No business like snow business
Megan Strickland
While downtown Ronan was bombarded with snow Friday morning, Travis Bynum snapped on his cross-country skies and headed to work.
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With blizzard warnings calling for 25-50 mph winds and 100 percent chance of snow, travel on back roads was treacherous throughout Lake County Friday and through the weekend. Even a state snowplow was seen stuck near Pablo.
“This was one of the worst storms I’ve seen in 14 years with the Sheriff’s Office,” Undersheriff Dan Yonkin said. Deputies, emergency services, and Lake County Search and Rescue responded to several calls during the weekend as roadways drifted shut. “In some ways I think we had fewer problems as far as criminal activity, but as far as the weather there was some pretty severe drifting in some areas.”
Montana Highway Patrol reported 18 crashes, slide-offs and abandoned vehicles in Lake County during the two-day period. The hardest hit areas were near Arlee and west of Pablo, but that didn’t stop people from trying to venture out.
“We had several issues with county roads not being able to be plowed that drifted shut, and then people decided to navigate them anyway and got stuck,” Yonkin said.
Early Saturday morning a tribal officer and state snow plow driver were able to rescue a man stranded in an older truck that froze up after it became stuck in a snow drift, Yonkin said.
In another instance in Arlee, people were returning home in a vehicle with a broken out window when they ran out of gas.
“They were in pretty dire straights with the 50 mph winds and the snow,” Yonkin said.
Lake County Search and Rescue responded to calls in the Mission area over the weekend that included a stranded vehicle of adults and children and medical incidents.
Yonkin said the rescues were for local people, many of whom didn’t have provisions in their vehicles. He encourages motorists to carry extra winter supplies, even for a short trip to the grocery store.
“You should have that stuff with you,” Yonkin said. “The length of the trip is not relevant. These people were not from out of town, they were from here.”
Yonkin suggests keeping extra clothing, food, liquids, blankets, and a half tank of gas in the vehicle during the winter months that will provide for eight to 10 hours of waiting for emergency
services.
“We’re not out of winter yet,” Yonkin said.
County snowplow drivers were hard at work over the weekend, but Commissioner Ann Brower said she was swamped with calls about unplowed roads.
A limited budget, small number of employees, reduced visibility, labor laws, and safety issues are a list of concerns that have to be weighed when plowing, according to Lake County Road Supervisor Jay Garrick.
“We don’t have a budget to have staffing that could allow us to run 24/7,” Garrick said.
Labor laws prevent the county’s dozen drivers from working more than 13 hours without a 10 break. The drivers are on a voluntary on-call system, and most volunteer their time, according to Garrick and Brower.
Last weekend the team was out in full force, trying to clear the county’s 1,200 miles of roads.
“We had roads that drifted in and even our plows couldn’t get through, though,” Garrick said.
The county expected to have all roads open by Monday evening, just in time for a predicted system of rain to move through. Garrick said workers were putting sand out in anticipation of the event.
Garrick said people can help the road department by staying in when road conditions are adverse. Abandoned vehicles have to be pulled out by wreckers before plowing can proceed.
“We see a lot of people who are stuck that have terrible tires,” Garrick said. “Just because they hold air doesn’t mean they are road-worthy. Have the right vehicle and have it prepared.”
Road conditions lead to many closures last week.
St. Ignatius Public Schools sent out a Facebook message Thursday evening canceling classes. A Mission pep band bus headed to the Class B tournament in Hamilton was also canceled. Basketball players and cheerleaders were snowed in at the tournament and were not expected home until Friday.
While Polson schools remained open Friday with all buses running, the district office sent out a message around 10 a.m. letting parents know they could come and pick up their children. Many did.
Snow wasn’t an issue for Arlee and Two Eagle River Schools, as they attend Monday through Thursday. Charlo schools were also empty, scheduled in advance due to the 14C divisional basketball tournament in Butte.
Ronan School District carried on with business as usual on Friday.
CSKT closed offices for those who normally work on Fridays.
The Girls Night Out Broad Comedy fundraiser event for Women 4 Wellness, scheduled for Friday night, was rescheduled for next month because of the bad weather.
The schedule changes prevailed into Monday, when a winter storm warning was in effect. Mission, Polson and Arlee Schools delayed start of classes by two hours on Monday. Two Eagle River School remained closed.
Sunday’s high of 11 degrees was 23 degrees lower than the average for this time of year, and 55 degrees colder than the warmest day on record in 1994. Year to date snowfall in Ronan, through Sunday, is 44.3 inches, with 58.2 inches since July 2013.
(Valley Journal staff members Megan Strickland and Linda Sappington contributed to this story.)
