Snowstorm packs wallop in Imperial, much of state

    Imperial and much of the state were still digging out Tuesday from the first snowstorm of 2018.
    In Imperial, the storm that started Sunday afternoon and continued overnight with 30 to 50 mph winds, closed schools, businesses and offices, and delayed mail delivery Monday.
    Also closing Monday were the Chase County Courthouse, Chase County Clinic and the library. The storm cancelled Monday’s Bloodmobile, Monday’s junior high basketball tourney in Sutherland and Tuesday’s Haxtun basketball games.
    Chase County Schools called off classes a second day Tuesday, as rural roads continued to drift from the wind, causing hazardous driving.
    Mail did arrive at the Imperial Post Office Monday, but it was about eight hours late, said Postmaster Barb Prottsman. Normally arriving at 7:30 a.m., it reached Imperial about 3:30, she said, and was lighter than normal. A little heavier Tuesday mail truck arrived on schedule Tuesday.
    Cory Schuller, a daily weather recorder for the National Weather Service, reported 12.5 inches in Imperial.
    That’s more than Imperial received in all of 2017, when just 8.25 inches were recorded.
    Schuller said with the winds that came with this storm, “It’s challenging. It’s a guess sometimes” on getting an accurate measurement.
    National Weather Service officials direct him, in conditions like this week, to use a fiberglass measuring stick, dipping into the snow in about six different spots out of the wind, and then averaging them.
    With between 12 and 14 inches in the Wauneta area, and 13 reported in Perkins County, he believes he was as accurate as he could be.
    Despite the high winds and drifting, no highways were officially closed, according to Jeff Martin, Nebraska Dept. of Transportation supervisor over the Imperial and Grant areas.
    Martin said their first focus as plows and other equipment went out about 3 a.m. Monday was to get out and move snow on Highways 6, 61 and 23. That wasn’t possible, he said, with zero visibility.
    “So we concentrated in the towns,” he said.
    Martin, who lives in Champion, said he took a ruler out on his driveway and measured 14 inches of snow.
    Billie Muehlenkamp, who lives near Wauneta, got to town to man the radios with county roads crews. She said there were bad spots on rural roads in all parts of the county.
    While old Highway 6 had one lane open most of Monday, winds continued to blow it shut in spots, she noted. Crews worked all day trying to keep that thoroughfare open.
    Pat Davison, public works superintendent for the city of Imperial, said his crew first went out mid-afternoon Sunday to get a jump on it, after freezing rain started shortly after noon.
    Three more machines went out at 6 p.m. Sunday, plowing for about four hours as roads were already drifting shut, he said. A full crew with six to seven machines and trucks was back out at 3 a.m. Monday.
    He was most surprised by the fact there were no electrical outages in Imperial.
    With the freezing rain coming first, then snow and high winds, he said it only caused maybe a blink or two in some locations.
    That wasn’t the case east of here.
    Southwest Public Power District (SWPPD), headquartered in Palisade, reported 707 meters without power in their service area. The number included irrigation wells, stock pumps and homes.
    “Our storm prediction models were right on the money regarding when, where and how the storm would track. What couldn’t be predicted was the severity of reduced visibility and drifting,” read a SWPPD press release.
    Wires coming detached from poles and the low temperature duration were the main issues in getting SWPPD power back up.

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