Winter Storm Slams North Dakota
Residents in North Dakota are still digging themselves out of their homes after a severe blizzard swept through the state earlier this week.
Authorities in Minot, North Dakota, issued a travel advisory to community members because of the treacherous weather conditions. The Minot International Airport reopened this morning after closing for nearly 12 hours because of snow and strong winds, the airport's director, Rick Feltner, told ABC News.
Videos of the airport's runway conditions were posted on Facebook.
"We had a blizzard warning in effect starting Sunday night ... and this was on top of about 17 inches of snow we got last week. While the storm didn't produce a great deal of new snow, the temperatures plummeted, and the wind picked up, 30 to 35 miles per hour. In those conditions, visibility is greatly reduced," said Feltner.
"It was an unusual situation for us to close the airport. We're usually pretty good at keeping things open here, but it was more than we could keep up with this time," he added.
Roommates Lauren Otradovec and Natasha Harvey live 20 miles north of Minot in Glenburn. On Tuesday morning they opened the front door of their house to find a wall of snow.
"I honestly felt claustrophobic. I didn't want to feel like there was no way out," Harvey told ABC News. So she attempted to shovel her way out.
"We shoveled our side door, and within an hour, all the snow had blown back in. We're at the same point today," she added.
"There are hardly any trees here, and we live in a really small town, so the wind is pushing everything to our direction. The first layer on our house is pretty much ice, and the snow that keeps blowing is just freezing to that," she said.
Harvey hasn't been able to make it to work for the past two days. "I'm used to this weather, but this is crazy," she said.
A National Weather Service wind chill advisory is in effect for most of western North Dakota. The temperature in some areas is expected to feel like 30 degrees below zero with the wind chill.
