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Big dig

Subhead
Two major storms bury region under more than a foot of snow in past week
Lead Summary
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By
Lori Sorenson

Rock County residents and a good share of the upper Midwest are still digging out from a winter storm that crippled the region last week.
The one-two punch of heavy snow Wednesday followed by more snow and driving winds Saturday combined to shut down major travel corridors and cancel churches, school, meetings, commerce and related activities.
Snowfall totals vary widely throughout southwest Minnesota, but 10 inches on Wednesday, Feb. 20, is a generally reported figure in Rock County, followed by several more inches over the weekend.
All this accumulated snow ended up blowing and drifting when winds cranked up to 35 mph later on Saturday.
Hundreds of motorists were stranded across the state when visibility shrank to zero and truck-sized drifts began forming on roadways.
Most county and township roads were impassable by Sunday, and major thoroughfares like Highway 75 were reduced to one lane in many areas where monster snowdrifts had accumulated.
According to Minnesota’s 511 road condition information, dozens of roads — including portions of I-90 — were closed statewide Saturday and Sunday and no travel was advised in the southern half of the state through Monday morning.
As of Monday afternoon, state crews were still working to clear the southbound lanes of Highway 75 between Luverne and Hardwick.
That scenario was repeated on roadways all over the state and upper Midwest as traffic patterns slowly returned to normal.
Wednesday, Feb. 20, and Monday, Feb. 25, were the fifth and sixth snow days so far this winter in the Luverne School District.
Hills-Beaver Creek and Ellsworth district have had seven snow days and Adrian has had 10.
School boards in the affected districts will have to decide how these days will be made up in the student-teacher contact calendar.
Temperatures in the teens and single digits over the next 10 days will mean the walls of snow along sidewalks and roads will remain intact for at least a week.

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