Tuesday’s snowstorm has come and gone in Billings, but it’s a different story in eastern Montana.
“It’s still blowing and snowing,” said Baker resident Anna Straub in a video call from her home.
Straub said she can’t even get into her garage because the drifts are so high. So far, Baker has received 14 inches of snow and counting by Wednesday afternoon.
“The roads in town are terrible, with the snowdrifts, blowing snow, the visibility was horrible,” Straub said.
Fallon County has already closed all public facilities Thursday because of the weather, and school has been canceled in Baker.
“We’re kind of in the eye of the storm it seems like, and it’s just really coming down good,” Straub said.
Molly Losing lives 20 miles south of Baker.
“The wind is blowing so hard, that it’s making it feel at least 30 degrees colder,” Losing said.
She and her husband raise horses and are doing what they can to protect the 13 they have from the cold.
“I have the ones that I can blanket, blanketed, and we have windbreaks along some of our corral panels that some of them can get behind,” Losing said.
She’s been checking on them every couple of hours.
“Winter storm like this will shock them and it will give them colic if you’re not careful,” Losing said.
Farther north in Glendive, Melissa Kwasney has been trying to figure out how to get to work.
“I haven’t gotten dug out yet so I am still at home, haha,” Kwasney said.
She says a lot of her neighbors are calving, and are doing everything they can to keep their animals alive.
“There’s been a lot of calves in the houses,” Kwasney said.
Getting to and from the eastern part of the state has been a nightmare. At Flying J’s truck stop in Lockwood, truckers like Arnoldas Bernotas were stuck after learning Interstate 94 to North Dakota was closed earlier Wednesday.
“The roads icy, lot of accidents, all over cars on the shoulders,” Bernotas said.
Everyone agrees on one thing however: Montana needs the moisture.
“This is probably the worst drought I think I’ve ever seen,” Kwasney said.
