Article Photos

Scott Walters and Mark Almquist were keeping a pretty good eye on the bread and milk Wednesday.

Walters, manager of the Estherville Hy-Vee, and Almquist, manager of Fareway, have become pretty good judges of that perennial barometer of Midwesterners' fear of the next storm.

It's usually dead accurate too. Just ask Almquist, who ran out of bread for two hours Tuesday morning.

"Monday was one of the biggest days we've ever had. We're trying to hold on here," Almquist said early Wednesday afternoon as a storm bearing as much as two feet of snow targeted Estherville.

Three semis unloaded at Fareway Wednesday morning. Despite that, said Almquist, "We're starting to run out of a couple things. This (storm) depleted our warehouse like it did three weeks ago."

Like other Estherville businesses, Almquist said customers have indicated their holiday travel plans are on hold - at least until the weather clears.

"There's a lot of them that have canceled their plans that I've talked to," Almquist said. "I've heard more stories about kids not coming."

"We sure are" busy, Walters said, noting that an ample supply of bread arrived Tuesday with milk coming Wednesday.

"People may change their Christmas plans too," Walters said, adding that many have indicated they've moved holiday travel plans to Saturday or Sunday.

"It's been busier than normal," agreed Pamida manager Steve Koenen. "I kind of expected it if it was going to be like this."

Koenen said that from 10 a.m. on Wednesday there was an exceptional number of customers.

"We're just in the preparation stage," said Emmet County Emergency Management Coordinator Terry Reekers. Reekers said snowmobiles and snowplows were ready to go in the event of an emergency.

In his 11 a.m. Wednesday conference call, Reekers said there was a potential of up to 24 inches of new snow between Thursday afternoon and Saturday. He said Estherville was in the middle of a predicted swath of 16 to 18 inches.

"Any way you look at it we're going to get a bunch," Reekers said.

Reekers said Iowa Lakes Electric Cooperative provided a link to a Web site to monitor power outages around the state.

"We are going to activate our emergency operations center this afternoon," Reekers said. The center will operate around the clock through Saturday.

"People did so well the last storm," Reekers said, encouraging people to just keep using common sense when making travel plans.

"You can celebrate Christmas next week after the storm," Reekers said. "We just want everybody to be safe. That's the main thing."