18 Inches Of Snow, Tough Driving In Aberdeen

ABERDEEN, SD - It was a day of digging out in the northeast and chipping out in the southeast Monday. In Aberdeen, 18 inches of snow made some streets and intersections impassable.

Drivers battled plugged roads throughout the day but only if they got themselves dug out in the first place. The sounds of spinning tires, snow blowers and shovels rang through the Hub City.

"That's what South Dakota's all about, you know, you get four-wheel-drive, snowmobile, a shovel and you just have fun," Devin Rathert said.

Or not so much fun for those stuck in the middle of it all. Rathert has a pickup, but there were even places he avoided Monday as he went around town helping other people get out.

And four-wheel-drive vehicles were getting stuck too. John McElhone and Mike German pulled several people from the snow.

"Actually we was going to a gas station to get gas for the snow blower. But everybody keeps getting stuck in the path," McElhone said.

And many who avoided being hung up in the deep snow still came close. The city plowed north/south streets in the morning, east/west in the afternoon and tackled downtown snow removal at night.

Businesses were busy clearing their lots too for customers who managed to get out.

"Gotta help people out man, it's not fun being stuck," German said.

And as the streets were cleared, the snow piles that started disappearing during the recent warm up reappeared. It not only looked, but sounded like winter in the Hub City again. And while all of the snow was impressive, it was no surprise.

"It's South Dakota and it's February. It's not going to be 70,” Rathert said.

The city added more equipment to the clean-up effort to keep up. Sanitation workers had to help drive truck so Monday and Tuesday’s garbage pick-up will be put off until next week.