Minnesota Prairie Roots

Writing and photography by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

Ongoing stories of flood recovery in Hammond, Jarrett and Zumbro Falls January 5, 2011

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 8:50 AM
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THREE MONTHS AGO I met four strong women from Wabasha County.

They had survived devastating late September floods that ravaged their communities and left two of them homeless.

Since then, I’ve kept in contact with one of those survivors, Katie Shones of tiny Hammond. The floodwaters of the Zumbro River stopped within feet of her front door. Now, that might be enough for Katie to breathe a sigh of relief and continue on with her life. But not Katie. She cares about her hamlet of Hammond and the residents she considers family.

 

A flood-damaged home and garage in Hammond, along the same street where Katie Shones and her family live. I took this photo only 2 1/2 weeks after the late September flood devastated the area.

I CARE, TOO, and I’ve promised Katie that I will continue telling the story of this region. In the always changing world of natural disasters, we quickly forget about a flood or an earthquake or a tornado as they all blend seamlessly together. That may sound harsh, but I know it is honest reality.

Katie e-mailed a few days ago, after I selected eight posts on the September flooding as my personal favorite Minnesota Prairie Roots stories for 2010.

In her message, Katie updated me on the recovery situation in Hammond and neighboring Zumbro Falls and Jarrett.

First, she tells me that her brother and his wife, whose main street Zumbro Falls home had water almost up to the first floor ceiling, have purchased a home “way high up on the hill” two miles south of Zumbro Falls. Did you catch that “way high up on the hill” part?

Her dear friend and family, who were living in a hotel and making mortgage payments on an uninhabitable residence, returned to their Hammond home the day after Christmas. “They are so grateful to be back,” Katie writes.

Another resident has moved into a new trailer house on her lot in Hammond. Some 80 percent of the homes and most of the businesses in the community of 230 were flooded.

Katie’s mother-in-law is still shuttling between family members’ homes and hasn’t decided what she will do. Her home of 53 years, two miles down river from Jarrett, had floodwaters flowing out of first floor windows.

Susie Shones, whom I interviewed and who is married to Katie’s husband’s cousin, is now temporarily renting a trailer home above Jarrett. Six feet of floodwaters forced Susie and her husband out of their first Jarrett rental house. Ironically, says Katie, the limestone bluffs surrounding Hammond and Jarrett are among the highest elevation points in Wabasha County.

Businesses along the street where Katie lives are beginning to recover. The bank has reopened. The bar is expected to reopen in March. And the restaurant owner is hard at work remodeling his building.

 

Minnwest Bank in Hammond, by Katie's home, has reopened.

The partially-gutted restaurant interior, photographed on October 10, 2010, is now being renovated.

“OTHER THAN THAT, not much happening in Hammond and the surrounding area due to the weather,” Katie writes. “Hammond continues to look like a ghost town. Every other street light is shut off and the majority of the homes are dark. I keep expecting to see coyotes roaming the streets……”

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Heading back home to the southwestern Minnesota prairie for Christmas December 26, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 3:44 PM
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We drove along U.S. Highway 14 as we traveled to southwestern Minnesota for Christmas. This stretch is between the Sanborn corners and Lamberton.

FOR THE FIRST TIME in decades, my family and I celebrated Christmas Eve with my mom and four of my five siblings, and their families, “back home” on the southwestern Minnesota prairie.

It was my mom’s wish that all of us be there, attending Christmas Eve church services with her at our home church, St. John’s Lutheran in Vesta.

Our Christmas together was as wonderful and memorable and as full of laughter and love as I expected it would be.

Initially, I doubted that we would make the 2 ½-hour trip west given the steady snow that began falling early Christmas Eve, slicking the highways and creating difficult driving conditions. But by the time we left Faribault around 2:30 p.m. Friday, the snow had stopped and major highways were clear.

So, with the trunk packed full of luggage, air mattresses and sleeping bags, presents and coolers, the five of us crammed ourselves into the car (along with pillows and board games on our laps) for the journey to Redwood County. We were headed first to my brother’s house just north of Lamberton.

When we got to New Ulm, nearly 1 ½ hours into the trip, I dug my camera out of the camera bag wedged near my feet and snapped occasional photos of the prairie. It is the land I most love—the place my kids call “the middle of nowhere.”

A train travels east along U.S. Highway 14 between Essig and Sleepy Eye while we travel west.

