friday, december 14, 1979
daily nebraskan
page 17
Bli
.zzard
1 : k.
sbrin
By Kathy Sjulin
g funny ' stdrie
stoo
As night temperatures dipped below freezing this week,
many residents across the state may have grumbled as
they dashed back into the house to hunt uo that down
jacket before going to work.
utners, nowever, prooaDiy held their tongues as they
remembered worst storms and lower temperatures in the
not-so-distant past.
The worst blizzards in Nebraska's historv occurred in
January 1888 and January 1949, according to the records
J . n. AAl .... -
ot tne uinl climatology ottice in Nebraska Hall.
Ester Culwell. who has worked in the climatolnov He.
partment for 17 years, said, "If anyone has been in a Ne-
I I . Ll! - J I - I . ... . ....
orasica oiuzara, ne Knows it s notning to tool with "
Most of the snow accomnnnvinp a hlirznrrt i in th
form of the powdery particles which are whipped in such
great quantities that visibility is only a few yards, she said.
ine ouzzara oi Jan. u, 1 888, covered one-third of the
United States and produced some of the lowest temner.
atures on record in this state, Culwell said. Valentine re
ported a record Jb degrees below zero, '
.''
THE BLIZZARD arrived without warning hecause- in
those days there were few daily newspapers, no radio
broadcasts and no rural telephones, Culwell said. , .
"The only methods of communication were teleeranh
and word-of-mouth, and because of this lack of com-
mumcation a buzzard was more than an ordinary storm to
pioneers," Culwell said, ,
W.H. 0 tiara . author of the book In All its Furv which
is a chronicle of the 1888 storm, said, "When it descended
without warning,' a blizzard often brought with it fear,
sorrow, loss, cold and hunger.
Culwell said CGara's book contains the memories of
many individuals who lived through the blizzard and met
annually to do research and reminisce about the blizzard
until 1967. .. - -
"This group was called the 1888 Blizzard Club and met
every year on Jan. 12, the anniversary of the storm," she
said.- - - v.
The 1888 blizzard' has often been called the "school
children's storm;" Culwell said, because it - can oh t
hundreds of teachers and pupils in the little schoolhouses
scattered throughout the prairies.
. C ,1 A 1 J ll; ' j t- l, , . ,
f ouu anu tug uweiungs ana scnooinouscs wnicn were
common in 1 8X8 were ineffective against the extreme
cold of this blizzard, she said.
"wj "iwnvg iiutv uvvh iuiuvi ivuviicia WltU 11CU
ropes arounu tneir own waists and then around the waists
of the children to lead them to safety," Culwell explained,
v The temperature records reveal the severity of the
storm, according to Culwell. For example, at 6 am in
"Scottsbluff on Jan. 12 the temperature was 30 degrees.
ine temperature plunged to 6 below zero by 2 pjn. and
by 9pjn.it was 14 below zero,
"What I can't believe," Culwell exclaimed, "is that for
the next two nights the temperature remained at 35 below
zero."
There is no official record of the number of individuals
who died in the blizzard, Culwell said.
"However, some unofficial .totals reached" as high 'as
170 and as many as 28 oeoDle who manaeed to live
O
through the storm died before spring because of indirect
effects of the storm "she said. . ' '
IN SPITE OF THE sorrow caused by the 1888
blizzard, many humorous stories have been passed down
about it, Culwell said. One of these involves a snowbound
girl left alone with a small baby during the storm. '
According tc the story there was no food in the house
where the girl was trapped with the hungry ; crying baby .
"I he story says the girl found some whiskey in a cup.
board and gave the baby a liberal snort along with some
water. Apparently,' the concoction worked wonderfully
wellrf the girl, reported later, except that the baby went to :
The 1949 blizzard also arrived with little' forewarning,
-
'If MfiE GOfJSA STICK A MEEOli
INTD m. WllSOJ ... CAN I WBCH ?
000
Culwell said. However, communication was more advanc
ed and the state quickly organized 'Operation Snow
bound" to cope with the storm.
Culwell said she remembers that "Operation Snow
bound" consisted of more than 500 volunteers who
worked around the clock aiding people who had been in
jured or were trapped without foot .
"Operation Snowbound succeeded in freeing 79,454
snowbound persons and was chiefly responsible for saving
the lives of many starving cattle who were fed when bales
of hay were dropped in pastures from planes," she said.
More than $5 million was spent for snow removal alone
in this operation with damage to highways exceeding $2 5
million, Culwell said.
Culwell said more than 20 lives were lost because of 41
inches of snow which formed record-breaking drifts.
, Even so, Culwell said, Nebraskans found a light side to
the 1949 blizzard just as they had 61 years earlier.
"I REMEMBER HOW amused everyone was by the
school kids near Gordon who-had the bad luck to be
marooned with their teacher for nearly a month with not
a single day of class missed," Culwell' said.
In Columbus, the townspeople put on a home-produc
ed entertainment show on succeeding nights for almost
300 stranded passengers on two trains, she said.
Culwell said some people prospered from the storm
and cited the headline "Grocery Business Good" which
appeared during the first week of February in 1949.
According to the newspaper, Grocers did land office
business in Pierce as farmers were averaging $75 grocery
bills as safeguards against a future storm."
Culwell said she believes the more people know about
the weather, the better they can live with it.
There are several things one should do if trapped in a
blizzard, according to Culwell:
-Avoid overexertion and exposure.
-Stay in your vehicle. Don't -attempt to walk out of a
blizzard.
-Don't panic. ' -.'
-Keep fresh air in your car; wet snow can seal out
oxygen.
. -Beware of the gentle killers like carbon monoxide.
-Exercise. Don't stay in one position very long.
-Turn on the dome light at night to make the vehicle
visible.
-Keep watch. Don't permit all occupants of the car to
sleep at once.
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