MPR’s Tom Fudge traverses through the snow in St. Paul to get numerous individuals reactions on the large snowstorm that has hit city. Interviews include a shoveling local resident; a stuck bus driver; a happy skier; a busy liquor store owner; and Ron Gardenhire, Minnesota Twins third base coach, who just wants to go home to Kansas but can’t get his car out of the snow.
Lore has claimed it as “The Halloween Blizzard,” and Minnesotan memories and tales have only increased with the passage of time. Snow started falling on the morning of October 31, 1991. By midnight, the storm had dumped 8.2 inches of snow at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, breaking the record for the most snow on that date. By the time it was all done three days later, the storm had dumped more than 2 feet of snow in the Twin Cities and 3 feet in Duluth. The North Shore city’s 36.9-inch snowfall set a record at the time as the largest single snowstorm total for Minnesota.
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TOM FUDGE: The snow was still falling, but many St. Paul residents were already out making war on it. All along the main through streets and the back streets, people were plunging snow shovels into the two-foot drifts that had corralled their automobiles and made it hard to open the front door. Al Mackie of St. Paul said he was up at 3 o'clock in the morning, shoveling. The 68-year-old retiree says this storm is the worst he's seen.
AL MACKIE: I'm ready to move to Florida. These winters are too long. When you get a snow like this, you don't want to-- you want to get out of here, unless you're a ski man or an outdoor man. When you get older, you want to get somewhere where it's warm.
TOM FUDGE: Minnesota Twins' third base coach Ron Gardenhire was hoping he'd be able to leave town. He had flown into the Twin Cities Monday night after attending a White House reception in Washington. He says he soon realized that he'd have to change his subsequent plans.
RON GARDENHIRE: We didn't plan on it being this much. By this morning, I thought I was going to be leaving town and going back to Kansas. But I can't get either one of my cars out.
TOM FUDGE: I see. Is that your home?
RON GARDENHIRE: Yeah, we live in Wichita, Kansas during the winter. And like I said, I can't get them out. Your weather got me.
TOM FUDGE: Some people did manage to make it to work, but one MTC bus driver said it was hardly worth it. The driver, who didn't want to give his name, got to work at 5:00 AM and ended up getting stuck for two hours in the Highland Park neighborhood of St. Paul. After a tow truck finally got him back on the road, he got stuck once again after only two miles.
SPEAKER: I stopped to pick up a lady and put the accelerator on, and it just went to the side. As soon as you step on it or drive on it, it turns to ice right now. It's glare ice too.
TOM FUDGE: Some people made the best of a bad situation. Elizabeth Maher says she'd normally have to go into work, but she took the day off to do some cross-country skiing through the city's streets.
ELIZABETH MAHER: I love it, it's my favorite time to ski. It's a great way to see the neighborhood, people out shoveling out their cars and stuff. It's fun.
TOM FUDGE: And while many shops along St. Paul's Grand Avenue were closed, Ramali Liquor Store was open, and store owner Sue Hosler said business was brisk.
SUE HOSLER: Busy, really busy. Nobody's working, so they're all drinking.
TOM FUDGE: In St. Paul, this is Tom Fudge.