Last night the National Weather Service issued a Wind Chill warning for Nebraska because the temperature (with wind chill) could reach a negative 30 degrees. After this warning went out, almost every school/function in the area declared they’d be closed today due to excessive cold. Excessive cold? A wind chill of negative thirty is excessive? Since when?!
Now, when I was a young kid in High School, I had the joy of living in North Dakota. One day we went to school and the wind chill was negative 80. That’s right… negative 80 degrees. We didn’t get the day off. In fact I recall waiting at the bus stop that morning thinking it was a bit cold out. I used to tell people this and they’d look at me as if I told them I also had a pet Jackalope. Well, the joke’s on them now! After doing some checking, look what I found (pdf):
DAMAGE: North Dakota remained under a wind chill advisory January 16 after an
Arctic storm that started the previous day brought winds of up to 50 miles per hour
and wind chills of 60 to 80 below. The N.D. Highway Patrol reported blowing snow
resulted in the closure of the following roadways: 1-29, from South Dakota to
Canada; I-94, from Montana to Minnesota; U.S. Highway 83, the northbound lane,
from Bismarck to Minot; and U.S. Highway 2, from Grand Forks to Lakota. The
Highway Patrol has since reopened U.S. Highway 83, I-94, I-29 and U.S. Highway 2.
County offices closed early, and classes were suspended January 15 in many North
Dakota schools as a result of the ninth snow storm of the season. Many school
superintendents have expressed concern about the number of school days missed
and are asking the Governor to forgive those missed days.
There… notice how it said “classes were suspended January 15 in many North
Dakota schools” and not “all North Dakota schools”? So just sayin’… negative 30 is nothing to shut down school for, especially if there’s no snow with it (did I mention it was also snowing that day back in 1997?). Sheesh… kids today!
Wow, that was the craziest thing ever. The caucus was set to start at 12:00, so Jess and I arrived at 10:30 so we weren’t late. We registered early and sat down. We were told they were estimating about 800 people. Around 11:30 they probably already had over 1000 people inside and were starting to panic. Apparently traffic was backed up and there were lines out the door. At 12:00 we were told to move from the cafeteria to the main entry way as they were running out of room. At 1:00 they announced they’d be running late because they were still letting in the lines of people.
By 1:30 we were told to go into the gym, and it was instantly packed… with just 3 districts! There were still people in other areas. The current estimate is around 3000 people showed up for the caucus. As far as our districts went, we seemed about evenly split down the Clinton/Obama border (I couldn’t tell who had more supporters, seemed pretty even… not a sweep for either candidate), not really seeing that many Undecided voters.
We were finally able to cast our ballots (in a sense) and get out of there by 2:30. It was a madhouse. As we were leaving we heard other districts just starting. I’d almost assume people are still there. Even though it was a complete madhouse, I’m glad I went. I got to talk to a few fellow Hillary Clinton supporters, as well as a few Barack Obama supporters and they all were very nice and articulate on why they liked their candidate. Amazingly all said they’d support either candidate if they won, and they hoped whichever got the nomination would take the advice from the other. I was surprised at how civil it was!
Now, I didn’t bring my camera because we weren’t sure if they’d allow it, so all I have are some cell phone shots, but they get the point across that there were plenty of Clinton supporters at the Sarpy County Caucus:
Now we sit and wait for the results. The Omaha Channel is keeping track with live updates here, and I’m sure CNN will as well as the day goes on. Now it’s time for me to go back to redesigning this site! I’ve got quite a start and I can’t wait to see it in action! Until next time, folks!
UPDATE: Seems they estimated for less than 500 and had over 6000 (from KMTV News):
A sea of Nebraska Democrats packed into the gym at Papillion La Vista South High School. Organizers only expected about 500 people at this caucus site . The county chairman says 6,000 showed up.
Jess and I just got back from the Husker game (thanks to the Pres of my company we got great seats). Today the Huskers managed to squeeze out a 41-4o victory over Ball State (David Letterman’s alma mater) and all in all it was a great game. Jess and I got some sun, and are kinda pink and need to remember to wear sunscreen in the future. Really, just wasn’t thinkin’ when we went out this morning.
Check this out… a shot I took of Nebraska’s winning touchdown (click for full pic):
I told ya they were nice seats!
Well, Jess and I will be heading over to Scottsbluff National Monument tomorrow. Figure we’ll go see what that side of NE looks like. We’ll be stopping at Wildcat Hills as well to do some hiking (we got a nice new backback and supplies so we’re more than ready to go!).
I hope to get a few nice shots to put on here…. that would be great! 
It’s been thundersnowing (blizzard + thunder & lightning) all morning. It looks like it’s gonna keep up for most of the day (it’s moving the direction of the arrow and I’m at the dot that says “Omaha”):
It’s times like this that I wish work was like school and I’d get the day off. 
