The Paullina Times
What A Hometown Newspaper Should Be
Online Version copyright 2010
Looking back
copyright 2010 The Marcus News Inc.
Comments from My Corner
By Chuck Brockmann
By Chuck Brockmann
Ah! The end of winter is near! This and next week will bring to an end my comments on winter.
It's
a fact of life; NW Iowa traditionally sits in the bulls-eye of winter's raging, most severe storm, the blizzard. Now, a few words
on the nuts and bolts of blizzards. The National Weather Service defines it as a winter storm with strong, sustained winds of
35 mph or greater, falling temperatures, often below zero, and considerable falling or blowing snow. Anyone that was out and
about in NW Iowa on Monday, Feb. 1st knows what I'm talking about.
Blizzards are a fact of winter life in
NW Iowa and usually are "tolerable" in that we know what they are and how we need to treat them with respect. Every so often (maybe
once in a life time) a blizzard of mammoth proportions strikes and it becomes part of our "all-time" memory bank. One of those
storms occurred in our distant past. It was called the Blizzard of 1888 or the "School Children's Blizzard".
"The Storm
of Death"
The morning of January 12, 1888, a Thursday, began as any winter morning on the northern plains of the U.S. Most historic accounts describe the early part of the day as cloudy, relatively mild, with a few flakes of snow floating down in a nearly windless sky. In the afternoon, without warning, the wind shifted to the northwest with rapidly increasing velocity and the air was suddenly filled with blowing snow. In 2010, we would have been warned perhaps even days before such a behemoth storm would have struck. Not so in 1888 when weather forecasting was a babe in diapers. The lack of warning caused many deaths across the northern plains as thousands, many of them school
The morning of January 12, 1888, a Thursday, began as any winter morning on the northern plains of the U.S. Most historic accounts describe the early part of the day as cloudy, relatively mild, with a few flakes of snow floating down in a nearly windless sky. In the afternoon, without warning, the wind shifted to the northwest with rapidly increasing velocity and the air was suddenly filled with blowing snow. In 2010, we would have been warned perhaps even days before such a behemoth storm would have struck. Not so in 1888 when weather forecasting was a babe in diapers. The lack of warning caused many deaths across the northern plains as thousands, many of them school
children, sought refuge from the storm. By some accounts, over 500 people perished in the storm. Nearly 100 of those were
school children and teachers trying to seek shelter as some of the poorly constructed school buildings, especially in Nebraska and
South Dakota, seemed no match for the storm's fury.
The Paullina Times issue of January 19th 1888, in part, tells a story of
suffering and death in O'Brien County. A quote from that story tells it all. "The night of January 12, 1888 is one that will
long be remembered, and after the present generation shall have passed away, the terrible events of that memorable night will live
in history as the storm of death when so many persons perished at the hands of the relentless elements whose destructive work was---without
parallel in the history of our county."
Fast forward to January 12, 1988, a Tuesday. My 6th graders are gathered at Paullina
Community School for another day of class, when I tell them of the School Children's Blizzard of exactly 100 years ago that day.
Would you believe, a real blizzard arrived as if on cue, and school was let out early so children could ride their buses to their
country homes. The visibility was terrible and at least one bus became stranded in a snowdrift on a country road. The
driver called on a radio back to school and reported the problem, a parent came with a tractor and rescued the bus with all children
ultimately returning home safely. The next day, one of the 6th graders came to me, giving me a wide-eyed description of the
harrowing experience. He ended with the adamant order, "Mr. Brockmann, don't you ever tell us any more stories like that again!"
So goes history.
50 years ago:
Dr. N.E. Weems, Paullina physician, has now recovered sufficiently from a bout with the flu to permit him to make a limited number of house calls.
The Paullina Boy Scouts have accepted sale and distribution of the new official 50-star United States of America flags as one of
Dr. N.E. Weems, Paullina physician, has now recovered sufficiently from a bout with the flu to permit him to make a limited number of house calls.
The Paullina Boy Scouts have accepted sale and distribution of the new official 50-star United States of America flags as one of
A Blizzard From the Past