A Cold Day to Dig Out | Video

Joel Porter | 11/12/2012

Most people have probably dug themselves out from Saturday`s storm by now. A few unlucky people are having trouble getting their cars to start. And after receiving about a foot of snow, there`s been a run at many stores on winter hardware.

From snow shovels to snowblowers, many places like Lowe`s started getting slammed yesterday. Expectations about the rest of the winter vary, people say they want to be prepared before the next big storm hits.

This has not been winter`s warmest welcome for Heidi Scherr.

"Well, I hit a mailbox coming home from work on Friday. So I`m not looking forward to the rest of the winter very much," said Bismarck resident Heidi Scherr.

This morning, Sherr and her mother are a two-woman team, digging out her Pontiac that was boxed in following a round of snowplowing.

"I have to be at work, so I have to get my car out," she said.

Saturday`s storm dumped around ten inches on Bismarck, reducing visibility and creating slick conditions all over town. That meant other people who had the day off work had their own shovel-ready project in the driveway.

"I actually put on a couple layers of clothes to come out and take care of the aftermath of the snowplow. So I took one layer off already. So it`s not a bad day at all to clean up today," said Bismarck resident Brian Bowker.

Places like Lowe`s in Bismarck were swamped with customers, picking up shovels and snowblowers.

"Luckily we have a really large supply because of the mild winter last year," said manager Alan Stumpf.

"The salesman didn`t quite know which way to turn. There`s so many people in there. I`ve been to a few other places today and it`s pretty much that way all over," said Mandan resident Richard Ames.

Ames was one of several people loading his endgate with a new snowblower after his old trusty model wouldn`t fire up following the storm.

"This is one thing where if we get a storm, you do not want your snow thrower breaking down. Most people do not want to shovel six, seven, nine inches of snow," Stumpf said.

"In fact, it brought to mind, mine needs a tune-up. So I managed to clear out this event and then I`m having it tuned up, so it`s ready for the next one," Bowker said.

Unfortunately, Scherr and her mother don`t have a snowblower yet, which meant that Pontiac stuck in the snow required a little more elbow grease.

"Thank God for my mom. I don`t know what I`d do without her," she said.

With her car finally free, Scherr was slowly off and running, albeit a few minutes late.

Stumpf says if your snowblower isn`t firing up, it probably just needs a tune-up or wasn`t stored properly. You can get a tune-up at two places in Bismarck. One is Bis-Man Tractor and Equipment. The other is Precision Small Equipment.

He adds that both places are also swamped right now, so you may be waiting days to get your machine looked at.

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