Morning Edition’s Cathy Wurzer checks with Elizabeth Baier in Rochester on the blizzard conditions in area. Much of the state was covered in snow, including southeastern Minnesota, which closed roads and schools.
A snowstorm rolled through across much of Minnesota on February 19-20, 2010. Snowfall totals ranged from 6 to 17 inches. Because of a cold winter, by the third week of February, much of eastern Minnesota had the deepest snow cover seen in years. The Twin Cities International Airport had a snow depth of 24 inches on February 21, 2014…the deepest snow cover in the Twin Cities since January 26, 1982.
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KATHY: Parts of Southern Minnesota still under a blizzard warning after a major winter storm dumped nearly a foot of snow in some areas. Schools are closed. Power is out for thousands of customers. The weather is still very dangerous in some parts of the region, and officials are advising no unnecessary travel. Some of the worst spots appears to be Southeastern Minnesota. That's where Elizabeth Bear is right now. She's in our Rochester Bureau. How are you?
ELIZABETH BEAR: Hi, Kathy.
KATHY: Give us an idea of what it's like in Rochester right now.
ELIZABETH BEAR: Oh, boy. It's been quite the storm. Right now, conditions are rather raw. It's quite blustery and cold. The wind is biting and blowing a lot of that snow that fell last night onto roads and driveways. And that's just making road conditions very dangerous. Another big concern this morning are all the snow-coated branches and trees, power lines across the region. It looks so pretty. It looks like a postcard. But it's also caused a lot of problems for utilities and residents in some areas.
KATHY: I want to talk about travel in just a few minutes here, but let's talk about utilities. Do you have power outages in your area?
ELIZABETH BEAR: We do. That very heavy, wet snow that fell yesterday brought down a lot of power lines. And Rochester Public Utility reports more than 3,000 customers have lost power. Crews were out all night working to restore that as quickly as possible. And as we mentioned, another major concern is just the wind right now. We're seeing very strong gusts. And even in downtown Rochester you can hear it. You can certainly feel the piercing wind when it comes through. And on the highways, that's just created very low visibility and drifting snow across much of South central and Southeastern Minnesota.
KATHY: I've been following the MnDOT traffic people all morning long, and it looks like your area of the state has the worst travel conditions.
ELIZABETH BEAR: Yeah, it's pretty bad. Some pretty big closures right now. In the city of Rochester itself, the roads are in pretty good shape. City plows have been working to clear a lot of that snow before the morning commute. But the minute you get on some of the highways, conditions deteriorate immediately because of the wind. The big closures include southbound Interstate 35 from Owatonna to the Iowa border. That closed at about 1:30 this morning and remains closed.
And troopers were out checking on dozens of stranded vehicles along that stretch of the highway. Tow trucks were also out getting cars and people to safety. And just about an hour ago, MnDOT closed Interstate 90 in both directions from Austin to the exit that's just south of Rochester. And we're also seeing dozens of smaller roads being closed this morning, mostly heading east from Mankato to the Winona area.
KATHY: Any sense of how long the interstates might be closed?
ELIZABETH BEAR: It's really unclear right now, Kathy. I mean, we're starting to get more daylight now. And that certainly helps improve visibility, so it could be a couple hours. But it all really depends on how long the strong winds continue.
KATHY: Now I know from yesterday and watching the radar that you folks in Southeastern Minnesota had rain to begin this whole storm, which doesn't help, especially once it starts freezing and you get really slick conditions. How many crashes did you have yesterday?
ELIZABETH BEAR: Well, quite a bit. The latest updates we have from the State Patrol are from yesterday afternoon. They'll be updating that at 10:00. But as of 2:00 PM yesterday, troopers were called to about 174 crashes statewide. And that included one fatality here in Southeastern Minnesota. And like I said, that will be updated in a couple hours.
KATHY: OK. Now, how about closures and delays when it comes to schools in your area?
ELIZABETH BEAR: Well, kids are certainly enjoying this storm. It's the second day that many schools are closed around the region. They're closed again today. Colleges and universities are also closed or delayed. They do vary, so it's important for parents and students to certainly check with their schools before heading out this morning.
KATHY: One person on Facebook wanted to know whether she should go down to the Mayo for her chemotherapy treatments. She was a little worried about the travel conditions. The Mayo Clinic stays open, obviously. How do they handle severe weather?
ELIZABETH BEAR: Yeah. Mayo is still up and running. The clinic and Rochester City lines canceled the commuter bus service for today. And that means that about 1,000 Mayo workers who use the service to get to Rochester from either surrounding communities or the Twin Cities had to make alternative arrangements to get to work. And actually, a lot of Mayo workers ended up staying in downtown Rochester last night as many of the hotels were at or near capacity, in part, because employees wanted to make sure they could get to work at the clinic on time this morning.
KATHY: All right. Thank you so much for the update, Liz.
ELIZABETH BEAR: You're welcome, Kathy.
KATHY: Elizabeth Bear reporting from Rochester.