Sunday, December 31st, 2006

Time	Event
9:09p	44 People stranded in one home because of storm Christine and Randy Glover weren't expecting any holiday guests this year at their small northeastern New Mexico ranch house between Clayton and Springer.     But as of Saturday night, they were packing in 44 people for the second night in a row— all of them travelers from a nearby highway who were left stranded by the blizzard of '06.     "I'm glad we were here at the right time and the right place, so we could help everybody," Christine Glover said in a telephone interview from her snowbound, 1,200-square-foot house, where motorists from Oklahoma, Colorado and Texas were making themselves at home— with help from the bounty of a food-service truck that happened to get stuck in the drifts with them.     The group of motorists at the crowded Glover home Saturday night included a Louisiana man who had a heart transplant 13 years ago and was soon to run out of medication, Christine Glover said.     She added that a National Guard Blackhawk helicopter might be sent in today to get him to Clayton.     "He's doing great," she said of the man. "We want him to go to 14."     Although the storm was breaking Saturday afternoon, U.S. 56 remained closed Saturday night. And Christine Glover said the Union County sheriff's department told her snowplows wouldn't be coming out until today.     The Glover home is about 40 miles west of Clayton just off U.S. 56. Their Triple M Cattle Co. uses two-way radios for communication, and Christine Glover said her husband was in his workshop Friday afternoon when he picked up radio transmissions from a group of drivers stranded in the white-out.     After nearly two hours, she said, she and Randy figured out the drivers were only 150 yards from their home.     "They finally ditched their cars and walked to our house. There's at least six or seven (cars) and a couple of trucks stuck on the road," Christine Glover said.     The stranded drivers range in age from a 4-year-old boy to a woman in her 70s, she said. One of the drivers was behind the wheel of a food truck, and he has since raided his cargo to provide food for the snowbound group.     "He broke the seal. It was a state of emergency," Christine Glover said. "I fixed chili yesterday. From the truck, we've had a lot of Campbell's chicken noodle, and vegetable beef, and chips and nuts. Pop Tarts for breakfast. We're doing really good."     Debbie Shumaker, her four teenage kids and her best friend are part of the group stranded at the Glover place.     Shumaker, who is from Miami, Okla., said her group was headed to Angel Fire for a ski vacation when they hit the brutal weather.     She said she and her son, who were in separate cars, were using the two-way radios when they discovered the Glovers.     Randy Glover "kept telling us 'Hang in there. Hang in there,' " Shumaker said. "We all bundled up, got out of the car and walked to his home. It was a fabulous feeling."     There were "angels on everyone's shoulders," she said.     Shumaker said the group of motorists has passed the time telling stories, playing cards and dominoes and cruising the Internet. Everyone has staked out a room in the house, with some sleeping on beds and the rest snoozing on the floor.     There's only one bathroom in the Glover home, and there's no chance for a shower: The ranch well is run by electricity, and the Glovers are keeping the bathtub full of water to use in the case of a power outage.     "Everybody is very courteous— they take turns very well," Christine Glover said of the commode situation.     "They definitely will remember this," she said of the group members, most of whose names she's already memorized.     "They say we're all going to meet back here a year from now, and we're going to do this again. They're already planning the reunion." (Comment on this)
9:14p	Official snow total for Clayton from this storm 30 inches This is the worst storm that this area has seen in over 30 YEARS (Comment on this)
9:16p	Tomorrow I will be going out again and I am going to take some pictures of the area.  It is amazing.  The store is almost out of food.  The last truck that they got was on Friday.  They have no bread, no milk, no chips, nothing really at all.  Unless this weather breaks up soon and the roads open up the next truck they will get could still be 3 to 5 days away.  The road between Clayton and Dalhart is closed because there are cars buried in the snow drifts so they can not use a plow to clear it away fast they have to go very slow, and between Clayton and Raton the snow is so deep a front end loader got stuck trying to clear the white stuff away.   I guess I am just trying to compete with jakflak for bad snow storms.  This has to be almost as bad as when Kaktovik got hit with a bad snow storm that caused them to loose power. (Comment on this)
9:21p	Ironic or what? Ancient Arctic Ice Shelf Breaks Free Scientists call changes in the region ‘dramatic and disturbing’ BY ROB GILLIES The Associated Press    TORONTO — A giant ice shelf has snapped free from an island south of the North Pole, scientists said Thursday, citing climate change as a “major” reason for the event.    The Ayles Ice Shelf — all 41 square miles of it — broke clear 16 months ago from the coast of Ellesmere Island, about 500 miles south of the North Pole in the Canadian Arctic.    Scientists discovered the event by using satellite imagery. Within one hour of breaking free, the shelf had formed as a new ice island, leaving a trail of icy boulders floating in its wake.    Warwick Vincent of Laval University, who studies Arctic conditions, traveled to the newly formed ice island and couldn’t believe what he saw.    “This is a dramatic and disturbing event. It shows that we are losing remarkable features of the Canadian North that have been in place for many thousands of years,” Vincent said. “We are crossing climate thresholds, and these may signal the onset of accelerated change ahead.”    The ice shelf was one of six major shelves remaining in Canada’s Arctic. They are packed with ancient ice that is more than 3,000 years old. They float on the sea but are connected to land.    Some scientists say it is the largest event of its kind in Canada in 30 years and that climate change was a major element.    Laurie Weir, who monitors ice conditions for the Canadian Ice Service, was poring over satellite images in 2005 when she noticed that the shelf had split and separated.    Weir notified Luke Copland, head of the new global ice lab at the University of Ottawa, who initiated an effort to find out what happened. (Comment on this)

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