'Brrrr!' turns to buried

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Snow replaced subzero temperatures as the top concern among local residents as the largest snowfall of the year limited visibility and made traveling difficult.

Last week, temperatures fell below zero for the better part of the week, forcing many people to either bundle up to keep warm or stay at home.

Monday morning found many people shoveling several inches of white, fluffy sidewalks, snow-blowing driveways and scraping off their cars before heading off to school or to work.

New Ulm City officials declared a downtown snow emergency on Monday. Snow will be windrowed into the middle of the street on Tuesday on the east side of Broadway. Snow pickup and removal will begin on Wednesday.

While the snowfall may have caused hundreds of spinouts and accidents in the Twin Cities area, the weather did not prove as dangerous in the New Ulm area.

The steady influx of frosty flakes kept snowplow crews working around the clock. MnDOT snow plows were working on area roads beginning early on Saturday and Sunday, according to maintenance engineer Gary Martinson. He said crews began working at 3 a.m. Monday in nine-hour shifts. He said that while much of the snowfall stopped late in the afternoon, high winds and snowdrifts mean crews had to turn around and do their work over again.

"Right now, we're going around in circles," he said Monday afternoon. "We plow and then finish and go back out again."

A total of 8.2 inches of snow have fallen on New Ulm since 8 p.m. Saturday, with 4.3 inches falling on Monday, according to National Weather Service observer Lonnie Spaeth. All of the public and parochial schools in the area were closed Monday.

The State Patrol in Mankato reported in between 25 and 30 minor traffic accidents by 1:30 p.m. State troopers in Marshall saw about six accidents with similar damage Monday afternoon.

Dispatchers for many county sheriffs departments in the area said they did not see any traffic accidents as of 6:45 p.m. Locally, New Ulm police went to five traffic accidents. The Brown County Sheriff's Department had not seen a traffic accident, either. No injuries were reported.