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US battles after heavy snowfall
02/01/2007 18:09 - (SA)
Nebraska - Utility crews struggled to restore electrical service to tens of thousands of homes on Tuesday as grocery store shelves went bare and ranchers tried to reach hungry cattle isolated after a blizzard dumped about 90cm of snow on the US Midwest and Colorado.
No one wants a repeat of 1997, when a blizzard killed up to 30 000 farm animals and cost farmers and ranchers an estimated $28m, said Polly White of the Colorado division of emergency management.
Planes have been searching snow-covered highways and fields for stranded travellers and using heat-sensing equipment to locate farm animals in need of food.
National Guard and state workers were preparing to bring groceries into snowbound areas with Humvees.
Hay could be dropped by military planes or helicopters or delivered by snowmobile.
Colorado National Guard general Mason Whitney said Oklahoma sent helicopters to help.
Back-to-back blizzards
Ice and heavy snow bent electrical towers and downed hundreds of kilometres of power lines.
At least 60 000 homes and businesses in western Kansas and 15 000 in Nebraska were without electricity, and some utility officials warned restoring it could take more than a week.
Slightly warmer temperatures on Monday helped workers trying to re-open the roads, said Kansas department of transportation spokesperson Ron Kaufman.
In southeastern Colorado, the roof of an assisted living centre collapsed, but there were no reports of injuries, White said. The centre is attached to a nursing home, and residents were moved there.
The Colorado National Guard, which the governor activated twice in one week because of the back-to-back blizzards, helped carry emergency supplies such as medicine and baby formula to isolated homes, said colonel Hans Kallam.
- AP
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