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Started by Anonyma
Sat, 30 Dec 2006 01:38
Storms Foster Cautious Optimism On Drought-Stricken Plains
Author: Anonyma
Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2006 01:38
Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2006 01:38
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Storms Foster Cautious Optimism On Drought-Stricken Plains POSTED: 4:21 pm MST December 29, 2006 DENVER -- As long as the cattle are safe and the electricity stays on, Cindy Rundell and other farmers are happy for the series of snow storms that have swept the eastern face of the Rockies and plains of Colorado the past week. It's been a while since the plains east of Denver have received much early-winter moisture. They're among the hardest hit areas in the state's ongoing drought. "We like the moisture," Rundell said. She and her family raise cattle and wheat south of Lamar in southeastern Colorado. If they don't blow away, the layers of snow dropped by the storms will provide moisture and protection for the wheat growing underground. "It pretty much makes the wheat crop, if we don't have a dry spring," Rundell said. The central and western mountains, though, didn't make out as well in the recent rounds of storms. "It really hasn't brought much moisture to western Colorado. It's really a Front Range and eastern plains storm scenario," said Nolan Doesken, state climatologist and Colorado State University researcher. Doesken said a bonus for the plains is the 1 to 2 inches of moisture in the snow. That's more water than December snows typically contain and comes in part from moisture absorbed from the Gulf Coast. "That ends up being equivalent to what they get in four months in midwinter," Doesken said. The storms have boosted the snowpack east of the Continental Divide, unleashing several feet of snow in the foothills of the Rockies and the Front Range. The snowpack in the South Platte River Basin, which takes in the Denver area, foothills and part of northeastern Colorado, was 134 percent of average Friday, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service. The snowpack measured 85 percent of average in the Yampa and White river basins, which encompass the north-central and northwestern mountains. The readings are based on percentages of a 30-year average and are closely watched because the state's snowpack provides most of Colorado's water and water for other Western states. Even though moisture is up in eastern Colorado, climate and engineering experts cautioned that a couple blizzards won't snap the drought. "When early snowpack is raised like that, it has to be sustained. You can't just think this is going to take care of everything," said Neil Grigg, a civil engineering professor at Colorado State and a water resources engineering consultant.
Re: Storms Foster Cautious Optimism On Drought-Stricken Plains` - BoBo Stikes out!
Author: chatnoir
Date: Wed, 03 Jan 2007 09:50
Date: Wed, 03 Jan 2007 09:50
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Anonyma wrote: > Storms Foster Cautious Optimism On Drought-Stricken Plains > > POSTED: 4:21 pm MST December 29, 2006 > > DENVER -- As long as the cattle are safe and the electricity stays on, > Cindy Rundell and other farmers are happy for the series of snow storms > that have swept the eastern face of the Rockies and plains of Colorado the > past week. > http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070103/ap_on_re_us/winter_storms National Guard brings food to snowbound By CHASE SQUIRES, Associated Press Writer 9 minutes ago LAMAR, Colo. - Colorado Army National Guard crew chief Nick Cornelius is spending this week doing something he wasn't trained to do: tossing bundles of hay out the back of an attack helicopter. Bale after bale, about 500 in all, tumbled from choppers above snowbound southeastern Colorado in a battle to save thousands of head of cattle - and the regional economy - from the devastation of a winter storm that has held parts of the plains in a frigid grip. Rescue and aid operations for people and livestock were to continue Wednesday, while utilities in sections of Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Colorado worked round the clock to restore electricity to tens of thousands of homes and businesses. Ten traffic deaths were blamed on the latest storm in Colorado, Texas and Minnesota. A tornado spun off by the same weather system killed one person in Texas, and a Kansas sheriff's deputy died in his home after falling down the stairs while tending to a generator. With rising temperatures, highways were generally clear, but many rural roads remained impassable. National Guard helicopters dropped Meals Ready to Eat, or military rations, outside remote houses, where the nearest neighbor might be miles away. The Guard also ferried in food, water and medicine on Humvees and snowmobiles and provided rides out for those in need. "It's the middle of nowhere. You lose the power, you might as well be in 1885," said Sgt. 1st Class Steve Segin said. "There's no cell phone, no lights, no contact." The Guard in Colorado reached at least 280 homes Tuesday. Officials hope the haylift will save thousands of cattle immobilized by drifts as high as 10 feet. In 1997, a similar storm killed 30,000 in the state. Getting food to stranded cattle is key to protecting the region's economic lifeblood, said agricultural extension agent Leonard Pruett. Up to $1.8 billion in cattle are on the line, most of them breeding cows that will produce next year's crop of beef cattle. Trapped by snow, cattle can become dehydrated and gravitate to creeks, where they might stumble into deep drifts and die. Dropping a 75-pound bale of hay 200 feet to a cow struggling in a snowdrift isn't a routine National Guard operation and requires a fair degree of precision, Cornelius said. "You try not to hit them," he said. In the Oklahoma Panhandle and western Kansas, National Guard troops and local law enforcement went door to door to check on people who had been without power for several days. People who might have medical problems were a priority, said Oklahoma National Guard spokesman Col. Pat Scully. Ice in some areas was even more problematic than the snow, snapping trees and bringing down power lines. In Nebraska, big portable generators were set up to maintain water service and keep shelters open. More than a dozen Kansas radio stations were forced off the air due to equipment icing. In an aerial tour, Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman said Tuesday that he saw damage "more massive and more extensive than any of us imagined," noting that in some areas ice was 3 inches thick on trees. Heineman had declared a state of emergency before the storm struck. At least 21,000 customers in western Kansas were without power, as were at least 29,000 customers in Nebraska and more than 6,000 in Colorado and Oklahoma. Utility officials warned it could take weeks to restore electricity in some areas. In the western Nebraska town of Kearney, Patrick Keough, 49, was one of 10 people in his family sharing three rooms at the Ramada Inn. There was no power at his house east of Kearney or at his shop, where he makes fiberglass animals for advertising. "Hardly anybody got any snow," Keough said. "It's all just ice. Even the gravel roads are a sheet of ice, because the gravel is below the level of the ice. I've never seen that in my life."
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