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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (March 9, 1950)
I w'«*»wSOc f i BUZ ZARB EDITION T) AXJTT F D BUZZARD EDITION 2 SECTIONS — 12 PAGES 1 X JLxZ/XX SECTION-I — PAGES I-8 ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ North-Nebraska’s Fastest-Growing Newspaper VOLUME 69 NUMBER 44 O'NEILL, NEBR.. THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 1950 PRICE—7 CENTS HURRICANE WINDS, SNOW HIT * Man, 23, Freezes to Death in Storm - - - -- ABANDONS CAR, TRIES TO WALK Robert Gesiriech’s Frozen Body Found Along Roadside A 23-year-old Atkinson man, Robert L. Gesiriech, perished late Tuesday or early Wednes day while groping his way on foot during the worst snow bliz zard in Holt county history. This was the only fatality at tributed to the storm in the O’ Neill region; one of three in Ne braska. Young Gesiriech’s body was found lying along the side of highway 20-275 about 8 o’clock Wednesday morning by a state highway department snowplow crew, which turned around and reported the discovery to auth orities. Vernon Eppenbach, one of the plowmen, said Gesierich's body was lying on ground % blown free of snow. It was badly frozen. Eppenbach's companion on the plow was Charles Porter. oignn oros. orougnt tne body into O’Neill and the identifica tion was ndt immediately es tablished because of the frozen condition. County Coroner William W. Griffin, who investigated, said the man’s face was badly scratched, suggesting that Ge sierich had encountered barbed wire fences after he abandoned his automobile and was attempt ing to walk to town. Body was found at a point about a mile east of O’Neill’s city limits, near the Lloyd Gibson place. Later, the abandoned car was found in a ditch near the Elkhorn riv ' er bridge about a mile further east. Acquaintances reported seeing Gesiriech in Norfolk late Tues day afternoon. If this were true, he succeed ed in getting within about 2 miles of O’Neill before he was forced to abandon the car. The body was found near an intersection and the Gibson house is situated only 700 feet away. Visibility was so low Gesiriech would have been un able to see the house. Ap parently his hat or cap had blown off and his head was covered only by a handkerchief. He was without overshoes. Funeral services will be held l Saturday at Atkinson. Rev. W C. Birmingham will officiate in rites at the Methodist church and burial will be in Wood Lawn cemetery Robert Leroy Gesiriech was born on May 2, 1925, at Stuart, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Florien Gesiriech. As a small child he moved with his parents to New port. At the age of 3Vt he fell in to a plate glass window at Newport and, except for a doc tor's immediate attention, his parents say he would have lost his life from blood loss. His arm was almost severed I 1 between the elbow and should er and innumerable stitches were required to close the wound. It was the injury that kept him out of military service early in the war, but later he served a year in the ground forces med ical corps, being separated at Ft. Warren, Wyo., on April 20, 1947. . I For a time he worked on a ranch south of Long Pine for Charley Peterson. Meanwhile, he had been working as a me chanic. Survivors include: Widow, the j former Darlene Steskal; par- j ents—Mr. and Mrs. Florien Ge siriech, of Atkinson; sisters — Mrs. Lloyd Thurlow, of Stuart; Mrs. Edward Bausch, of Atkin son; Mrs. Claude Callen, of Los Angeles, Calif.; Mrs. Norton j Thurlow, of Atkinson; brothers j — Edward G. Gesiriech, of Lin coln (temporarily working at Culbertson); Florien Gesiriech, jr., of _Los Angeles; Eugene G. Gesiriech, of Atkinson. TV Towers At O’Neill, Stuart Absorb Beating The storm hit TV, too! At Stuart, Joe Langan report ed the top of his TV antennae toppled to the ground, and the top of a 200-foot tower in O’ i Neill, belonging to W. B. Gilles pie, also was damaged. A row of parked automobiles is buried under the drift. Car in foreground gives idea of depth. Note how snow is plastered against buildings. Powder-fine, it was packed by a 100-mile-per hour gale.