These photos were taken about 3 days after the Blizzard Atlas
In Part 1 of this story, our family was fortunate to receive power back right away the first night of the storm. I have no idea why we got to keep our power and over 28,000 other people lost theirs (16,000 in Rapid City alone) for days on end but we were so grateful to God because the cabin we evacuated to became our refuge. Over the next 5 days this little cabin covered in fallen trees became our homing beacon in the middle of tragedy.
The first day there wasn't much to be done but assess the damage and start shoveling. My parents left our little cabin early the morning after the storm and literally dragged food that my mom had wrapped in a sheet back to the cabin from their house. Three feet of snow is no easy feat to walk through. They were tired and somber when they walked through the door after being gone for not quite an hour. I was anxiously awaiting their arrival to hear if the big Cottonwood tree had indeed fallen on the house and when they walked in the door that was my first apprehensive question to them. I was so relieved to hear that the house was ok. The tree was still standing. However, that seemed to be the only tree left standing. We started expecting the worst - holes in roofs, smashed cars, broken windows - knowing the damage was likely. That first day was spent shoveling people out so they could walk to their cars to charge their phones and eventually, after the ban on driving was lifted a couple days later, drive their cars to work. The snow was HEAVY so by the end of day 1, we were all exhausted. Throughout the day though the cabin was available so we could come back, warm up, drink some hot coffee and rejuvenate before heading back out. I think the kids really helped lift people's spirits too. They were seemingly unaffected by any of the craziness and as result, acted as a point of "normalcy" in the midst of everything abnormal.
Day 2 the snow started to melt.
A little river running through the front yard of the home we are staying in.
Keep in mind the storm never got that cold. Sure it was cold enough to freeze the rain into snow but just barely. The reason for the breaking branches was in large part due to the heaviness of the snow. The other cause was the fact that none of the trees had lost any leaves yet so the weight was too much to bare for those big beautiful, very healthy, trees. It was a good thing so much snow was shoveled the first because by the second day it was exceedingly harder to move the weight of the snow. We decided it was better to just wait for the snow to melt, which it would in just a few days time.
The second day the kids finally ventured outside for their first snowfall of the season. They were quite excited, especially Jayden, who would jump into the snow and just roll around screaming. They couldn't stop eating the snow either. I tried to teach them the rules about eating snow but they didn't care. It all went in their mouth so after awhile a "no eating snow at all" rule was enforced. I was so grateful that I had already purchased the kids snow gear so we could have this opportunity to play out in the snow without getting soaking wet right away.
Ava didn't have any boots yet, and still doesn't actually, so plastic bags worked well to keep her little feet warm.
You can see some of the downed trees behind Jayden. They look like bushes but they're actually huge branches.
As day 2 came to an end, we were beginning to realize something surprising, at least at my parent's property. (Due to the driving ban, we didn't know yet what the rest of the city looked like.) Roofs were intact. Cars were barely scratched. Windows were unscathed. In fact, the damage to the trees, which covered almost every home and cabin and RV on the property, somehow did not cause major damage to anything else. (My parents' BBQ grill did become a statistic of the storm unfortunately when the entire top of a spruce tree fell on the deck onto the grill.)
Over the next several days the goal was to clear the roads so the power company could access the power lines and get the electricity back on for the rest of the people at the property. It was hard, depressing work as it became more and more clear just how few trees would be left standing after the clean-up was completed. I spent the days working in the cabin and occasionally went to a coffee shop to check and send emails. It was interesting to me how the rest of the country was so unaware of what was happening in South Dakota, but not too surprising really. South Dakota isn't a prominent state after all and the media barely covered the Winter Storm Atlas, the first snowstorm of the year. The kids spent time at my in laws and DJ, my brother and my parents spent days clearing debris. School was cancelled for a total of 3 days - the day of the storm and two days of the following week to clear the roads.
Papa reading a book to Jayden one evening before bedtime in the cabin.
Grandma showing Jayden how to make a proper snow angel. Is that a devoted Grandma or what?? No snow pants or anything!
By day 6, the electricity was turned on, most of the snow was melted and we moved back to our respective homes. Our family didn't have water until another day or two because our pump house was missed when the power company came to fix the power lines. Thankfully my father in law works for the power company so he was able to make sure that they came back to finish the one little pump house. Otherwise it might have been another week before they realized it was still without power!
Over a month later and the clean-up has come to a stand still, at least at the campground. It will continue here at the campground once the ground freezes and heavy machinery can safely travel on the grassy areas. But for now it's on hold. The whole city was a flurry of activity over the past 4 weeks, especially on the weekends, when people weren't busy with their other jobs.
This is a picture of a parking lot that was designated as a drop-off spot for the branches. This was one week after the storm. I don't have a picture of what it looked like a couple of weeks in but this particular pile tripled in size (at least) and then there was another one behind it and across from it that matched in size. It was staggering. Slowly the branch piles were turned into steaming piles of mulch and this weekend will be the last weekend they will use this site as a drop-off area.
Thankfully, the campground is my parent's job (or not so thankfully since the storm somewhat destroyed their livelihood) but they were able to put 100% of their time and energy into cleaning the place up, which is what it took. All day, every day for 4 weeks, my mom, dad and brother worked to fix what the storm destroyed. The clean-up was emotionally taxing for them (not to mention the financial impact...have you ever purchased a tree?? If so, you know how expensive they are. Now imagine a few acres of trees...) given that they had spent the last 20+ years growing little baby trees into big beautiful trees and in one day, that hard work was torn to the ground.
It's horribly sad to see so many hard working ranchers affected so tragically by something so unexpected. Thankfully we live in a state filled with people who are accustomed to pulling themselves out of a tough spot, and South Dakotans are bonding together to help them.
This blizzard was one of the worst South Dakota has ever seen both in terms of snowfall and financial loss. It will take a long time for the city to look like it once did. And I can't help but compare our little storm to the massive storm the Philippines just went through. I struggle with the words to voice my thoughts because I don't want to sound callous as if I am somehow saying that I've gone through what the Filipinos are going through. The snow did not cripple our city for very long and thankfully, only one man's death, as opposed to many, is being attributed to the storm. Because we are not ranchers, we can look back on this storm, be amazed that it happened, be sad that the trees are gone but basically move on. We are fortunate but I feel like it could have been so much worse especially if it had been very cold. Being a very visual person, having gone through a storm that was devastating in other ways helps me to understand what the Filipinos are going through. They were not as fortunate. Instead of cows, the Filipinos lost people - loved ones. And I am just heartbroken over their loss. We are doing what we can to help them across the distance and we will continue to pray for them. I'm grateful for our experience so that I can better sympathize with their experience.
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