Days Gone By: Feb. 8, 1996

• Backhoe 1996

Newly hired sports writer Bob Burrows snapped this shot of a backhoe operator digging into the alley behind Main Street where a gas pipe had broken over the weekend. Journal file photo

Talk about it

Editor’s Note: The winter of 1996 was a particularly grueling one for River Falls. Schools had been closed several times due to rain, snow and ice storms blanketing the region in January, motorists were stranded, road crews worked around the clock, ditches were full of snow so there was nowhere for more to go, and in the latest cold snap, residents were without power — even gas pipes broke. The following are recollections printed in the River Falls Journal during that time. Two new weather records were reached when the mercury hit 32-below one night and 35-degrees below two days later on Friday, Feb. 2.

A week of subzero cold took a heavy toll on pipes, cars and trucks. Mechanics and plumbers were overwhelmed.

“It’s just a mess, said Swede Svoboda, owner of Swede’s Union 76 station. “We’ve been working 18-20 hour days, including some late nights on Saturday and Sunday.

Failed car batteries were a big problem. Svoboda said many drivers, especially those with fuel-injected systems, flooded their engines with gas while trying to start their cars.

Jerry Wilkens said his service station was so swamped that by Friday morning he was turning down all jumpstart calls except for emergencies.

“We had hundreds of tows and starts,” he said. “Our parking lot was plum full.”

Wilkens said he ran out of new batteries and rushed in a special delivery of 50 more. His son, David, was busy towing conked out semis along I-94.

“We had 50 or 60 this past week,” he said. “David even worked all through the night once on the semis. Four (truck) drivers stayed in River Falls motels this weekend, so there was some spinoff business”

Paul Steiner, owner of Steiner Plumbing and Electric Inc., worked 36 hours straight between Friday morning and Saturday afternoon, fixing busted water pipes.

When it gets cold everything breaks down,” Steiner said.

The bitter cold boosted energy demands. A huge run on propane fuel nearly depleted local supplies.

Jean Robey at Skelgas said propane was hard to come by because supply trucks had to wait in long lines to refuel.

At Cenex Farmers Union, Steve Guise said the station’s propane bulk tank was empty by Friday. Two trucks still had propane to deliver to customers, though deliveries were limited to those whose heating needs were most urgent.

The cold even made itself felt underground, rupturing natural gas pipes by an alley in front of a house at 122 W. Cascade Ave. and in a downtown alley behind Hallmark and River Falls Home Furnishings.

“The frost gets down so deep it encapsulates the pipes and cracks them,” said Duane Pederson of St. Croix Valley Natural Gas.

Pederson said gas pipes are 4 feet underground, normally beyond reach of frost. But last week the frost went deeper. The pipes buckled where they connect to a flange.

St. Croix Valley Natural Gas workers spent all day Saturday and part of the night chipping at pavement and frozen soil with an air hammer to get at the damaged pipe downtown.

Pederson said none of the leaking gas caused the stores to be evacuated. “It was stinky but not dangerous,” he said.

In rural River Falls 400 residences were without power when temperatures dipped to nearly 40 below zero, causing overhead and underground wires to contract and snap. “”We lost our lights, heat and water,” Cora Seeland of N8205 1155th St., said. “We have our own well, so we were without water, too. The temperature inside was about 58-60 degrees, but it wasn’t unbearable. And our water pipes didn’t freeze, so that was good.”

Schools were cancelled, making it the third snow day of the year, so far.

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