Slip n’ slide

• Sliding on the ice

Press Photo by Dustin Monke A semi-truck with Mississippi license plates tries to maneuver up the slight incline on 12th Street West on Thursday evening. The truck slid back onto the wrong side of the street while trying to enter the Budget Host 4-U Motel parking lot.
• Ice-covered car

Press Photo by Linda Sailer This 1994 Grand Am parked on Third Avenue East, Dickinson, is covered in ice by the rain mixing with cold temperatures Thursday afternoon.

Talk about it

Southwest North Dakota has been hampered by blizzards since December. But on Thursday, the area was slowed by the first ice storm of 2009.

Freezing rain throughout Thursday afternoon created hazardous driving conditions in the area. Law enforcement officials said only a handful of problems were reported as of Thursday evening.

Sgt. Will Vance of the North Dakota Highway Patrol said some collisions were reported but some calls were to help motorists whose vehicles had either gone in the ditch, or those whom had problems maneuvering on the slick roads.

“It’s extremely fortunate for how bad the roads got,” Vance said.

Dickinson Police Department Lt. Dave Wallace said only a few accidents were reported inside the city limits but he knew of other incidents outside the town, including some travel problems for semi-trucks near Killdeer. Those incidents were handled by the NDHP.

The North Dakota Department of Transportation issued a no-travel advisory at 5 p.m. Thursday for the southwest region that included all areas southwest of Interstate 94 west of Richardton to the North Dakota-Montana border and south of Highway 200 to the South Dakota border.

While the freezing rain stopped shortly after sunset in Dickinson, National Weather Service meteorologist Rich Leblang said the area should prepare for another shot of snow Friday morning, as well as high winds that could continue throughout the day.

Leblang said the snow was expected to start around midnight in Dickinson and last until at least noon Friday with an accumulation of 1 to 2 inches.

“The cold air will push back down south, and it looks like we’ll get another — on top of this ice — 1 or 2 inches of snow,” Leblang said.

Leblang said driving conditions will still be difficult because the snow will make black ice on highways very difficult to see.

The NWS has a winter storm warning in effect until 5 p.m. Friday for Adams, Billings, Bowman, Dunn, Golden Valley, Hettinger, Mercer, Morton, Slope and Stark counties due to the forecasted snow and 30-45 mph winds.

Leblang said the winter weather this state has received so far made him think of the 1980s, when it seemed like North Dakota had a rough winter every year.

“This reminds me a lot of the 1980s, where the winter lasted very long and we got everything,” Leblang said.

While the icy conditions didn’t cause too many traffic problems, Roughrider Electric Cooperative line superintendent Simon Kuntz hopes the same is true for the power companies.

During these storms ice has a tendency to collect on power lines, weighing them down, and sometimes causing the lines to break.

Kuntz said Thursday evening that once the rain began to stop, he felt a little relieved.

“If it doesn’t get any worse from where we are right now, we’re going to be in good shape,” Kuntz said. “… We’re hoping everything holds off until after the weather passes.”

Kuntz said Roughrider Electric customers can call 701-483-5111 to report any outages or power problems.

A Montana-Dakota Utilities customer service representative said their customers can call 1-800-MDU-FAST to report outages or problems.

Tags: dickinson, ice, road, national, weather, service, sheriff, police