Astoria Digs Out After Being Hit With Snow

There's a big story in Astoria; the small town is digging out after getting hit with 16 inches of snow.
 
"Wow! Waking up to it was, 'Wow,'" Astoria resident Joseph Campbell said.

People in town expected to see snow, just not this much.

"It kind of caught us off guard a little bit," Campbell said.

Tuesday, the small community looked more like ghost town with only a few cars lining the streets.  Many roads and sidewalks are still white.

"It's a lot of snow, definitely, but it could be a lot worse. It could be a lot more snow and 20 below," Astoria homeowner Sonja Hanson said.

Howard Hanson and his wife have lived in Astoria for years, and following a few mild years, he's glad to see winter finally return.

"It's normal, and it's kind of good to be normal even though no one likes all this snow and plowing it, like I did yesterday," Howard Hanson said.

Another thing folks in this small farming community agree on: after being dry for so long, they'll take any precipitation they can get even if it comes in the form of snow.

"It's something we usually have, and it's moisture and when our basic industry in South Dakota is agriculture, moisture is a wonderful thing," Henson said.