View Full Version : Second snowstorm in a week dumps on Denver
DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- The second major snowstorm in a week pounded Colorado on Friday, burying the foothills under another 2 feet of snow, shutting down highways and forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights at the Denver airport.
The storm stretched across the Rocky Mountains into the western Plains, where the National Weather Service warned that the gusting wind could whip up blinding whiteouts.
Colorado Gov. Bill Owens again declared a statewide disaster, putting the National Guard on standby as areas west of Denver got 28 inches of snow Thursday and early Friday. In the city, about 16 inches had fallen by morning. Interstate 25, the main north-south highway through the state, was closed about 60 miles north of Denver.
While last week's blizzard dumped nearly 2 feet of snow in about 24 hours, making it impossible for airport and highway plows to keep up, snow from the new storm was expected to stretch over about three days.
United Airlines and Frontier Airlines, the largest carriers at Denver International Airport, both canceled 513 flights Thursday through Friday morning, trimming their schedules to ease congestion from weather delays.
"Right now, we're planning to operate a full schedule starting at noon," United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said early Friday.
Interstate 70, the main east-west highway through the state, was closed early Friday between Denver and the Kansas line. Greyhound canceled all trips out of Denver on Friday and more cancelations could follow this weekend.
The metro area's light rail trains, buses and public transit planned to run on their regular schedules, though. Maintenance crews covered Denver streets with deicer, but offices still closed early Thursday and residents stocked up on groceries.
With memories fresh of the 4,700 stranded holiday travelers and backed up flights around the country last week, New Year's travelers jammed the airport Thursday trying to get out of Colorado while they still could.
Managers at the nation's fifth-busiest airport drew up snowplowing plans, and airlines urged ticket-holders to get early flights or wait until after the storm.
Colorado woman selling snow on eBay
LOVELAND, Colo. - As if Colorado residents don't have enough snow to dig out from, one resident is offering more for a price on eBay. Starting bids were holding steady Friday at 99 cents for snow from "Blizzard I and Blizzard II" being offered by Mary Walker. She and husband, Jim, got the idea for selling snow after shoveling mounds from two storms a week apart that together dumped more than 4 feet along the Front Range.
"I figured eBay has ghosts and all sorts of weird stuff, so why not snow?" said Walker, who teaches business workshops on employee communications.
How much snow 99 cents or whatever the winning bid gets depends. Walker's auction notice suggests avoiding shipping and handling charges by stopping by their home and picking it up — in a dump truck.
Only 10 offerings of snow are available and the proceeds are earmarked for a used snowblower for Jim or a pair of shovels.
She says she doesn't really expect to find a buyer for their blizzard overstock.
"We just wanted to just give some folks a laugh," she said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061231/ap_on_fe_st/selling_snow
Uh:confused: Thanks for the article.
Hay lift aims to save snowbound Plains cattle
Thousands of animals imperiled; food dropped to isolated residents
DENVER - National Guard helicopters dropped emergency food bundles and bales of hay for people and livestock trapped by snowdrifts as high as rooftops Tuesday after back-to-back blizzards paralyzed the Plains.
At least a dozen deaths were blamed on a weekend storm that knocked out electricity to tens of thousands of people in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma and left herds of cattle without food or water. The blizzard spread a blanket of snow on top of the icy layer left by a storm that hit just before Christmas.
Because of rising temperatures, many highways were clear, but many rural roads remained impassable, and National Guardsmen used Humvees and snowmobiles to reach people trapped in their homes and take them to shelters.
Colorado also launched a hay lift in hopes of saving thousands of cattle immobilized by drifts as high as 10 feet. In 1997, a similar storm killed 30,000 in the state.
“Most of my cattle haven’t seen food since last Thursday, when the snow started,” said Tony Hall, who has 200 head on a ranch near Lamar, Colo. “Wherever they were standing when the snow piled up, that’s where they are now. Every day, it’s getting more crucial.”
Most Guard copters in Middle East
Colorado and Kansas were trying to find enough helicopters capable of hauling hay bales weighing up to 1,300 pounds, said Don Ament, Colorado’s agriculture director. Many helicopters in the state’s National Guard fleet are in the Middle East.
