My name is Sheighla and I’ll tell you about my experience in the terrible blizzard that hit my house a few weeks ago. So, here it goes: We did not have any water from that very first day on. We had to melt snow for water and we tried to alwys keep some boiling just to keep some warmth in the air. Because we didn’t have water, we weren’t able to shower for the first three days. There was so much snow outside that we weren’t able to get our door open even an inch when it fist happened. It was so cold in my house. Even with all our blankets, it felt like it wasn’t enough. We get our money from our Ranch so since we couldn’t get out, our cows were going to starve. This means that my family would not have the money to buy food or water. Even when we were finally able to get out of the house, we were scared because we did not think that our deck would support the weight of us and the heavy snow. We finaly got out and went to my grandpa’s house to shower. He had a wood stove to keep us warm too The snow banks outside were so big and tall that it was dangerous for my sister to go outside. I was scared. It was unsafe to even walk around our house. Finally, I went to school. I WANTED to go. It was finally alright to go. The snow was melting. My family was receiving relief. So was the whole community.

-Sheighla, 5th grade

Hi, my name is Lance we had no power when the lights went out and we had to go hunting for wood. We were cold and then we had to burn half of my bunk bed and some of my old clothes. We haven’t had power at least two weeks and then we had to cook tacos on my wood stove and we were hungry. I was freezing for two days and we were really cold then the EPP (Emergency Protection Program) brought some fire wood and then I was waiting for my friend, because he said he was cold and I told him my house was warm. We went to my house and his mom and family came to my house to keep warm. Then we went to melt some snow for water. We had to eat snow if we were hungry. I was feeling sad and I felt bad for the people that don’t have no woodstove.

-Lance, 5th grade

When the blizzard was coming and the light [went] off at 5:00, we had to go home. My auntie was packing up because we did not have a stove. At our house it was cold and at our grandma’s it was warm and they had food over there. We stayed there until the power came on. And I was hungry for two days. And I was cold for four days.

- John, 3rd grade

My name is Dillon. I am nine years old. (I still can’t read or write so I told my story to Mr. K). When the storm came I stayed at my grandma’s in Parmelee, because my grandpa kicked me out [of his house]. I walked to my grandma’s with my brother Daniel on the second day [of the storm]. After that I went to my mom’s. She didn’t have any power. We had to stay in one room because it was so cold – we had six blankets for us three boys (me, Daniel, and Shane), but that was it. Our power was out over a week so I played outside until the sun went down. We had candles and one flashlight. My grandpa shared batteries with us. We went to sleep as soon as it was dark. We cooked at grandma’s on her wooden stove. We ate hamburger helper everyday for all our meals. We drank water from bottles, but that’s all. I was feeling sad because the power shut off – I heard the power was going to be off over a week.

- Dillon, 3rd grade

When the lights went out, my grandma lit the candle and it was cool. My mom lit the wood stove and I burned my papers from first grade.

- Misty, 2nd grade

When the power was out when I went home, I asked my mom if I could go outside. I got dressed and went out…she said yes. I walked down to the dam with Shawn in the blizzard. We went sliding on the ice and then we let the wind blow us back as we were sliding all the way across the dam.

We walked back to He Dog and made jumps out of snow. We made tunnels through the snow drifts that were almost as high as his house. We were halfway through when we needed to warm up in Shawn’s house. We used a wood stove to warm ourselves and our gloves and our clothes. We used lamps and candles and flashlights when there was no more light downstairs.

In the blizzard, my mom went to Valentine (60 miles away) to try and get food for the community. When she got back they tried to drive into our yard but they got stuck. The next day we cooked a pot full of food for the community who didn’t have a wood stove. We took the food to the people because it was a terrible blizzard. It was dangerous but they hadn’t eaten in two days. Our car was half-way buried but we shoveled it out to try and get food around. We were out of power for four days, and we had power for one day then it went out again the next day. It came back on two days later.

- Sidney, 3rd grade

Yesterday, we had teacher in-service. It’s kind of odd to be doing in-service at your school when the community that you serve has been without power for the past 6 days. Several of the teachers wanted to go out into the community and hand out a warm meal instead. Thankfully our administrator gave us the go ahead, so we cooked up some food and made our way to one of the local churches where we could give people some heat and provide them with a hot meal as well.

While the school cook, teachers and paraprofessionals were handing out food we had numerous cars driving around the city of Parmelee to go door-to-door and let people know that food was being served. This was the group that I helped out with. Danny (1st grade teacher), Ira (3rd grade paraprofessional) and I. Ira would tell us where people were lived, or which houses were unoccupied, Danny and I would then jump out of the car. Divide and conquer. Many times doors were frozen shut, so we had to go around back to let people know there was food.

People were huddled around wood stoves, when there were no wood stoves, people were just sitting trying to stay warm. Kids, were still running around outside playing, as you would expect them to do when there are several foot snow drifts on the ground. The most eye opening moment came when we were pretty much done knocking on doors.

Danny and I decided to drive to the outskirts of town to let people know there was food, as it was getting to be dark. As we were driving out of town we saw an old man with a cane walking out of town. Assuming he was walking to one of the houses that was several hundred yards out, we stopped, asked if he wanted a ride and helped him into the car. Upon getting into the car we went through the usual round of ‘hello’ and ‘how are you.’ We then asked the man where he was headed, and he responded ‘Valentine.’ Danny and I are absolutely shocked by this. Valentine is 60 miles away. 60 miles. An old man with a cane was about to walk 60 miles in 30-degree weather. He then goes on to tell us that he lives in Valentine and came up to Parmelee to check on his son, only to discover that they are without power and that is son is in the hospital in Sioux Falls. He then said that he would go to Upper Cut Meat community. We offered to drive him the 7 miles to Upper Cut so that he could stay with family for the night.

- 4th grade teacher at He Dog elementary school