I love this land of plowed fields and wide open spaces, of small-town grain elevators occasionally punctuating the vast skies, of cozy farm sites sheltered by barren trees.

I love, especially, the red barns accented by the fresh-fallen snow, portraying an agrarian beauty that perhaps only someone who grew up on a farm can appreciate.

As much as I have disliked all of the snow we’ve had this winter, I saw only a beautiful winter wonderland when I was back home for Christmas on the prairie.

The sun begins setting over the prairie as we head west, passing through Sleepy Eye and Springfield before reaching Lamberton. We saw only occasional glimpses of sun on a mostly gray day.

The elevators in Sleepy Eye. Small-town prairie elevators like this can be seen for miles away.

One of many picturesque barns along U.S. Highway 14.

Elevators and trains are a common site along U.S. Highway 14 in the rich farmland of southwestern Minnesota. We've nearly reached our destination when I photograph this elevator complex near sunset.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Shoveling snow boulders December 22, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:09 PM
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I’VE JUST COME in from shoveling snow. Nearly 1 ½ hours of scrape and lift and throw. Or bend and scoop and carry and throw.

I could have waited for my husband to do this after work. But he works hard all day and tonight he will have about 45 minutes to eat and shower before leaving for a church meeting. Honestly, who schedules a meeting during Christmas week?

But that is another topic for another day. Today I am focusing on the snow which the city plow scraped from the street and deposited at the end of our driveway and sidewalk. This would be boulder-sized chunks of compacted snow seasoned with salt and sand.

As I labored to clear away the mounds of snow, I grunted and sighed. My back ached. My right hip hurt from the stooping and twisting.  When I stopped occasionally to lean against the scoop shovel handle, I breathed in deeply.

Then I forged onward, determined that this snow would not get the best of me. Soon I was sweating. Even my hands. I unbuttoned by wool pea coat.

I carried more shovels full of snow boulders up the slight incline of the driveway apron. I heaved the snow chunks onto the snow along the sides of the driveway because I could no longer toss it atop the roadside mountains. Finally, I finished…then realized I also needed to open the sidewalk.

When I saw that mountain of snow before me, I nearly gave up and walked away. But, instead, I dug in, determined. Scoop, carry, throw. Scoop, carry, throw. Scoop, carry, throw.

Soon I removed my coat and tossed it atop the snow. Still sweating, I also ditched my stocking cap.

While I worked, I tried to think of some clever sign to post in the yard, for all to see along my busy street. Here are some of my ideas:

FREE SNOW

ENOUGH ALREADY

AND THIS IS ONLY THE SECOND DAY OF WINTER?

WHY WAS SNOW SO MUCH MORE FUN WHEN I WAS A KID?

GET FIT. INQUIRE HERE.

Then, when I finished, I stashed the shovels in the garage, snapped some photos of the major ice dams and icicles hanging from our house (another job for another day) and tossed down three hands full of chocolate chips. After all that shoveling, I deserved some chocolate.

#

WHAT WOULD YOU WRITE on that snow sign I contemplated posting in my yard?

How do you reward yourself after shoveling snow? With chocolate, like me?

And, finally, my apologies to my brother-in-law Neil, who just returned from Iraq. He told me I was blogging (complaining) too much about the snow. He’s in Hawaii right now. Enough said.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

The snow angels of rural Minnesota

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 8:38 AM
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THEY ARE THE ANGELS of rural Minnesota.  The volunteer firefighters. The volunteer first responders. The volunteer ambulance crews.

If you don’t believe me, then spend some time in a place like Vesta, population around 330, on the southwestern Minnesota prairie where I grew up.  In small towns like this, the nearest clinic and hospital are often a 20-mile drive or more.

My mom still lives in my hometown and, because she’s getting up there in age, I worry about her. But that concern is offset somewhat by the knowledge that first responders will come to her aid in a medical emergency. And they have.

So when I read an article in the December 16 The Gaylord Hub, a community newspaper where I worked decades ago right out of college, I knew I had to share a story by reporter Lisa Uecker. She wrote about an ambulance trip from Gibbon to New Ulm during the December 11 blizzard.

Uecker is graciously permitting me to retell that story here. It’s worth your time to read for the lessons it teaches in dedication and care and how those in small towns will go the extra mile to assist their friends and neighbors.

In this instance, the miles, literally, were extra and a trip which should have taken perhaps 30 minutes became a 3 ½-hour ordeal.