“These cattle have already gone a number of days without food and water. They’re just going to lay over dead if we don’t do something soon,” Ament said.
Two Huey and three Black Hawk helicopters dropped 400 bales of hay Tuesday to feed cattle in the hardest-hit areas, Colorado officials said.
National Guard helicopters in the state also dropped Meals Ready to Eat, or military rations, just outside people’s houses so they could reach the bundles, Sgt. 1st Class Steve Segin said.
In the Oklahoma Panhandle, a dozen troops went door to door in Humvees, checking on rural residents snowed in without power for days. Col. Pat Scully said the priority was to reach people on ranches and farms who might have medical problems.
“We have no reason to believe anybody is hurt, but we did think it was necessary to do some welfare checks,” said Michelann Ooten, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.
Sometimes, ice was bigger problem
Ice in some areas was even more difficult to deal with than the snow, snapping trees and bringing down power lines. In Nebraska, big portable generators were set up to maintain water service and keep emergency shelters open.
In an aerial tour, Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman said Tuesday that he saw damage “more massive and more extensive than any of us imagined,” noting that in some areas ice was 3 inches thick on trees. Heineman had declared a state of emergency in advance of the storm.
Ice and heavy snow also bent over electrical towers and downed hundreds of miles of power lines. At least 6,300 homes and businesses in western Kansas, more than 15,000 in Nebraska, and 6,000-plus in Colorado and Oklahoma were without electricity, and some utility officials warned it could take more than a week to restore.
No room in the inns
Every motel in the western Nebraska town of Kearney was full with people who had no electricity at their homes, said a spokeswoman at the Kearney Ramada Inn.
We know that customers are getting frustrated,” said Beth Boesch, spokeswoman for the Nebraska Public Power District, which lost 600 miles of power lines. “We just ask people to be patient. The damage is very widespread, and it’s going to take some time to put it back together.”
In Oklahoma’s Panhandle, National Guard troops and local authorities were going door-to-door at farms and ranches in isolated areas Tuesday, checking on residents who had been snowed in and without power for four days.
The snowbound Kansas town of Sharon Springs still had no clear way in or out for its 835 residents on Monday, but at least they didn’t lose power, said Bill Hassett, manager of the town’s power plant.
Colo. National Guard brings supplies to homes
“We’re snowed under,” Hassett said. “We’re just in the process of digging out. We had total 36 inches of snow. Thank God we kept the lights on.”
Slightly warmer temperatures on Monday helped workers still trying to reopen the roads, said Kansas Department of Transportation spokesman Ron Kaufman.
The Colorado National Guard, which the governor activated twice in the span of a week because of the back-to-back blizzards, helped carry emergency supplies such as medicine and baby formula to isolated homes.
At the Wooten family’s ranch in canyon land along the Purgatorie River near the southeastern Colorado town of Kim, Steve Wooten and his uncle spent Monday checking on their cattle. They had moved most of the animals closer to the house but had some that had not been fed since the latest storm hit on Thursday.
Still, after several years of drought, Joy Wooten said she was thankful for the moisture.
“It’s kind of hard now,” she said, “but you have to think of the green grass in the spring.”
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16389942/
Stranded by snow, cattle get help from military
Helicopters have dropped hundreds of bales of hay
LAMAR, Colo. - Hundreds of hay bales fell from the sky across Colorado’s rangeland as military helicopter and cargo plane crews delivered food to cattle that have been stranded by the heavy snow and high drifts for a week.
In smaller helicopters, ranchers landed near frozen streams and used sledgehammers to chop ice from the water for the livestock to drink.
The situation on the snowbound plains is getting dire. Typically, cattle can survive only five to 10 days without food or water in good conditions, state veterinarian John Maulsby said. For the cattle in New Mexico, eastern Colorado and on the Kansas and Nebraska plains, it has now been seven days since a blizzard dumped up to 3 feet of snow and whipped up 10-foot-high drifts.
“We think there are probably 30,000 head (of cattle) out there that are at risk that we’re having to make sure we feed,” said Maj. Gen. Mason Whitney of the Colorado Guard.
