Weather conditions last week prompted several road closures, including I-25. (Photo/Amber Ningen)

The heavy snowstorm last week yielded a wide variety of snowfall throughout Platte County and also prompted several emergency calls for the Platte County Sheriff\'s Office.

For snowfall, depth reports to the National Weather Service in Cheyenne ranged from 11-13 inch reports for Wheatland, a report of six inches six miles northeast of Glendo, 16 inches at the Sybille Research Center west of Wheatland, and the deepest report coming from Chugwater, where an estimated 20 inches of snowfall was seen.

National Weather Service Meteorologist Mike Weiland said the storm will likely yield 8/10 of an inch to 1.5 inches of moisture for the area, although precipitation levels do vary.

According to Jeff Goetz, public involvement specialist for WYDOT District 2, the altogether 11 plow trucks were all in use by the Wheatland plow crew during the storm.

Goetz said 12 workers averaged about 18 hours each for overtime.

Regarding roads, Goetz stated that I-25 was closed on Oct. 28 at 7:30 p.m. and southbound lanes were opened on Oct. 30 at 1:38 p.m. The northbound lanes never closed.

Highway 34 was closed at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 28 and reopened on Oct. 29 at 9:30 a.m. The highway was closed again on Oct. 30 at 8:08 a.m. and reopened that day at 1:40 p.m.

Goetz said Highway 319 was closed on Oct. 29 at 3:05 p.m. and reopened Oct. 30 at 1:49 p.m.

Highway 26 was never closed.

According to Platte County Emergency Coordinator Jane Carlson, the majority of response calls received by the Sheriff\'s Office were due to unnecessary travel on the roads.

\"Stay home unless you have to get out,\" she emphasized, also reminding drivers that in-town conditions do not reflect highway or county road conditions.

According to Carlson, the \"biggest problem\" the Sheriff\'s Office had was due to drivers getting stuck on side or frontage roads in attempts to access closed highways. She added that drivers stuck on highways were also a high-danger issue, as snowplows could hit vehicles before they were seen.

Emergency situations included a Search and Rescue dispatch on Friday night, Carlson said, but the individual was found without injury.

While there were a number of dispatches, Carlson said that overall Platte County was well prepared for the storm. She said this was due to both early warning from the National Weather Service, as well as the efforts of the Wyoming Department of Transportation, and preparations for the storm began as soon as weather alerts were issued.

Weiland said the Weather Service tries to send out as much notice as possible.

According to Weiland, the Weather Service can usually release storm warnings up to a week in advance, although the actual impact of the storm is not always known at that time.

Platte County has recently implemented an emergency shelter plan.





For the complete article see the 11-04-2009 issue.

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