County Crippled By
Season's Worst Storm
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Alcona County, as well as the entire state, is still feeling the results of the season's worst storm, which hit here early last Wednesday night. The storm, the most severe to hit this section for thirty years, raged throughout the night and all day Thursday, with a fifty-mile wind. All of the County and State highways were blocked with drifts reaching well to the fifteen to twenty foot mark.
The State Highway, U. S.-23, north was the last of the state roads in the county to be opened to traffic late Friday afternoon. It was necessary to secure the aid of the Alpena County Sno-Go to break a lane through the drifts north of the George Holmes residence.
The County Road Commission plows have been battling the drifts continuously since, and have done a fine job of opening a large percentage of the roads. The county equipment, (as is generally known), is about at its journey's end. The heavy equipment is about all that was of any value in the present storm. It has been the policy of the commission to open the State Roads first, and then the school bus routes. They have been able to do this remarkably well.
According to the figures secured from the clerk, they have 33 men who have been putting in an average of 15 hours per day per man for the past two weeks. They have secured the services of five additional men as extra help. The crew has answered approximately 65 calls, classed as emergency, for sick folks, aside from the regular route.
There are 720 miles of roads in Alcona County that are under the snow removal program. 86.4 miles of this total are state highways.
It is true that many of the side-roads have not as yet been plowed out, and it is asked that the people will be reasonable in their demands of the road crew. They are doing everything within their power to give the service that they think is deserving.