There is no estimate of how many have died.
Small groups spotted
Pilots leading the emergency haylift on Wednesday were mostly seeing groups of 10 or 20 cows, rather than 100 or more, said Dan Hatlestad, spokesman for the Southeast Area Operations Command, a regional emergency response team.
Cattle were already spread thinly across the region before the storm hit because a prolonged drought had left little grass for them to eat. The back-to-back holiday blizzards have since covered fences dividing pastures so the animals have scattered even more.
One Lamar-area rancher could find only half of his 600-head herd, said Don Ament, the Colorado agriculture commissioner. Ament said farmers and ranchers have told him it’s worse than the 1997 blizzard that killed 30,000 cattle and cost $28 million in agriculture losses.
Colorado health and agriculture officials planned to meet Thursday to discuss what to do with the dead and disabled cattle that are found. Ament said he wants to put the meat to use if possible and will contact rendering operations.
One Kansas feedlot owner said he had lost 450 cattle out of the 155,000 he has on feed preparing for slaughter and 20 dairy cows out of his herd of 7,500. Still, Roy Brown, co-owner of Cattle Empire near Satanta, said his insurance would cover his losses, which he estimated at about $350,000.
Bison using their heads
The 20,000 bison on ranches in southeastern Colorado, western Kansas and Oklahoma were unaffected by the storm, partly because bison use their head and hump “like a big snowplow to get down to where the forage is,” said Dave Carter, executive director of the National Bison Association.
While the pilots dropped more than 900 heavy hay bales, trying to get close enough to the animals to make the food easily reachable but not so close to scare them, rangers on trucks and snowmobiles hauled more hay to cattle closer to the growing number of county roads that have been cleared since the storm.
The storm, blamed for at least 13 deaths, left utility crews in sections of Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado and Oklahoma working around the clock to restore power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses.
Officials warned that some rural areas could be without electricity for weeks. In some places, the snow has been too much for plows and workers have had to resort to front-end loaders to try to clear the roads.
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., on Wednesday sought federal disaster relief for people and livestock in the southeastern part of the state. New Mexico’s Gov. Bill Richardson and Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman also asked for a disaster declaration, as did the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16467237/
3rd snowstorm in 3 weeks hits weary Colorado
Push to restore power to rural homes, rescue cattle further hampered
DENVER - The third snowstorm in as many weeks swept into Colorado on Friday, further hampering efforts to restore power to rural homes and rescue thousands of cattle stranded by last week’s blizzard.
Several school districts canceled classes Friday because of blowing snow in the region, where the last storm had whipped up 10-foot drifts and shut down highways.
In Kansas and Nebraska, about 10,000 homes were still without power after more than a week, and the new storm was headed their way after dumping nearly a foot of snow in the foothills west of Denver. In hard-hit southeastern Colorado, no more than 1 inch of new snow was expected, but the high wind was making road-clearing difficult.
Agriculture officials, meanwhile, were still trying to figure out how to deal with the carcasses of thousands of livestock that were killed by the blizzard or starved, said Jery Bailey, emergency management director in Haskell County, Kan.
Lost livestock ‘has been a nightmare’
“Our foremost thing is to try to save human lives, but now we have the economic thing too with feedlots and animals,” Bailey said. “This has been a nightmare.”
An estimated 3,500 cattle are believed to have died on rangeland in six southeastern Colorado counties alone, said Leonard Pruett, the region’s agriculture extension agent for Colorado State University.
Owners of feedlots, where range cattle are taken before slaughter, were still calculating their losses.
Luke Lind, a vice president of Five Rivers Cattle Feeding, which has 10 feedlots in Colorado, Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma, said the mortality rate could be “significant,” but he declined to give specific numbers. Five Rivers had 60,000 cattle in pens in the Lamar, Colo., area alone, he said.
In a massive effort to save stranded rangeland cattle, the Colorado National Guard conducted a three-day airlift that dropped about 3,000 hay bales to herds spotted on the rangeland.
While that likely has saved livestock, the survivors still face the threat of fatal lung infections related to the stress of the storm and dehydration, Pruitt said.
Much grazing land still inaccessible
The cold, windy conditions Friday could hurt early-season calves, as well, he said.
“The mother cows out there are in good shape,” Pruett said. “We had plenty of grass in the summer and fall, so they went into the storm in good condition, and that makes all the difference in the world. But they’re not going to stay in good condition without getting some feed, because they’re going downhill pretty rapidly.”
In Washington, Sen. Wayne Allard and Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, both of Colorado, introduced bills Friday to help speed financial aid to ranchers who have lost livestock in Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico and Oklahoma.
Among the many effects of the blizzards, the price of hay has jumped from $150 a ton to $210 a ton, and much grazing land is still inaccessible, Pruett said. Ranchers will depend more on hay and other supplemental feed to keep livestock alive because the grass they normally eat is buried in snow, he said.
In a rare piece of good news, the snow was expected to help the winter wheat crop.
Kansas Secretary of Agriculture Adrian Polonsky said the moisture will be “very beneficial to getting the crop off to a good start.”
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16484056/from/RS.1/
Rescue effort underway after Colo. avalanche
'Our crews said it was the largest they have ever seen,' state official says
DENVER - A huge avalanche buried cars Saturday and may have pushed others over the edge Saturday on U.S. 40 near 11,307-foot-high Berthoud Pass, Colorado highway officials said.
"Our crews said it was the largest they have ever seen. It took three paths," said Stacey Stegman, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation.
Seven people had been rescued and one was taken to a hospital, Stegman said.
The slide buried at least two cars, officials said.
Crews were probing the area for other vehicles, including any that may have gone off the road, Stegman said.
The avalanche was described as 100 feet wide and 15 feet deep. Stegman told MSNBC that the width is probably 200 to 300 feet. She added that a controlled avalanche was set off Tuesday amid questions as to whether Saturday's avalanche was natural or human-triggered, perhaps by a skier.
"There's only so many cars that are going to be in that space," avalanche expert and longtime area resident Greg Foley told MSNBC.
Three snow storms in as many weeks have dumped more than 4 feet of snow on parts of Colorado.
Berthoud Pass is the main route to Winter Park, one of Colorado's largest ski areas.
This breaking news story will be updated.
NBC News and The Associated Press contributed to this story
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16499980/
ELEANOR MAW
01-06-2007, 4:54pm
It Hasn't Snowed In South East England Yet And I Want To Use My New Snow-boots. Can We Have Some Of Your Snow Please
Now there're four storms over Denver. Og God I die to live there:funny:
DENVER -- A massive avalanche -- 200 feet wide and 15 feet deep -- buried some cars and swept others off U.S. 40 west of Denver, Colorado highway officials said.
Authorities said seven people were taken to a hospital by ambulance. The extent of their injuries wasn't known.
The avalanche came down near the 11,307-foot-high Berthoud Pass. Heavy snow over the past few weeks may have triggered it, a state police spokesman said.
"The avalanche occurred shortly after 10:30 this morning (12:30 p.m. ET)," said Trooper Eric Wynn, spokesman for the Colorado State Patrol. "They have recovered two vehicles with six occupants." (Posted 3:40 p.m.)
Huge Colorado avalanche just misses ski traffic
8 rescued from 2 cars knocked off road; all are sent to Denver hospital
DENVER - A huge avalanche knocked two cars off a mountain pass Saturday on the main highway to one of the state's largest ski areas, shortly after crowds headed through on the way to the lifts, authorities said.
Eight people were rescued from the buried vehicles and all were taken to a Denver hospital, said state Patrolman Eric Wynn. The injuries were not believed to be life-threatening, he told NBC.
"Our crews said it was the largest (avalanche) they have ever seen. It took three paths," Stacey Stegman of the state's transportation department said. The slide occurred on U.S. 40 near 11,307-foot Berthoud Pass, about 50 miles west of Denver on the way to Winter Park Resort.
Crews were probing the area for other vehicles, including any others that may have gone off the road, Stegman said.
The avalanche hit between 10 a.m. and 10:30 and was about 100 feet wide and 15 feet deep, Stegman said. The area usually has slides 2 to 3 feet deep because crews trigger them before more snow can accumulate, said Spencer Logan of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
'Tremendous amount of snow' for area
Three snowstorms in as many weeks have dumped more than 4 feet of snow on parts of Colorado and authorities haven't had time to test all slide areas, Spencer said.
"This is a tremendous amount of snow to come down the mountain for us," Stegman said.
Mile Cicero, who was headed to Winter Park to ski, told KMGH-TV in Denver that he joined others furiously digging out victims. "I along with 30 other people grabbed shovels and started digging to get people out. I had a shovel but people were using their hands, skis, ski poles, whatever, to dig out," until rescue teams arrived, he said.
The timing meant most traffic headed to the ski area had already passed through.
Good thing it didn't happen a couple of hours earlier," said Darcy Morse, a Winter Park spokeswoman. On an average January weekend day, the resort draws more than 10,000 skiers and snowboarders, with lifts opening at 8:30 or 9 a.m.
Wynn said the pass was closed and would not reopen until Sunday at the earliest.
Colorado has been digging out for the past three weeks after back-to-back blizzards and more snow falling Friday.
You're getting all this heavy snow piling onto a very unstable base," Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist with the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, told MSNBC. It was unknown whether a storm forecast for next week in the Southwest might further affect Colorado.
The Denver area was blanketed with up to 8 inches of snow Friday, while nearly a foot fell in the foothills west of the city before the storm moved into New Mexico.
Crews in Colorado have worked around the clock to clear roads so residents could get to stores for food and medicine.
Agriculture officials also were trying to determine how to deal with the carcasses of thousands of livestock that were killed in last week's blizzard or starved afterward.
Check back for updates on this story.
NBC News and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16499980/
This is everywhere!
ROCHESTER, New York (AP) -- A winter storm that slathered the Midwest and Plains under a thick coat of ice crashed into the Northeast, downing power lines, making roadways treacherous and chasing away spring-like temperatures. The six-state death toll stood at 41.
The weight of the ice snapped tree limbs, popped transformers and made electricity cables sag, knocking out current to about 145,000 customers in New York state and New Hampshire on Monday, though many had power returned overnight.
Several school districts canceled classes in upstate New York on Tuesday, and utility officials said it could be another day or two before all customers have their power restored.
The heaviest snowfalls were predicted for western and northern Maine, where the weather service was calling for up to 12 inches before the storm was expected to wind down in the morning.
The storm provided a stark contrast to recent weeks in the East, when temperatures have been far above normal and the ground has been bare because of a lack of snow. The unseasonable weather has drawn out golfers and bicyclists this month.
Icy roads cut into Martin Luther King Jr. holiday observances from Albany, New York, to Austin, Texas, where officials in both states canceled gubernatorial inauguration parades Tuesday.
In hard-hit Missouri, the utility company Ameren said it would probably not have everyone's lights back on until Wednesday night. As of Monday afternoon, about 312,000 homes and businesses still had no electricity.
Missouri National Guardsmen went door to door, checking on residents, and helped clear slick roads. Drury University, in Springfield, announced that its campuses would be closed until January 22, citing fallen trees and a lack of power at some residence halls.
About 100,000 homes and businesses that were blacked out in Oklahoma, some of them since the storm's first wave struck on Friday, were still waiting for power. Ice built up by sleet and freezing rain was 4 inches thick in places.
"Emergency responders are having a hard time getting to residents where their services are needed because of trees and power lines in the road," said Pittsburg County, Oklahoma, Undersheriff Richard Sexton.
The Army Corps of Engineers dispatched soldiers from Tulsa to deliver 100 emergency generators to the McAlester area. Fifty additional generators were being sent from Fort Worth, Texas, by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
At the height of the storm, almost 200,000 customers in Michigan were without power. As much as a half-inch of ice covered trees, roads and power lines in southern Michigan, while up to 5 inches of snow blanketed the central Lower Peninsula.
More than 160 flights were canceled at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Authorities closed University of Texas and Austin public schools Tuesday.
At a Blockbuster video store in south Austin, Texas, long lines snaked through the store as customers prepared to stay in for the night. At a nearby grocery store, soup shelves were nearly empty after shoppers had stockpiled provisions.
A wave of arctic air trailed the storm and was expected to push temperatures into the single digits in some areas. Oklahoma officials strongly discouraged travel, saying the frigid weather would refreeze slush and water on roads.
Waves of freezing rain, sleet and snow since Friday had been blamed for at least 17 deaths in Oklahoma, eight in Missouri, eight in Iowa, four in New York, three in Texas and one in Maine. Seven of the Oklahoma deaths occurred when a minivan carrying 12 people slid off an icy highway Sunday and hit an oncoming truck.
In California, three nights of freezing temperatures have destroyed up to three-quarters of the state's $1 billion citrus crop, according to an estimate issued Monday. Other crops, including avocados and strawberries, also suffered damage.
"This is one of those freezes that, unfortunately, we'll all remember," said A.G. Kawamura, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
Gov. asks for aid over destroyed Calif. citrus
Prices for rest of crop, avocados, other produce may triple, observer says
SAN FRANCISCO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked the federal government Tuesday for disaster aid because of an ongoing cold snap that has destroyed nearly $1 billion worth of California citrus, and industry officials said shoppers will feel the sting through higher prices for oranges, lemons and other produce.
Visiting a Fresno orange grove, Schwarzenegger said he was asking the U.S. government for disaster status, which would allow California to seek aid from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Small Business Administration to offset losses to growers and other businesses.
“This is not just about the crop this year. It could also have a devastating effect next year,” Schwarzenegger said. “My administration will make sure that we do everything we can to help the farmers and workers get through this.”
Nearly every winter crop is affected by the freeze, from avocados to strawberries to fresh-cut flowers, but it’s the state’s citrus crop that stands to take the biggest economic hit.
“We may adjust the prices as we discover the full extent of the damage next week, but for now, if you bought an orange at the supermarket for 50 cents, expect to pay a dollar to $1.49 for it,” said Todd Steel, owner of Royal Vista Marketing, which sells California citrus to markets throughout the country.
With the NFL playoffs in full swing, some fans may choose to go without two traditional favorites.
“Avocados are expensive enough as it is,” said Joseph Vasquez, a 32-year-old school teacher from Pasadena. “We may have to do without guacamole for a while. And we may be drinking our Coronas without limes.”
California is the nation’s No. 1 producer of fresh citrus, growing about 86 percent of lemons and 21 percent of oranges sold in the U.S., according to the California Farm Bureau. Florida produces more oranges, but those are mostly processed for orange juice.
More than 70 percent of this season’s oranges, lemons and tangerines — nearly $1 billion worth of fruit — were still on the trees as nighttime temperatures in California’s Central Valley dipped into the low 20s and teens on four straight nights beginning Friday. The freeze ruined as much as three-quarters of the California citrus crop, growers say; the fruit is threatened whenever the mercury falls below 28 degrees.
“Limited amounts were harvested before the freeze, so it’s not like the markets are going to dry up suddenly,” said Claire Smith, a spokeswoman for Sunkist Growers Inc., a Los Angeles-based cooperative owned by some 6,000 growers in California and Arizona.
Still, the diminished supply is bound to drive up prices, Smith said. Sunkist may import oranges and other fruit from South Africa and other countries.
On Tuesday, a Visalia-based citrus broker was selling 40-pound boxes of oranges for $22 to $32, depending on the variety. That’s up from $6 to $14 a week earlier, and with the National Weather Service calling for at least one more night of frigid temperatures in many areas, prices could continue to escalate.
Some shoppers took advantage of still-reasonable prices Tuesday, as many of the fruit on market shelves was picked before the freeze. Shopper Lindsay Beamish, 29, was surprised to see a 10-pound bag of oranges selling for $10 at a Vons supermarket in Pasadena.
“I might just have to get 10 pounds worth because that’s not going to last,” she said of the price.
Damages from the current freeze will likely surpass those from a three-day cold snap in December 1998 that destroyed 85 percent of California’s citrus crop, a loss valued at $700 million, state Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura said.
