Blaine Countians respond to a hard winter

 

February 28, 2018

This scene on Main Street in Harlem shows the extent of digging crews had to do to find a recent service line break. The large piles of snow around the site were created when stored snow, that had been removed from various locations in town, had to be moved to find the leak.

Reporter's note: The hard winter in north central Montana may not be the only news story, but it is certainly one of the main ones. I wanted to see how folks in a variety of situations are dealing with this winter. This is not a comprehensive list of every "winter of 2018 story." But, it's a sampling of some of the challenges, and interestingly, some of the unanticipated benefits of a hard winter. Here's a brief look at how a few of us are coping this winter.

Health and safety: more than normal flu cases and school absences

Blaine County Sheriff Glenn Huestis said there had been a few weather related traffic mishaps. "Fortunately," he said, "the accidents were mostly vehicles sliding off the road and to date no serious injuries have occurred." Asked for advice for dealing with the severe weather, Huestis suggested using common sense when driving and dressing for outdoor activities. And as a reminder, "stock up on necessities you may require if weather makes the roads impassable for a time."

Kraig Hansen, Chinook Fire Chief and county fire warden, said so far there have been no major fires during the cold weather. He said, "We posted on our Facebook page asking people who live near a fire hydrant, and are physically able, to clean snow from around the hydrants." Per Hansen, a three foot square around the hydrant allows firefighters to quickly identify the location of the connection, access the hydrant and have adequate space to do the hook up. He added, "It's really helpful if people dig out a drifted over hydrant. If firefighters have to look for the hydrant they are losing valuable time to fight the fire."

Jana McPherson-Hauer, Blaine County Public Health Nurse and Mark Weber, Program Assistant with public health, said there was definitely an uptick in confirmed flu cases this year. McPherson-Hauer explained, "Flu and other communicable outbreaks, especially in the schools, are not necessarily a function of the weather. However, when people are confined in closed buildings there's more potential for outbreaks." She attributes part of the increased school absences to the weather this year.

To date Blaine County had 17 laboratory confirmed flu cases. McPherson-Hauer said this is more confirmed cases than last year but warned, "sometimes this is a function of reporting, who is getting tested, etc. There are a lot of variables that we can't always determine when we look at confirmed cases." The majority of confirmed influenza cases occurred in people who were not vaccinated with the seasonal influenza vaccine.

Other government services also affected by the weather

Harlem Mayor Kim Hansen said city crews, with the aid of John Pike's crew, found and fixed a service line leak located toward the north end of Main Street in Harlem. The first indication of a problem occurred mid-afternoon on a Sunday. "The crews chased the source," the mayor added, "through some bitterly cold weather. They finally found and fixed it on Tuesday afternoon." Hansen said he was really proud of both crews for sticking with the project. He also said, "There was water running down Main Street at one point, in freezing weather. I never got one citizen complaint during the emergency."

At the Chinook Post Office Postmaster Leta Buck said, "Mail is getting to Chinook okay but sometimes we have challenges getting it delivered to our rural postal customers." She explained a recurring problem is snow banks blocking access to rural mail boxes and the problem. Buck added that postal regulations do not require rural carriers to leave a vehicle to deliver rural mail.

At the Chinook Senior Center, Director Kristi Norby said she has seen the number of diners for the weekly noonday meal drop by 200 meals a month from November through January. During that same period the percentage of meals being delivered has increased. Norby said, "Part of the problem is many or our regulars are afraid to brave the weather to come for a meal, have gone to live with relatives during the winter or, in a few cases, have gone to the nursing home either permanently or for the winter."

Schools are operating

but absences up

When Turner School Superintendent Russ McKenna at the northern-most school district in Blaine County was asked if the flu was affecting his school he said, "Well, were having school." That said, he added, "We are not running some bus routes because the roads are not staying open even if plowed." His district has had no cancellations of school or events this winter. "But," he added, "some students and teachers have not been able to make it because of snow blocked roads.

At the southern most school in the county, Cleveland School teacher Shirley Fisher said, "This year we have two families that send kids to Cleveland. One family is on a road that is hard to keep open with the blowing snow and they do miss sometimes." Asked about kids missing because of flu, Fisher said, "These kids have not been out of the area since the start of winter. They haven't been anywhere to catch anything." She admitted that being isolated did have its benefits at times.

Farms and businesses

operating with challenges

Jeff Finley, of Finley's Food Farm, stands beside his warm-blooded forklift. When the temperature plummets below -15 to -20, Finley has to call in a crew to unload his weekly semi delivery the "old school way," that means by hand. He's smiling in the photo because it's delivery day and the forklift, despite groaning, started. No old school unloading today.

Jeff Finley is a co-owner of Finley's Food Farm in Chinook. Asked how the weather was affecting his business, he said, "Well, the delivery truck will be five hours late today. That's not always because of weather, but weather is likely responsible for part of the delay." His big problem, he explained, is his forklift which seems to be a bit warm blooded. "It the temperature gets down around -15 to -20," he explained, "I can figure on calling in a crew to unload the delivery truck by hand. That means a 10-15 minute job with the forklift becomes a 45 job if we have to do it "old school," by hand."" Finley did say, "I think folks in this part of the country know how to deal with severe winter. I don't see a lot of problems, people shop when they can and try to keep basics on hand."

Ranchers are having a hard go this winter. Liz Werk, Fort Belknap MSU Extension Ag Agent, described what she has been hearing from ranchers: "Their hay is depleted because they had to start feeding earlier in the fall than expected. Then the very low temperatures require more hay to keep the animals healthy." She added there's a problem with water for livestock-accessing sources through the snow and keeping water available so the animals can drink it. Werk did see one upside to all the snow, noting, "If we can capture the runoff and store it where it's usable, we could achieve a "moderate drought level." That would be a good thing."

True, most folks around here have been through hard winters before. But it seems to be pretty much a common consensus that we're all hoping for a break in the weather, and soon. Meteorological spring starts tomorrow (March 1). Astronomical spring is three weeks away (March 20). Let's hope that the two advents of spring will bring us some spring-like weather.

 
 

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