Storm of the season

Last week's winter storm brought life for many Crook County residents to a standstill. In Moorcroft, garbage service was postponed as the public works crew had to clear snow Thursday morning and closed the landfill. The Moorcroft schools released classes at noon on Wednesday as the snow began to fall and cancelled lessons entirely on Thursday.

Outside of town, county residents were trapped, unable to get out of their drives due to drifts in areas rising over ten feet. Sandy Holland, who lives near Wind Creek Road with husband Dave, had to deal with a bull that walked over the fence on the hard packed snow all the way into the cows’ paddock.

Sean Newman and his family, who live near Pine Haven, are new to the community and were unable to get through the half-mile of four-foot drifts to the main road for several days. Saturday morning, his neighbor returned home from a trip out of town to find the family still trapped and used his equipment to render assistance.

As one drove along D and Gray Road to the north or along South Pine Ridge Road to the southeast of Moorcroft, the deep cuts through 14-foot drifts across the roadways and the out buildings literally buried under several feet of snow made evident the efforts of the road maintenance crews.

Keyhole assistant park superintendent Jentry Eatherton described challenges he faced trying to traverse the roads around the reservoir last Thursday.

“I actually got stuck off Mule Creek Thursday morning. Even if I had gotten through, I would not have gone anywhere else because those drifts were higher than my pickup. The only way I got through is Kelly Lang was coming through with the blade,” he said. As of Saturday, the county and park were “still trying to clear it up so people can get through.”

Pine Haven Volunteer Fire Chief Bob Rudichar reported that there were no emergencies due to the latest storm, “Thank the Lord for that.” He has been modifying and creating standard operating procedures (SOP) over the last couple of years, inculcating them into the department’s training schedule and with the realization of potential issues reaching victims brought to the fore with this storm.

“There will probably be another one in the making. What if we get an emergency call and can’t get to a house. How do we get people out? We [may] need a snow mobile or we can sled somebody in and out,” he said.

Moorcroft’s Pinnacle Bank closed their lobby Thursday for safety reasons. “Several of our employees live out of town so we just had the drive up open on Thursday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.,” explained representative Stephanie Williams. The bank was open for their normal business hours on Friday.

By the time of last week’s storm, around 20 of the antelope that came to town a couple of weeks ago seeking food had already starved to death in town limits. Moorcroft maintenance crews removed the carcasses to the landfill.

This was the latest storm in a long and heavy winter; with warmer breezes blowing and temperatures climbing, the snow melt is starting. Citizens will see flooding of the Belle Fourche as well as ponds and lakes along the lowlands in this beautiful and seemingly long awaited Wyoming spring.