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Digging out

Saturday's blue skies and sunshine were a far cry from Friday night's storm which left 5 inches of fresh snow on the ground. Though the snow was blowing, obstructed visibility and left a mess to clean up, travelers reported few accidents. Don Neu...

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Press Photo by John Odermann Mike Fisher with American Family Insurance clears the parking lot of snow outside of his insurance business on West Villard in Dickinson Saturday.

Saturday's blue skies and sunshine were a far cry from Friday night's storm which left 5 inches of fresh snow on the ground.

Though the snow was blowing, obstructed visibility and left a mess to clean up, travelers reported few accidents.

Don Neumann with the North Dakota Highway Patrol said troopers only received a couple of reports and those involved cars going into the ditch with no injuries.

"I guess after the first couple storms people really get used to it and they hunker down a little bit more," he said.

"It's possible that people were just more prepared or driving slower."

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Employees at truck stops Superpumper in Belfield and Tiger Discount in Dickinson said it was an ordinary night with about the same number of truck drivers stopping as any other night even with the stormy conditions.

Dickinson's snow clearing crews worked through the morning to get the streets clear for travelers Saturday and will continue today.

"We're working at it. We're going to keep plowing until about 5 tonight and then we'll start again at midnight," Ken Kussy, Dickinson's Public Works manager for streets said Saturday.

Kussy said the road crews started clearing snow at 6 a.m. Saturday and would continue through this afternoon.

Earlier in the week, following snowfall Monday, the city's snow removal crews almost worked a 25-hour shift.

The longer-than-usual shift was so the city employees could celebrate the Christmas holiday.

"That was unusual to run that long, but we do run some horrible hours during these storms," Kussy said. "We're kind of short of help. The city's growing and it depends on the amount of contract labor I can get, but a lot of the contract labor is pretty busy in the oil fields."

After clearing the main arteries, Kussy said crews will move to residential areas.

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Teams of plows will be assigned a residential quadrant and clear that location.

Kussy said the majority of the city should be plowed by Sunday afternoon if everything goes as planned and no more snow falls.

This storm brought a little more snowfall than anticipated Friday, but that's all part of the job, Kussy said.

"I think everyone was surprised by how much fell," he said.

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