MPR’s Steve Monroe reports on blizzard’s aftermath in Worthington, Minnesota. This includes an interview with young entrepreneur Steve Erebus, who is dealing with damaged greenhouses that contained orchids.
The Great Storm of 1975 (also known as the Super Bowl Blizzard, Minnesota's Storm of the Century, or the Tornado Outbreak of January, 1975) weather event ended up being perhaps one of the worst blizzards and strongest storms in Minnesota, closing most roads in the state, some for 11 days due to 20ft snow drifts. There were up to two feet of snow in places, a train was stuck at Willmar, 15,000 head of livestock were lost, and winds were calculated up to 80mph. Many low barometric pressure records were set (including 28.55 at Duluth). 14 people died in blizzard, and 21 more from heart attacks.
Transcripts
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STEVE MONROE: Today, saw the first flurry of movement in the Worthington area since the storm hit Friday. Snowplows opened the main arteries for traffic and residents worked furiously to dig out their cars, some of which were literally buried in snow drifts. Crews continued working to restore power to some rural areas. A number of homes in the countryside have been without electricity and heat since Friday night. The occasional whirring of a helicopter could be heard, as stranded people were still being airlifted to the Medical Center or to a warm place.
The blizzard brought discomfort and inconvenience to most, but to one young Worthington man, it brought misfortune. Last fall, Steve Urbas had built two greenhouses to accommodate about 1,600 cymbidiums. The cymbidium is a variety of orchid. Gale force winds, which reached 85 miles an hour during this weekend's blizzard, blew away one of the polyethylene greenhouses and collapsed the other.
Fortunately, for Urbas, the heating unit in the remaining structure continued to function, saving some of his orchid plants from subzero temperatures. He salvaged about 600 orchids out of 1,600. Urbas estimates loss of 1,000 plants and damage to the greenhouses to be from $15,000 to $20,000 which is indeed severe for a young entrepreneur in his first year of business. Steve Urbas reflected on his ill luck.
STEVE URBAS: Well, at first, you just kind of sit there and look at it and there's really not a whole awful lot you can do about it. I guess you just have to get yourself together and pick up what you can and just start all over again if it's possible.
STEVE MONROE: Do you think that you have enough plants left over. So that you can continue in this venture of yours, and perhaps salvage your operation in the long run?
STEVE URBAS: Well, I'll be able to salvage part of my operation, although the majority of it is pretty well gone. Being that it was exposed to the 0 degree weather and the temperatures and winds and so forth.
STEVE MONROE: When you got into this thing, did you ever anticipate the chance of something like this happening?
STEVE URBAS: Well, I guess any time you're in the greenhouse business, you always anticipate it, and perhaps you even wait for it, but you hope it never materializes.
STEVE MONROE: It seems kind of unusual to think about orchids coming from Minnesota. I generally would think of California or Hawaii, or someplace like that. How is it that you decided that Minnesota would be an appropriate place to raise orchids?
STEVE URBAS: Well, I don't really know for sure if it's an appropriate place to raise orchids, but it is a place where no one else is raising them commercially at the present. And there is a need. And with the rise in freight costs. And so forth from air freight. And it just seemed to me that it could be a profitable business if it was done right.
STEVE MONROE: At this point, it's pretty hard to say, but do you think you're going to hang in there?
STEVE URBAS: Well, I don't really have too much choice. I've got a lot of backlog dreams in my mind yet, and the only way to see those things come true is to stick right with it.
STEVE MONROE: Steve Urbas of Worthington. Urbas and a couple of friends spent today transporting his surviving orchid plants from the wrecked greenhouse through snowdrifts to another one nearby, which belongs to his father, Clarence, who is also a florist. And if temporary exposure to the frosty temperatures doesn't damage the surviving orchids as they're transported to their new temporary home, perhaps they'll bloom along with Steve Urbas' dream. This is Steve Monroe in Worthington.