The incident begins at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, December 11, during the height of the two-day blizzard. The volunteer Winthrop Ambulance Service receives a call to Gibbon some eight miles to the west. Once the crew reaches Gibbon and the patient, they backtrack to Winthrop knowing they must travel the longer, but safer, state highways rather than follow the shorter route along county roads. From Winthrop, they are headed 16 miles south along Minnesota State Highway 15 to the hospital in New Ulm.

A paramedic intercept is impossible, the crew learns, so snowplows are dispatched to meet the ambulance at the intersection of Highway 15 and Nicollet County Road 1 near Lafayette. One plow goes into the ditch. Another is low on fuel. The third has mechanical problems. None of the plows make it to the appointed rendezvous site.

 

If you're unfamiliar with Sibley and Nicollet counties, here's a map photo to show you the roadways and towns highlighted in this story.

The ambulance crew is on its own, traveling in white-out conditions near Klossner. The rescue vehicle soon becomes stuck on the shoulder. Because snowplows have been pulled off the roads, the Lafayette Fire Department comes to the rescue, freeing the ambulance with its pumper truck.

After passing Klossner, the ambulance gets stuck again, but the driver–ambulance captain and assistant Sibley County attorney Donald Lannoye–is able to rock the vehicle free.

Finally, at 6 p.m., the patient, who has been stable throughout the ride, is delivered to the New Ulm Medical Center.

The four-member volunteer ambulance crew spends the night in New Ulm.

In an interview with reporter Uecker, Lannoye says that once he passed Sibley County Road 8 right outside of Lafayette, he could never drive more than five miles per hour due to poor visibility and road conditions. The crew saw 11 – 15 cars in ditches and 4 – 6 cars stuck in traffic lanes near Lafayette.

Then Lannoye also reveals that his crew began their day at 5 a.m., transporting a patient on icy roads to Hutchinson.

If ever there was an outstanding example of the care and concern residents of rural Minnesota have for each other, then this would be it. We should all be thankful for volunteers like Lannoye, ambulance crew members Lisa Klenk and Todd Storms,  EMT-in-training Katie Uecker and Lafayette Volunteer Fire Department members who braved a blizzard to help their neighbors.

They are, indeed, snow angels.

IF YOU HAVE A STORY to share about how volunteers have helped you or someone you love, submit a comment. I’m certain there are many such stories out there.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling and Lisa Uecker

 

Grader and vehicle collide as more snow falls December 16, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 11:15 AM
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ABOUT 45 MINUTES AGO, while sitting at the dining room table proofing the winter edition of Minnesota Moments magazine, I heard the unmistakable bang and crunch of metal on metal.

I looked outside to see that a city grader and a passenger vehicle had collided at the intersection of Willow Street, a major arterial road in Faribault, and the side street by my corner house.

This City of Faribault grader and passenger vehicle collided at the intersection of Willow Street and Tower Place. By the time I grabbed my camera and got to the window, the grader had already backed up, out of the intersection.

I don’t know how the crash happened—it could have been anything.

But it’s slippery out there right now and the side street ends at the bottom of a hill.

Fortunately, no one was hurt and I don’t think the passenger vehicle sustained much damage. I didn’t tromp outdoors to look, though.

Yes, thick snow is falling here. Again. The snowfall began Wednesday evening. So, if you live in southeastern Minnesota, or anywhere else weather conditions are dicey, please be cautious.

Faribault police arrive at the crash scene around 9:45 a.m.

This truck, which was not involved in the crash, travels down the side street while the cop car remains parked on Willow Street wrapping up details following the collision.

WHAT ARE ROAD and weather conditions like in your neighborhood?

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Life in a snow socked Minnesota town December 12, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 6:39 PM
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A snow pile divides traffic lanes along Fourth Street/Minnesota Highway 60 a block from Central Avenue in Faribault Sunday morning. Trucks would later haul away the snow.

FIFTH BIGGEST SNOWFALL of all time in Minnesota. Windchill advisories in the double digits below zero. Mall of America Field roof collapses at 5 a.m. Sunday. No church services. More snow for mid-week.

The list goes on and on.

But we’re tough Minnesotans. We can deal with all of this, right?

I guess so.

Right now my back muscles ache from all the bending and lifting and throwing of snow. Shovels and shovels and shovels full of white stuff tossed from the driveway, the sidewalk, the steps, even from around the garbage cans buried to their lids.

I’m calling it a day now after a run out to the farm store for boots for the 16-year-old. It just didn’t seem right that he was upstairs sleeping this morning when the parents were outside, working for hours to dig out. But we couldn’t find a size that fit him, so he’s still bootless.

