What a mess!
What a mess!
April goes out like a lion, zaps power across the northwest
By MARVIN BAKER
EDITOR
While most people were protecting their property from flood water not seen in North Dakota since 1997, nobody was expecting an intense late-season storm that slammed most of the western third of North Dakota with heavy rain, freezing rain, heavy snowfall and gale-force wind.
Some communities in the state received as much as 18 inches of new snow in the season’s worst storm, while others were sparred from the intensity but still received precipitation. New Town and Parshall received snowfall, and although no official total was declared, estimates place 6 to 8 inches of snow across the southern part of Mountrail County.
The storm closed roads, snapped power lines, knocking out electricity to more than 20,000 customers in northwestern North Dakota and caused numerous traffic accidents that resulted in at least one fatality. Several county commissions, including Mountrail, declared disasters and on Tuesday, Gov. Jack Dalrymple declared a storm disaster in 40 of the state’s 53 counties
