The 1949 Blizzard. by June Crawford Powell, Alliance, NE
Sunday morning, January 2, 1949
My name is June Crawford Powell and I was the teacher at District #33, a one room school 30 miles west of Hemingford, NE. The year was 1949 and I was 19 years old. Normally I would drive my car from my home to the schoolhouse, which was a distance of 10 miles. John and Ida Winters home was only a mile and a half from the school and I had made arrangements with them to stay at their home in case of bad weather.
Sunday afternoon, January 2, 1949, around 1 pm the storm of all storms began, snowing heavily and the wind was fierce. My Mom suggested I go to the Winter's home that afternoon so I could get to school on Monday morning. I packed my things and started the drive in my 1949 Ford. After going only 3 miles north I ran into a snowdrift and my car was stuck! Fortunately the Bill Darveau home was only a half-mile back, so I walked back to their house. The phones were working so I was able to call my sister Helen Lewis. She and her husband Carl live ¾ mile south of the Darveau's and Carl came and picked me up on his tractor.
Since the storm was still raging, I knew I couldn't get back to my home so I stayed at my sister's for at least a week. When things had calmed down my brother, Ray, came to get me on his tractor.
Three weeks passed and the roads were still not opened so that I could get a car through to my school. I talked with Chuck Roth, one of my school board members and he told me, if I could get to their house and the parents of my pupils could get them there, we could have school in their basement. He also said that I could stay at their house.
The only way I could get to Chuck and Vealya Roth's home was by horseback. My brother, Ray, saddled Prince and even though it was pretty tough going for the horse in the deep snow, five hours later we had traveled 10 miles and arrived safely at the Roth home. Actually as I remember it, this was an exciting and challenging experience.
Now we had a place to have school, but we needed to get the children's schoolbooks. The next day Chuck hitched his team of horses to a hay wagon with hay in it and he, his twin daughters (Dixie and Nancy) and myself made our way to the school house which was about 2 miles away. That was really a lot of fun. We packed everything I thought Iwould need in boxes and also the children's desks and made our way back to the Roth home. The next morning, the parents brought their children by tractors across county through the deep snow. We had school for six weeks (maybe more) in the basement of our gracious hosts, Chuck and Vealya Roth. Since it was now February we celebrated Valentine's Day with a party.
About a week later, Dad told me to let Prince loose and he would find his way home. He did, but it took him 3 days!
When the weather turned warmer and the snow started to melt, we still were unable to travel the roads, because they were in such bad shape. Yes, they were a mess! With that much snow, it took forever for the country roads to dry off enough for cars to drive on them. One Saturday, Chuck said, "I think we can get to Scottsbluff. Shall we try it"? The Roth family and I were so happy; we were all so tired of being snow bound. We made the trip to Scottsbluff and we all enjoyed our day immensely. We still couldn't get to Hemingford or the schoolhouse was because the road was completely torn up in preparation of putting in an oiled road. But we certainly did enjoy our day in Scottsbluff.
I feel very fortunate that I became stuck in that drift. If I had I gone farther on, houses were so far apart. What would I have done? If I had stayed in the car, I probably would have possibly frozen to death, and if I had started to walk, I doubt if I could have gotten to another house. God is good.