All of that aside, conditions are looking better in Faribault today. The snow stopped overnight, replaced now by bitter cold. Streets have been plowed and folks are out and about, navigating around corners piled so high with snow that if I was a kid, I would be playing King of the Mountain.

Snow piled in the street between the Knights of Columbus Hall and the Faribault Post Office around 9 a.m.

Cars buried in snow in a public parking lot across from the American Legion.

Snow runs down the center of the street by the Rice County Sheriff's Department.

Division Street in Faribault by the Community Co-op Oil Association, the library and the community center. Looks like a for sure white Christmas in Faribault.

Motorists had to navigate around snow in the middle of First Avenue N.E. in the downtown area of Faribault Sunday morning before trucks cleared the snow mounds from streets.

Just more snow in the street, moved there from parking lots and from the traffic lanes. This is on First Avenue N.W. by the NAPA store, just a block off Central Avenue in downtown Faribault.

A wall of snow separates traffic lanes on Minnesota Highway 60/First Avenue N.E. by the post office early Sunday morning. I shot this through the car windshield. I took all of the photos from inside the cozy car.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Snow clean-up continues in my Faribault neighborhood

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 12:17 PM
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My husband shovels the end of the sidewalk by our house while our neighbor works toward him with the snowblower. What a great neighbor.

SO…HOW HAS YOUR MORNING BEEN?

If you live in Minnesota or one of our neighboring states, I bet you’re digging out from one of our worst snowstorms in two decades.

I’m still trying to determine exactly how much snow fell in Faribault since this all began Friday night. The National Weather Service in Chanhassen lists 12 inches on its website, but I don’t believe that. I’d say we’re pushing more like 1 ½ feet. In all fairness to the NWS, an online note states these may not be final totals. Ya, think?

Anyway, after a frozen recoil mechanism, insufficient gas and then a broken starter rope delayed snowblowing at our house by about 1 ½ hours, we finally have the driveway and sidewalk cleared. Our neighbor’s is done too.

I did my share of shoveling heavy chunks of snow from the end of the driveway so we could get the car out and drive to the gas station for more gas. Boy, that was fun. Kind of like chiseling rock with a pick ax.

Well, I took a break from the shoveling because, despite dressing in layers (including my husband’s long johns), certain parts of my anatomy were beginning to feel a bit frozen.

My husband just stepped inside a few minutes ago to warm up and inform me that a sheer pin broke on the snowblower. Thank goodness he has extras in his toolbox or he’d have to visit the hardware store for the second time today.

He told me when we were down there earlier that a new snowblower would fit under the Christmas tree.

But I was quick with a comeback. “We don’t even have a Christmas tree.”

“Then for sure it will fit,” he shot back.

Yup, we’re sure having a fun day here in Faribault.

Our neighbor Mark blew his sidewalk and two sweeps down ours because, he says, he couldn't turn around half-way anyway. Sometimes we clear his too, for the same reason.

It's going to take a lot of shoveling before anyone can reach our front door. I've never seen this much snow on our sidewalk and steps. The city snowplow threw the chunks of snow onto our yard as it cleared the street.

Snow piled high by city snowplows make intersections, like this one by my house, dangerous. Vehicles coming off the side street onto busy Willow Street need to nose into the traffic lane to see oncoming traffic.

A block away from my home, a resident clears snow from the sidewalk.

I’LL POST MORE SNOW PHOTOS from Faribault later. But right now I need to go back outside and help my husband shovel the snow away on the front sidewalk and steps.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Digging out during a Minnesota blizzard December 11, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 9:11 PM
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“IT DOESN’T EVEN look like I blew the snow,” he assesses.

And it doesn’t. After a full day of falling snow and wind-whipped snow, our driveway appears untouched by a snowblower. But my husband was out once already, around mid-morning, clearing ours and the neighbor’s driveways.

Now he’s struggling to even get out the back door. Snow has drifted into the backyard and onto the back stoop and blocked the door. He leans against the storm door and pushes his way outside, into a world of swirling flakes and strong, bitter wind.

Minutes later Randy returns to the house asking for the hair dryer. Ice has formed in the recoil mechanism of the snowblower, he says, and he needs to melt the ice.

I follow him into the garage with my camera, realizing that this use of a blow dryer might appear rather amusing to someone who doesn’t live in Minnesota. I’ll note here that a hair dryer also comes in handy for thawing frozen car doors.

