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Blizzard a week later: 'It's tough out here'LONG VALLEY, S.D. (AP)--With the blizzard almost a week past and the temperature near 50, Reed Richardson was warming toward optimism Nov. 12 as he stood near the open door to his unheated store and soaked up the sun. But he was also worried about the weather to come. "The wind's supposed to come up tomorrow night," he said. "If we get that and an inch of snow, it could be devastating." Something resembling devastation landed a week ago here on the badland-broken southeast edge of Jackson County. The storm knocked out power for thousands of customers, sent hundreds to stay with friends or family and turned the Crazy Horse School in nearby Wanblee into a sanctuary for displaced members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Richard's combination store and rural post office was still without power Nov. 12. So was his home a mile to the east, as well as the ranches scattered in distant seclusion through the snow-plastered prairies in all directions. And as power crews stopped at the store on their way to and from work stations, ranchers commiserated over packaged sandwiches and candy bars about lost power and wandering livestock. "I've got neighbors' cattle in on me, and I'm not sure where all my cattle are. They're scattered," rancher John Bauman said. "They go with the wind until they run up against a fence, break through and go some more." Travel options are limited, in drifts that would swallow four-wheel drives. And even horses have trouble traveling in the mix of snow and sharp-edged ice that can bloody hooves and end a roundup in a hurry, Bauman said. Like his neighbors, Bauman isn't sure how many cattle are out, where they might be or how many died. "I've only found one dead one myself, so I feel fortunate," Bauman said. "I don't have power. And I don't know when I will have power." He does have a wood stove, which is much appreciated by his nephews, who are bunking in near the heat and helping with post-blizzard cleanup. "They don't have a wood stove, so they're living with me for now," he said. "It's working out. They're young, good help." Richardson doesn't have cattle of his own to worry about. But his son ranches nearby, on power supplied these days by a tractor-powered generator that burns up 80 to 100 gallons of fuel a day. Richardson also worries on behalf of his neighbors, including a rancher who has been unable to get to a herd of cows with calves stymied into an inaccessible canyon. "They won't come out of there, and he can't get in to get them," Richardson said. "He can get feed down in there that they can get at, kind of at. But if we get another storm on top of this, they'll be in trouble." Richardson doesn't face that kind of challenge. But he wonders when he'll have power at the store, which is day by day losing the items stuffed in its three freezers. Richardson leaves the freezers shut and the door to the store open during the day to keep it as cool as possible and save as much food as he can. "But I don't think there'll be much left that's good," he said. Nonperishable items on the shelves are dwindling, but Richardson hesitates to restock until he has power. "My supply has dwindled to nothing," he said. "But we'll get by. The highways are clear, and pretty much everybody can get around. That helps." Because of its strong winds and initial barrage of ice, the storm was the worst since the epic blizzards of 1949, Richardson said. "We seem to get a really big one through here every 10 years or so," he said. "But this is probably the worst since '49." Like elsewhere in the path of the storm, miles of power lines were snapped off by the weight of ice and wind. Power crews were hustling Nov. 12 along S.D. Highway 73 between Long Valley and Kadoka to remove the broken poles, erect new ones and restore the lines. Roland Heinert, a foreman for Lacreek Electric Association, said 10 association crew members were joined by about 50 additional workers from assisting cooperatives in work to restore power to the area. Crews were hoping to have power back to Wanblee by Nov. 13, and possibly at the Long Valley Elementary School by Nov. 14, he said. There were other chores as well, Heinert said. "We're heading for Parmelee right now to set a transformer pole that was broken by a plow," he said. The chores are many, and far from finished. But bit by bit, the crews will bring back the power, Heinert said. "Be patient," he said. "It's tough out here." 11/24/08 Date: 11/18/08 Advertisement
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