Kelly Geraci, researcher and author.
Through the years people have faced many different weather conditions. Some have been bad and others good. The winter seemed like it was the toughest time for people. One particular winter seemed like it was one of the hardest, the Blizzard of 1949.
Some say they had never seen so much snow in their entire life. The snow started in early January of 1949 and kept going for days. It all melted in the spring. The bad thing was that the storm just hit; people had little or no warning. Long time resident Helen Herrett said, ``We must have had some kind of warning before the snow started, but we didn`t expect it to last that long.`` Leroy Hill remembers, `` It caught a lot of people by surprise because we didn`t have good weather forecasters like we do today.`` Bill Hannah agrees, ``The weather forecasters today are much more advanced.``
The suddenness of the storm was not the only surprise. Paul Hennessey remembers in Rapid City, South Dakota, the snow was about 30 to 40 inches deep. He also adds that in some places the trains were completely covered with snow. Hennessey estimated that some of the drifts were two or three thousand feet long and twenty feet deep. ``There was more snow than I had ever seen in my life!`` reported Bill Hannah.
The snow drifts often covered livestock. Cattle and sheep would walk until they got to an obstacle such as a fence and become stuck. Then the snow would cover them up and they would suffocate. ``Lots and lots of cattle were lost.`` replied Norine Franke. If they didn`t die that way, they would wander away from their home range. ``The cattle would sometimes drift 75 to 100 miles away from their home.`` explained Leroy Hill.
For weeks no one could travel. All of the roads were covered with snow. The county had to lease machinery from contractors to clear the roads. The roads weren`t the only things that were blocked. Paul Hennessey estimates that nearly five million dollars was spend trying to clear the railroads. ``There were a lot of problems with the roads and finally the Army came in and plowed them out.`` explained Helen Herrett.
``The Army came in and brought people to the hospital and dropped feed.`` added Paul Hennessey. Norine Franke estimates it took about six weeks for the road graders to come out and clear the road. ``The county didn`t have all that much equipment so they leased it from contractors. Mother Nature helped to get rid of the snow too.`` explained Bill Hannah
Many people had problems getting food. Many women had canned foods during the summer so they were stocked up on food. A lot of people had to wait until the storm let up before they could go shopping. By that time stores started to run out of products to sell. If people couldn`t get to the store, planes would drop food to them. ``We always stocked up on food. My mother canned a lot of goods.`` replied Bill Hannah. Leroy Hill remembers that people couldn`t go shopping for days. ``You couldn`t get to the store and the store couldn`t get any new supplies,`` Helen Herrett explains, ``If the stores did run out of something, there was usually something close to substitute it with.``
Many people had problems getting their mail and trying to send things to people. The postman couldn`t get around to people for about a month. ``Clyde Ice from Spearfish, South Dakota flew over with the mail and dropped it, which didn`t make much sense because no one could get there and get the mail anyway.`` explained Norine Franke.
If people weren`t dropping mail, they were dropping food. The Army and Air Force dropped hay and feed off of planes to stranded cattle or other livestock. Leroy Hill explains that a bunch of high school kids helped feed cattle. ``Since school was canceled, we would help the Army.`` He also adds that they dropped hay from airplanes. Cattle were just starving to death because there was so much snow and they couldn`t get any food. ``The Army came in with crawlers and planes to help get feed to the stranded cattle,`` stated Paul Hennessey. ``The Air Force would drop hay to stranded livestock,`` said Helen Herrett.
Another problem was that school was canceled. Many people lived out in the country so it was hard to get their children to school. It was also too cold for them to be outside. ``My brother, sisters and I weren`t out of school, that was the bad part. We didn`t go for those first few days, but after that we had to. The school was very close to where we lived,`` remembered Norine Franke.
Looking back, Leroy Hill looked back recalled, ``I think I was out of school for about two weeks. I remember it seemed like a really long time.`` Helen Herrett explained ``My daughter Vivian missed a lot of school. Her school teacher lived in the school house so she was there everyday, but no one else was.`` ``Some of the rural schools were closed for nearly two months,`` added Paul Hennessey.
After the snow finally quit falling, it took months for it to melt. In some places it flooded and other places it got really muddy. ``There wasn`t much water by our house so there wasn`t much flooding, but it was really muddy,`` recalled Norine Franke. ``By the time everything melted, everyone was ready to go south!`` exclaimed Paul Hennessey. ``It snowed for days, and literally didn`t quit until spring,`` added Leroy Hill.
After interviewing Leroy Hill, Paul Hennessey, Helen Herrett, Bill Hannah and Norine Franke, I realized that my generation has no idea of the severe hardships that they had to face during the Blizzard of 1949. I find it difficult to relate to these hardships because of the new technologies such as weather satellites which give us some idea of when a storm is coming and of how severe it will be, new road equipment and services which quickly clear the highways. I now appreciate how easy my generation has it today.