Buffalo bands together in snowy aftermath

BUFFALO — Everyone had heard the weather reports. They knew it was going to be bad.

But when the entire city went dark about 10 p.m. Friday, Buffalo residents knew they would have to wait until daylight to see how the snow measured up.

What Harper County Emergency Director Conyetta Lehenbauer found was that with nearly 2 feet of snow throughout most of the county, it was worse than she feared.

Heavy snow collapsed roofs at a nursing home and a school, as well as other buildings. Roads were closed. Power was out. And generators for emergency responders were also getting bogged down by the snow still falling Saturday. Hospitals, police and emergency responders were all in danger of losing power.

"We knew we had to get Buffalo up and running, but the roads were so extreme, no one could drive on them,” she said.

Restoring power

County officials sent out Transportation Department snow plows to the homes of electrical workers to make trails to the electrical substation to help restore power.

"They responded real quickly and got most of the power back on in a couple of hours,” Lehenbauer said of the workers.

Shortly after power had been restored for most of the city, the sun came out. Surprisingly, that’s when problems started, she said.

As sunlight melted the snow, the added weight of shifting water proved to be too much for some of the roofs that had been supporting 20 inches of snowfall. Soon, authorities got a call saying that the roof of a local nursing home was collapsing.

But because roads still weren’t clear, Lehenbauer said, crews had to dig local firefighters out of their homes to get enough people to respond to the partially collapsed roof at the nursing home, where elderly people inside were in danger.

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