From the archives: Blizzard of '89 killed livestock, buried homes in Clark County

DUBOIS — The ferocity of the February 1989, storm that hit Clark County was like nothing residents ever experienced.

It was so unexpected, so unbelievably damaging and so viciously cold that residents gave it a name. They called it the "Siberian Express" and "Hundred-year Storm."

The intense four-day blizzard, which descended on Dubois and Spencer 25 years ago, brought ice, blinding snow, winds of 40 to 80 mph and bitter cold, with the wind chill reaching as low as 101 below zero, according to news reports.

Although no human lives were lost, the 1989 blizzard was one of the greatest agricultural disasters in eastern Idaho history. An estimated 800 cattle and nearly 2,000 sheep died of exposure alongside a significant, but uncounted, number of elk, moose and coyotes from Feb. 2 to 6. Total losses were estimated at $912,000 (more than $1.7 million in today's dollars).

Many dead animals were found a month later, buried under snowdrifts as high as 15 feet. But most weren't killed by the snow or the cold, which was frigid enough to freeze human flesh in less than a minute.

Many animals suffocated as dense ice formed a mask over their eyes, noses and mouths. Eighty-nine-year-old rancher Blaine Grover said he needed a hammer to free his animals from the ice. He lost 39 of 100 cattle. He's one of the few ranchers still alive today who experienced the storm.

"The wind was blowing so hard it froze their lungs — some of them died standing up," Grover said. "You (couldn't have) believed it unless you saw it."

The farmers

The worst hit was Ab Laird, a wealthy rancher and Clark County commissioner whose fields and sheds along Camas Creek bore the brunt of the storm.

"The storm hit a day before the TV said it was coming," son Joe Laird told the Farm Times of Idaho. "We tried to reach the cattle with hay wagons, but you couldn't even see 6 feet ... even less at times. We had to give up with even the big, heavy tractors."

The Laird family lost 800 cows, 30 bulls and 900 sheep. Many more sheep later died as a result of the blizzard. Ab Laird lost $750,000 in livestock.

Not only did the blizzard prevent the Lairds from reaching the animals, they couldn't get into town to get food or supplies, although power and phone lines remained operational.

Former Dubois Mayor Mac Wagoner said it was five days, from the beginning of the blizzard, before help reached the Laird farm.

Once there, rescuers freed a farmhand who was trapped in his trailer. It had been buried by a snowdrift.

"He couldn't get the door of the trailer open — he was in there for five days," Wagoner said. "When we finally got to him, he was sitting in the middle of the bed with all the clothes that he had all around him. He'd gone through hell."

Rancher Andy Wagoner also waited out the blizzard in a trailer, some 45 miles outside Dubois. On his second day of isolation, his truck died. Realizing he might need the vehicle to survive, he came up with a novel solution.

"I had it plugged in, but it was so cold the heater wouldn't keep the motor warm," Wagoner said. "So I drained the oil, and I took (some other oil), warmed it next to the furnace until it was good and thin ... I (put it in my motor) and I never shut it off day and night."

The community

The storm also ground Dubois and Spencer to a halt, though the blizzard didn't reach far south. Interstate 15 heading north from Idaho Falls was clear, but the roads into Dubois and the interstate north of town were blocked by massive drifts. During the first day of the storm, it took some drivers hours to get from the edge of the community of 600 to their homes because of low visibility.

Then-Mayor Wagoner said the town's greatest blessing was that several years earlier, it sold its electrical infrastructure to what today is Rocky Mountain Power, which upgraded the aging system.

"Thank goodness we did that, because we would have been in real trouble," Wagoner said. "Our system was so old it wouldn't have been able to handle the cold ... and things would have turned out very different."

One family — located up the street from Wagoner — ran out of fuel for the furnace. Wagoner and another man — after several hours — were able to get a hose up the street to refuel the home.

The grocery store stayed open throughout the five-day ordeal, though it was difficult for customers to get there.

No one suffered any major injuries, but there was one medical emergency. Wanda Hensley went into labor with her first child late Feb. 2. A state highway department plow made its way into town so it could lead a convoy, including the ambulance transporting Hensley, out of Dubois.

"We were just hoping the ambulance would run with it being that cold," ex-husband Ace Hensley said. "And I was just hoping and praying they got her out before the baby was born."

The ambulance made it out and met up with another ambulance that carried Hensley to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center. Cody Hensley was born Feb. 3.

Blaine Grover's home on the outskirts of town was among the hardest hit, with drifts covering part of his house and massive blocks of ice forming around windows and doors. Much of the ice had to be cut away with chainsaws.

"It was so cold," Grover said. "We had to put our full snowsuits on, and face masks, just to go down to the corrals, but you could only stay out 15 minutes. It was scary because you'd go outside and you weren't sure if you'd come back."

Afterward, Grover said his children could walk right over the house. They had to burrow tunnels to the doors.

Digging out

Once the storm subsided, the process of digging out began. After days of high winds and frigid temperatures, the snow was as hard as concrete.

"The wind packed the snow so hard, a standard snowplow can't move it," Joe Laird told the Farm Times of Idaho. "It has to be picked up with a front-end loader and moved out of the way."

Clark County was declared a disaster area and the National Guard moved in with helicopters, dump trucks and heavy machinery to remove snow and help people get out of their driveways. It took days to clear tunnels through the community and weeks to move the snow. Many drifts were so large, they didn't melt until mid-April.

The livestock cleanup continued into the spring. As the snow melted, more carcasses were found. Ab Laird hired an animal byproduct company to truck away hundreds of dead animals, whose remains were processed into dog food.

Later, cattlemen's associations and ranchers from around the country banded together and donated 300 cattle to help the Laird family rebuild its herd. Despite the help, residents said the Lairds never recovered financially.

There were a few bright spots, however. Several days after the storm, helicopters discovered small groups of cattle that had broken through fences and walked miles to escape the storm's fury.

"We had 14 head crawl out of the fence and we caught them near Roberts," Grover said. "We went down there with trailers, and boy, we didn't even have to herd them in — they just walked in they were so cold."

The area escaped major structural damage and once the snow was cleared away, Wagoner said life in Clark County returned to normal. But residents who remember the storm still admit feeling a tinge of fear every time they feel the bite of a strong winter wind.

"I never want to go through another like it," Grover said.