—The Frontier Photo by John H. McCareille. Expectant Mother Marooned 10 Hours Mrs. Wallace OTonnell, Son ‘Doing Fine’ After Rescue By a Staff Writer Probably one of the most dra matic rescues ever to evolve from the pages of a storm log was performed Tuesday eve ning while a raging, howling snowstorm lashed the O’Neill area. It is the story of an expectant mother, a farm wife, who was marooned in the blizzard for 10 hours. She huddled in an open horse-drawn grain wagon, help less, as her husband abandoned the scene to find aid. There she lay wrapped in blankets while the 60- to 100-mile-per hour wind shrieked over her head and while snow piled deep around the wagon and in the box. The story began about 11 o'clock Tuesday morning. The stork was due so Wallace O' Connell, weU - known O'Neill farmer and auctioneer, loaded his wife. Stell. into the wagon. He pointed the horses toward O'Neill and the party — the man, his wife and a hovering stork — set out in the blind ing storm. About 1% miles from their farm home the wagon bogged down and was unable to go fur ther. This was at a point 2 city blocks west of the O’Neill Coun try club, still a cold, long lVfe miles from the hospital. Unable to get the team start ed again, O’Connell made sure his wife was tucked in with the blar ;ets and he headed off for help. This was about 1:30 p.m. At 3 o’clock Tuesday after noon, in spite of the blinding blizzard and reduced visibility, O’Connell arrived at the Carl Asimus home in West O’Neill and told his story and the posi tion of the wagon. O’Connell was virtually exhausted. Combined efforts during the ensuing 2 hours were futile. State and county snowplows and graders were unable to reach the marooned woman. A weasel and a caterpillar lost their way ' and were hung up on obstacles. Finally, around 5 p.m., a group • II..- .-.- — - ■ of 8 men organized at the Lo haus Motor Co., m O’Neill, and set out for the scene on foot. The leader of the group, Lloyd Godel, said the men traveled single file, but once or twice were separated facing the driv ing wind and snow. The 8 men arrived on the scene to find Mrs. O’Connell wet from the snow and cold. They i hustled her by wagon to the O’Neil Country club. There, after spending an hour build ing a fire and getting warm, the rescue crew was met by an other 9-man patrol. They trans ferred Mrs. O’Connell to a zip i per stretcher with clean, dry blankets. Then the two rescue squads set off for the hospital. The men led the horses and the wagon carried Mrs. O’Connell. Finally, some 200 yards north of the state highway department garage, the team of horses gave out. The men carried the litter bearing the expectant mother from this point to the highway garage, on the outskirts of O’ Neill. Here they stopped for an other warmup before the final push to the hospital. Shortly before 9 p.m., a little over 10 hours after her harrow ing experience began, the ex pectant mother was admitted to the hospital. In spite of the hours of exposure in the arctic winds, hospital attendants who examined her, posted a bulle tin that her condition was “good.” Mrs. O’Connell corrabo rated the statement; in fact, she insisted she was “fine — al though somewhat cold.” O’Neill residents, hearing of the farm wife’s plight, prayed. Perhaps never before has the community — though sullen and snow-locked — been moved by the drama that was unfolding with winter at it’s worst. The stork alighted about 1 o'clock Wednesday morning —about 4 hours alter Mrs. O' Connell's admission to the hospital. Timothy Joseph O' Connell weighed 7Vi pounds. When the word was passed the next morning that the mothe I and babe were “doing nicely,” i hundreds of hearts beat easier. Mrs. O’Connell had this t' i say about her experience: “I really didn’t get discouraged . while waiting for rescuers. My . feet got pretty cold but I was (Continued on page 4) Mrs. O'Connell and Timothy Joseph O'Connell . . . both "doing fine.' Babe arrived 3 hours after Mrs. O'Connell was rescued. She was marooned 10 hours in an open horse-drawn wagon (below), carried by litter to O'Neill hospital.—The Fron tier Photos by John H. i**cCarville. Region Is Paralyzed By 1 OO-Mile-Per-Hour Gale — Worst in History By a Staff Wrter March 7, 1950, will live in history. That was the date of the most violent snow and wind storm in the history of the O’Neill region. It is a date that will be re membered and talked about as long as there are people alive who remember the dreadful ordeal that began early in the morning, subsided the next morning, left one man dead, many peonle and livestock suffering from exposure, and buried the countryside under mountainous drifts of powdery, sugar-fine snow. With savage fury the storm struck O'Neill in the early hours Tuesday morning. Radios had forewarned a storm and lower temperatures, but there was no advance notice of 18 inches of snow that was to be borne by gales ranging from 60 to 100-miles-per-hour throughout the entire day and into tha night. When residents awakened Tuesday morning, hurricane-Uke, arctic winds were sweeping out of the north and west with un precedented fury. The light snow was driven into every crevice, every opening, and few homes or business buildings withstood the assault without admitting snow and cold. Temperatures hovered between 12-degrees and 5-degrees throughout most of the day and night. Most observers said it was a blessing temperatures didn’t drop lower because loss of human life and livestock would have been