MPR’s Steve Monroe reports on numerous towers toppled in southwestern Minnesota by winter storms, including the KRSW 700 ft broadcast tower. A combination of freezing rain and high winds were too much for numerous radio and TV towers in Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota.
While freezing rain was the issue in southern part of state, the storms from March 23-24, and March 26-29, 1975, brought blizzards to northern Minnesota. 100 mph winds and 20 ft waves on Lake Superior dumped a foot of snow and created zero visibility near Duluth.
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STEVE MONROE : A combination of freezing rain and strong winds toppled KRSW's 700-foot Chandler, Minnesota broadcast tower last night, putting KRSW off the air indefinitely. A coating of ice made the tower vulnerable to the southeasterly winds, which caused it to buckle in the middle.
KRSW, which serves southwestern Minnesota, southeastern South Dakota, and Northwestern Iowa, had been on the air since December of 1973. The KRSW tower was one of several in Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota to go down during a nasty spring storm, which brought heavy, wet snow, and freezing rain along with high winds.
A 700-foot TV translator tower at Saint James was downed, as was a 1,500-foot TV tower at Salem, South Dakota. Radio towers in Waterloo in Des Moines, Iowa were also toppled. The spring storm also caused problems for power and phone company linemen. Two inches of ice accumulated on many lines, causing loss of electrical and telephone service to a number of communities.
Residents of our area with fresh memories of the January 10 Arctic hurricane had laid in supplies and taken shelter in anticipation of another devastating blizzard. Schools were closed, along with many businesses. Meetings were canceled and travel was not advised. But the latest storm did not, by any stretch of the imagination, match the ferocity of the January 10 blizzard.
Expected heavy snowfall did not occur and warm temperatures caused snow to turn to rain and freezing rain. You might say, residents of this region were psyched out by winter this time, and that the latest storm, for the most part, caused more fear than damage.
This is Steve Monroe in Worthington.