Blizzard hits area hard

While snow accumulation wasn’t extremely high, it was the strong winds for several days that resulted in blizzard conditions, closing highways and drifting in residents. The snow came down on Wednesday and Thursday with the winds sailing through Friday and Saturday creating whiteout conditions and huge drifts. Highways west and south of Winthrop to the borders of South Dakota and Iowa were closed to the blizzard conditions. The semi below was only able to cross the Highway 15 and 19 intersection because of a large drift across Highway 19. Above: Where did the house go? There were giant drifts on the north side of Winthrop. This one was on Eighth Street in front of Dave and Sue Bengtson’s house. Winthrop had 14 people that were stranded at city hall on Friday and the fire department responded to a car fire just north of Winthrop. There were no reports of anyone having to stay at the Gibbon Community Center during the storm. It was estimated that five people were standed at the Lafayette Fire Barn before being dispersed to homes in town. Photos by Michael Mattison