catastrophic. One sturdy pioneer, who weathered the great blizzard of 1888 and who witnessed the recurring blizzards of 1948-’49, pre dicted that deaths caused by the blizzard would have been com monplace except for modern transportation, radio warnings, buildings and trees. * * * Storm Is a Killer— Tuesday’s storm was a killer—it packed a lethal wallop that would have killed any living thing that it caught without ample protection. Because the recurring blizzards of a year ago were fresh in the minds of many, most people exercised extreme cau tion and took no chances. Visibility was limited to about 20 feet by 10 o’clock Tuesday morning and by noon visibility was nil. Gusts of wind carrying the swirling snow prevented pedestrians from seeing more than several feet ahead. The handful of people that were making ur gent errands in downtown O’Neill groped their way along the sides of the buildings. Frail people would have been unable to negotiate the wind, much less plow the snow and pick their way. Farmers and ranchers, familiar as they are with their barn yards and feedlots. never before have experienced such diffi culty in caring for their stock. In many places people moved in two's and three's to look after each other, and they clung to ropes to keep their parties intact. Ainsworth’s government weather station reported steady winds of 65-miles-per-hour with gusts up to more than 100-miles per-hour. Later in the day, as the storm moved south and east, the government weather bureau at the Norfolk airport registered similar readings. Omaha, still later in the day, reported a gale of 82-miles-per-hour. O’Neill lay in the direct path of this historic storm from both a standpoint of wind punishment and snow. Eighteen inches of snow were officially recorded by Government Observer Elmer Bowen. Snowfall diminished west of Ainsworth and Norfolk re ceived only 3 inches. Weather forecast for Tuesday, announced the night before, tersely stated that temperatures would be colder and there would be some snow in the east portion of Nebraska. Thus, the element of surprise was all wrapped up in this storm. Monday was a balmy, springlike day—much as the day be fore the great blizzard of January 12, 1888. Young ladies who worked in stores, shops and offices were bedecked in dainty spring frocks, youngsters played marbles in the streets, and Len ten worshippers went to church leaving their furs and winter wraps behind. * * * lust Clouds Form— Toward evening dark clouds began to gather in the sky. Some observers said they resembled dust clouds that formed in the 1930’s. By 8:30 Monday evening the skies were dripping with rain. There was even some thunder. Rain and thunder are practically unheard of during the first week of March. Then the mercury be gan to slip. By midnight temperatures were freezing and by 2 a m. the cold front had struck. The belting that the O’Neill region took during the ensuing 18 to 20 hours belongs in bold print in the history books. Early Tuesday all streets and highways were snow-clogged wtih giant drifts that grew overnight. During the recurring bliz zards last year the drifting was cumulative. But in this storm in a few hours, with one vast stroke, the region was paralyzed. John D. Osenbaugh, O’Neill resident engineer for the state highway department, promptly announced that snow removal equipment wouldn’t consider venturing out until the storm had subsided. The westbound Chicago 8t Northwestern mainline passen ger mail train, enroute from Omaha to Chadron, encountered the high winds about 5 a.m. at Clearwater, and reached O'Neill 20 minutes late. That was to be the last transportation in or out of O'Neill until hours after the storm had passed. The train later felt its way to Long Pine where it was held up. Mean while. the Burlington held its eastbound train number 96 in the O’Neill station. Few schools even attempted to hold classes. Many commun ities were without electricity and telephone. Communication^ were severed and many hours were to elapse at some of the points before service could be restored. Throughout Tuesday residents had no choice but to sit at home and follow the progress of the storm by radio. The an nouncers sometimes had trouble being heard above the roar of the raging winds. Many O’Neill business firms were never open ed. Not a wheel turned within a good many miles of O’Neill Tuesday, Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning. Livestock were pounded mercilessly. Their coats were drenched during Monday evening’s rain. When the rain turned to ice many of them became blinded. First snow was soggy and wet and when the freezing set in many cattle were smothered. By late Wednesday hundreds of head of cattle were still un accounted for. Snowplow crews and rail crews clearing the nghfr (Continued on page 8)