I snap a few pictures until my husband tells me he needs to start the snowblower before the recoil mechanism freezes again. I get the hint.

Randy uses a hair dryer to thaw the frozen recoil mechanism on the snowblower. Melted snow from earlier today dripped into the mechanism causing the problem.

A close-up of Randy thawing the recoil mechanism with a hair dryer.

I step back into the house, grab a yard stick and measure the snow depth off the back stoop. It measures 16 inches.

So far this is turning out to be one heckuva blizzard.

Snow drifts piled around our van as snow piled onto our driveway.

Randy makes his first pass, for the second time today, down the driveway around 7 p.m.

Randy begins his second pass down the driveway. He blew snow for an hour and then stopped because he's running low on gas. He needs enough gas to blow out the driveway in the morning so he can buy more gas to blow more snow and more snow and more snow.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Hunkering down during a Minnesota blizzard

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 2:58 PM
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My neighbor across the street shovels snow Saturday morning.

WELL, WELL, for the second weekend in a row, southern Minnesota has been socked with snow. A foot last weekend. Another foot, maybe more, for parts this weekend.

But round two brings with it a stronger punch—strong winds and dropping temps that make conditions out there downright dangerous. Windchills tonight are expected to plummet to a bone-chilling 35 degrees below zero.

In Rice County, where I live, county snowplows have been pulled from the roadways due to low visibility. Winds are whipping at about 30 mph.

I live in a valley in Faribault. So when conditions look bad at my place, I know it’s bad out there.

Today I’m hunkered down at home with my husband, Randy, and our 16-year-old son. Randy wasn’t too happy this morning when I suggested he stay home from work. (I was thinking of hiding the car keys.) But he heeded my advice and I’m thankful given he works 15 snowy miles away in Northfield. Of course, he tells me, “I could have made it there and back.”

Yeah, right. The job is not worth the risk of driving in blizzard conditions. And, yes, my area of Minnesota is under a blizzard warning.

I haven’t been outdoors yet. Randy has been out, blowing snow from our driveway and that of a neighbor. He thought it would be easier this way, clearing the snow twice rather than a foot or more all at once.

Our van, which is parked on the driveway, is encased in ice from the freezing rain and sleet that fell for several hours last evening.

All of our plans for the day have been abandoned. Our son should have been taking his ACT test, but that was canceled. The college entrance exams were canceled at more than 50 schools in Minnesota. The last time he was slated to take the test, he had to cancel because of bronchitis.

The Christmas Walk at Shattuck-St. Mary’s School in Faribault is off, but the ice skating show set for 4 p.m. was still on the last I checked. I had hoped to attend both, but right now I really don’t feel like going anywhere.

The big batch of chili I cooked yesterday for tonight’s Family Game Night potluck at my church has gone into the freezer after that event was postponed. I’ll serve the chili at a family gathering next weekend…if we don’t have another blizzard and my guests can make it.

That’s life in Minnesota in winter, folks.

Traffic has picked up along my street in Faribault this afternoon despite blizzard conditions.

I've seen plenty of pickups with attached snowplows, like this, drive past my house today.

STAY SAFE this weekend. And if you don’t need to travel, don’t.

IF YOU HAVE any winter weather stories or weather condition reports to share from your area, please submit a comment. I’d like to hear from you.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Snow for Amy in Kansas December 4, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 4:47 PM
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The snowy scene by my house this morning after an eight-inch snowfall.

Dear Amy,

You aren’t in Minnesota any more. As you’re well aware, you are in Kansas.

I’m sorry to hear that you are unhappy about the lack of snow there. I wish I could lead you down the yellow brick road to snowy Minnesota, where Christmas music sounds much more holiday-ish than in barren Kansas.

But I possess no special powers to transport you here.

So I will bring the snow to you via the magic of the internet.

Imagine the 25-degree temp, which will dip lower tonight. Imagine snow piles and icy sidewalks and sloppy, slippery roadways.

Now, are you still feeling so melancholy about the 50-degree temperatures and the lack of snow in Kansas?

Happy December, dear Amy, from southern Minnesota!

Love,

Your Other Mom

 

Faribault police on patrol Saturday morning along my street.

A neighbor down the street opens his driveway after the snowstorm.

Plow trucks were out and about and busy Saturday morning.

My husband sheered a bolt off in the snowblower just as he finished clearing the sidewalk Saturday morning.

Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling