Numbing Cold Freezes Midwest in Its Tracks

MINNEAPOLIS — Bone-chilling cold, high winds and blinding snow Thursday paralyzed much of the upper Midwest and Plains, closing roads and schools and causing at least six deaths.

In Minnesota, with the windchill factor near 70 below, Gov. Arne Carlson closed all public schools, and many private schools followed his lead.

President Clinton declared a major disaster in nearly half of the state. Local snow-removal budgets are busted and the Legislature is considering a $20-million emergency appropriation.

The persistent bad weather has some residents in the region longing for summer already.

“I’m kind of looking forward to mosquitoes,” said Pat Raasch, manager of the Wooden Nickel Saloon in Marshall, Minn.

In North Dakota, more than 60 National Guard members have been working to clear roads. Rural areas have been hardest hit, with many local governments giving up trying to plow, said Henning Hansen in Brookings County, S.D.

Some ranchers hadn’t seen their animals for days, unable to get to them because of giant snowdrifts. By Thursday morning, Don and Estelle Lawson near Flasher, N.D., found some dead cattle and were forced to sell others because they didn’t have enough feed.

The Agriculture Department, which is working on a program to provide emergency farm grants to open roads and bring in feed, estimates 20,000 cattle in North Dakota are in immediate danger.

In Wisconsin, tow trucks worked overtime bringing in cars because it was too cold to jump-start batteries or change tires outside.

“We tow ‘em in. If we didn’t, it’s so cold our parts would fall off,” said Erik Pietila, who works at Jerry’s Service Station in Hurley, Wis., where the windchill hit 50 below.

Major airlines canceled flights throughout the Midwest. Among the few schools open were those in Mishawaka and South Bend, Ind., where 10 inches of snow had fallen.

Six deaths, mostly in traffic accidents, have occurred in Arkansas and Missouri since the storm began.

In Arizona, the National Guard delivered fuel, food and water to the vast Navajo reservation, a day after a state of emergency was declared.