cook ’em up and dine on them. Around here the venison comes as though the deer were on a finishing lot – every one I’ve shot has had a gut full of corn from gleaning the harvested fields.

This makes it good for the OTHER PETA: People Eating tasty Animals. Oh, yeah!