The state also suffered a deep freeze in 1990 — one that completely wiped out the $1 billion crop. It took growers two years to recover.
Labor leaders are also watching the weather closely. They estimate as many as 12,000 field workers and packing house employees could lose their jobs for the remainder of the season.
The state may offer emergency unemployment assistance to workers laid off because of the crisis, said Henry Renteria, director of the state Office of Emergency Services.
Damaged fruit from the current freeze may still be salvaged as juice, usually a byproduct for California farmers, Smith said.
“It’s not likely to have a big impact on the juice industry because California is not a big player in that market,” she said.
Adverse weather has also taken a toll on the Florida-dominated orange juice industry in recent years. After two nasty hurricane seasons compounded by drought and crop disease, PepsiCo Inc., which sells juice under the Tropicana and Dole labels, and Coca-Cola Co., which owns Minute Maid, each raised orange juice prices over the past several weeks.
Inflated prices also are expected for other crops that have fallen victim to the icy California weather, state agricultural officials said.
Lee Cole, chief of Santa Paula-based Calavo Growers Inc., which sells 35 to 40 percent of the state’s $380 million avocado crop, said it’s too early to know how severe the losses will be. But the freeze could claim up to 40 percent of Calavo’s crop in Ventura County, with damage along the less-frigid coast between San Luis Obispo and Escondido hovering between 25 and 35 percent, Cole said.
“Prices will certainly be higher,” he said.
If the damage is severe, the trees could also bear fewer avocados next year, Cole said.
Strawberries growing along the coastal regions of Southern California were mostly ruined, according to the California Strawberry Commission. The freeze also destroyed flowers that would produce the next berry crop on each plant.
Production will be disrupted for the next few weeks, according to the commission.
Growers in the Imperial Valley also were worried about tender vegetables such as lettuce that may not have held up to five days of temperatures in the mid-20s, said Brad Rippey, a meteorologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Throughout the cold snap, growers have tried to save their crops by pumping fields with heated irrigation water and running wind machines to circulate warmer air and keep it from rising off the trees. David Pruitt of Ball Tagawa Growers in Arroyo Grande has struggled to keep 200,000 square feet of greenhouses between 60 and 74 degrees.
The company produces a variety of seedlings, including pansies and marigolds. The greenhouses are heated with hot water fired by gas boilers.
The cold “multiplies our gas use enormously,” Pruitt said. The boilers “are just cranking full blast.”
For cut-flower producers, the damage mostly will be felt in the form of increased heating costs, said Kathryn Miele, director of marketing for the California Cut Flower Commission, which represents several hundred growers.
Many flowers — including the Valentine’s Day rose crop — are pampered indoors, meaning growers are forced to spend more to keep greenhouses balmy, she said.
Inspectors with the California Department of Agriculture and county agriculture commissioners were still assessing the damage Tuesday. In the meantime, fruit packers have been asked to keep produce harvested during the freeze on hold for five days to monitor quality problems and keep damaged fruit off shelves.
© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16652909/
Everything is dissapearing...:eek:
Thanks for the new article.
MiniShaniaTwain
01-17-2007, 3:09am
We got that latest snowstorm over the weekend! In my area, most of our weather was ice, but I didn't lose power. We were pretty lucky with our weather, compared to Denver!
Many people complains about the snow; when it's a horrible non-stop snowstorm, I agree. But here in my case, I enjoy the snow, we try to make a snowman but it thaws with the first light of tue sun:funny:... It's only you can enjoy the snow:D
ELEANOR MAW
01-17-2007, 12:54pm
Many people complains about the snow; when it's a horrible non-stop snowstorm, I agree. But here in my case, I enjoy the snow, we try to make a snowman but it thaws with the first light of tue sun:funny:... It's only you can enjoy the snow:DI love snow as well as long as I don't have to go out on the roads.
I love snow as well as long as I don't have to go out on the roads.
I totaly agree.
Me too. The sad and bad part of the snow it's just like some casua flood. And when it gets melted.. i don't wanna think that but well... Just enjoy the good part:D
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