Midmorning’s Paula Schroeder talks with reporters Tom Fudge and Dan Olson, who are both stuck at home after large amounts of snow blanket the Twin Cities. Fudge and Olson describe buried cars, stuck buses, and heavy walk-in business at hardware store and markets.
Lore has claimed it as “The Halloween Blizzard,” and Minnesotan memories and tales have only increased with the passage of time. Snow started falling on the morning of October 31, 1991. By midnight, the storm had dumped 8.2 inches of snow at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, breaking the record for the most snow on that date. By the time it was all done three days later, the storm had dumped more than 2 feet of snow in the Twin Cities and 3 feet in Duluth. The North Shore city’s 36.9-inch snowfall set a record at the time as the largest single snowstorm total for Minnesota.
Transcripts
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PAULA: Tom, what's the matter with you? Why aren't you at work today?
TOM FUDGE: Well, I can't imagine. Some people will do anything to stay home. Actually, the truth is, I tried very hard, worked very hard, to get my car out of a snowdrift and was unable to do that. I know that's a shameful thing for a Minnesotan to have to say, but it is a fact.
PAULA: I don't think you're alone today, Tom. In fact, the AAA, the person that we spoke to earlier this morning, Ken Moore, said that is indeed what's happening to most people. You might be able to get out of your driveway, but then chances are you're going to get stuck in one of the unplowed streets in the residential areas.
TOM FUDGE: Yes, well, actually, one story I have to tell is when I was working hard with a shovel to try to get my car out of the drift, there were other people who were at least trying to go to work, who thought that they would be able to take the bus. And as I was digging away, a man walked past me, and his comment was, you're not actually going to try to drive in this stuff, are you?
And, well, ultimately, the answer, I guess, was no, because I wasn't able to do it. On the other hand, he went up to the bus stop to try to catch a bus and, in fact, the bus did arrive. This is on St. Clair Avenue in St. Paul. But once it did stop to pick people up, it then slid into a snowbank on the side of the road, and so the bus driver had to send everybody home. And so those people weren't able to get to work, either.
Now, I went and talked to the bus driver, an MTC bus driver, here in St. Paul, and I believe we have a little bit of tape from that conversation.
PAULA: Yes, we do.
SPEAKER 2: I stopped to pick up a lady and put the accelerator on, and it just went to the side.
TOM FUDGE: I see. So--
SPEAKER 2: As soon as you step on it or drive on it, it turns to ice right now. It's glare ice, too.
TOM FUDGE: I see. And so it's not just a volume of snow. It's really wet snow.
SPEAKER 2: It's really heavy, wet snow, yeah. And it turns to ice just as soon as you step on it or drive on it.
TOM FUDGE: And basically, in a vehicle like this, this is a big vehicle with rear wheel drive. And I suppose this is the type of thing that happens with the back wheel.
SPEAKER 2: Right. As soon as you apply the power back there, well, they just spin. And these are not very good on ice anyhow.
TOM FUDGE: Well, now, is this the first time you've gotten stuck, this morning, or did it happen before?
SPEAKER 2: I was stuck for two hours down in Highland. I just got out of there 30 minutes ago.
TOM FUDGE: You got out of there 30 minutes ago, and then two miles later, it happens again?
SPEAKER 2: Right.
TOM FUDGE: What is your advice to anybody who is thinking of going anywhere?
SPEAKER 2: Don't go anywhere. Don't go out for anything. It's just too hazardous.
TOM FUDGE: Well, so there you are. Actually, I'm looking out the window here at home, and it looks like a wrecker has finally come by to pull that MTC bus out of the ditch. Now, how far he's going to get at this point before he slides into a ditch, once again, is another matter, I suppose.
One thing I do have to report here, Paula, is that I'm looking out the window, and I hope I'm not going out on a limb when I say that the snow has definitely tapered off. I wouldn't say that it stopped where I'm at right now, but it really is not snowing nearly as hard as it was before.
PAULA: Yeah, it certainly looks the same way here in Downtown St. Paul, as well, and I think that we can expect that. We've had enough snow, for heaven's sake. You'd think that it would stop eventually here. And, Tom, you're not alone. We have lots of people stranded today.
I think that those of us who came in early this morning will probably the luckiest. We had about at least another 5 or 6 inches of snow after I came in this morning. And Dan Olson is also at home this morning. And, Dan, what's it like in South Minneapolis today?
DAN OLSON: Well, Paula, good morning to you. How are you?
PAULA: Well, I'm just fine, thank you.
DAN OLSON: Good, good. I'm fine. I am at home. In fact, I'm on the front steps on my cheap little cordless telephone with three or four other conversations going on in the background. It's the modern-day version of the party line with these cheaper cordless phones.
My neighbor, Nancy [? Shelp, ?] wearing her bright red parka, has now made it about 10 feet down her front walk and is working valiantly, if somewhat vainly, to clear that away. It's like little dots, Paula, of red, green, and blue as I step out and go down the steps and look down the street here. And people are bobbing around on the sidewalks and in the middle of the street.
And the second vehicle in the past five hours just went by a little while ago, so there's a track. I can affirm what Tom said about the MTC buses. Just a short time ago, a couple of them here on Bryant, and then another one on Lyndale South in Minneapolis, where crossways in the street and, well, we can only presume by now that somebody has come to straighten them out and put people back on them and head them in the right direction again.
Paula, I went down to my hardware store about an hour ago, and [? Marian ?] [? Anderson ?] was out shoveling off her hardware store sidewalk, and her husband and kids had disappeared to go shovel people out. The family hardware store operation is doing a land office business. [? Marian, ?] ever the clever retailer, had the bright-colored plastic sleds out there for $8 each, and she was doing a hot and brisk business.
PAULA: Well, of course, yeah. All the kids are off school today, so what a marvelous day for a sled.
DAN OLSON: One mother came in, and she bought two of them, just like that. And she's moving to Colorado, but the movers had called her and said, not today, lady. You're not going to make it today. And the scene has been like that.
Next door at Ron's Superette, next to the hardware store, folks were just streaming in as though they're never going to be able to lay their hands on another article of food for the next year or so, buying everything in sight, loaves of bread, milk. Candy, of course, is especially popular because many of the children had been sent up to the superette on little errands and all the change left over.
PAULA: Oh, sure. They didn't get enough trick or treating last night.
DAN OLSON: Well, that's the other thing, of course, is that-- I don't know what it was like in your neighborhood, but the trick or treating crowd was down fully 75% in our neighborhood. What are your kids doing today?
PAULA: Well, they're home from school, of course, too. And actually, in our neighborhood last night, we had a pretty good turnout of trick or treaters.
DAN OLSON: Well, good for you.
PAULA: I know that my four-year-old, particularly, she took a spill about three different times in snowdrifts, but boy, she kept right up and kept on going.
DAN OLSON: All the schools are closed, of course. We sent ours off to school anyway. Just didn't tell them, and I hope they're all right. Teacher-student ratio should be real good today, don't you think?
PAULA: I would think so, Dan. What a mean dad you are.
DAN OLSON: Oh, no.
PAULA: Well, as usual, I think that Minnesotans are making the best of the situation if you've got to stay home. Isn't it nice that our retailers are able to open up their shops for us, though?
DAN OLSON: Oh, it's good for them. They need all the help they can get here in the land of 10,000 taxes, and this is a great day for them to do business.