Minnesota Weather: The Southeast Continues To Battle Blizzard Snow
MINNEAPOLS (WCCO) -- This weekend's blizzard packed a punch that only Jack Frost could deliver, blanketing parts of the state with more than 10 inches of snow.
One victim of the storm was Oronoco Online Auctions. Tuesday morning, the roof of their storage barn gave way, crashing down on merchandise that was already sold.
Normally, employees would have been in that barn, but the bad weather caused employee Melissa Grigg's kids to miss the bus.
"It's a miracle that no one got hurt because we would typically be in that building by that time," Griggs said.
Housing tools, machinery and farm equipment, the barn is a total loss. Across town, the flurries toppled this awning outside a mosque and created new lane barriers made of snow across downtown streets.
Crews from the Minnesota Department of Transportation have been working around the clock since the blizzard hit, but their work is not over.
"There are drifts where you feel like you're in mountain territory, you know, and here we are in southern Minnesota," said MnDOT District 6 spokesperson Mike Dougherty.
On top of clearing away those huge snow drifts, they have to deal with slick roads. Eight ice scrapers were brought in to deal with compacted snow. MnDOT is also using Beet Heat, a de-icer that contains sugar beet juice to help battle ice at low temperatures.
"Everybody's done some winters, but they've never really had a winter like this for most of our folks," Dougherty said.
MnDOT has used 204,000 tons of road salt across the state so far this season.