Road crews make progress, but travel still dicey in parts of area

Chickasaw County road crews Monday began what will be a long cleanup process after a blizzard socked the area Saturday night and most of Sunday.
Dusten Rolando, the county engineer, said road crews spent much of the day working on hard-surfaced roads, but later Monday began tackling gravel roads.
“We’re starting to get to the side roads, but we’re not going to get to all of them today, not even close,” Rolando said. “We’re going to wrap up here sometime around 6 and be back at it tomorrow at 5 in the morning, but we definitely need another day. These guys have been working a lot of 12-, 13-hour days lately, and yeah, it’s taking a toll, it’s getting old.”
Rolando recommended no unnecessary travel, even after a stretch of U.S. Highway 63 was finally reopened Monday afternoon.
The highway was closed north of New Hampton to the Minnesota state line on Sunday, and even as motorists were allowed back on the road, the going was slow as the highway remained completely covered in snow and ice and was down to one lane in spots.
“When you have the amount of snow we had,” Rolando said, “and you throw 50 miles per hour winds on top of it, it’s going to make a mess, and that’s what we have right now. Give us another day and it’ll look better. We’re punching holes today and hopefully tomorrow we can really get going.”
Still, Monday was a much quieter weather day than Sunday was.
The storm dropped five inches of snow on New Hampton — bringing the city’s snowfall total since Jan. 18 to 56.5 inches — but it was those winds that caused havoc on area highways and roadways.
Both New Hampton hotels quickly filled up, and the Chickasaw County Emergency Management Department opened up an emergency shelter at Trinity Lutheran Church Sunday night, and more than 40 stranded motorists stayed at the church.
All four area school districts called off classes Monday, and through the morning hours, at least, local law-enforcement officers and Department of Transportation officials were asking residents to stay home if at all possible.
— For more on the aftermath of the blizzard, see the March 1 Tribune