Get these weather kits in your vehicles

Bob Hill is the Brookings County emergency manager.

A new year brings another year for you to make your mark on our community. We have had a brief spell of fairly pleasant weather and I expect that may change soon.

While cleaning up a bit this past weekend, I found a few things in front of my house that made me think of the following advice.

I found a metal clothes hanger and a few large rocks on my sidewalk. At first they were not a problem in my eyes. But when I pulled my snow thrower out of the shed, the clothes hanger and the rocks became the focus of my afternoon. When the snow comes, and trust me, things like these will be covered. Guess what happens when you run a snow blower over a big rock?

From my own experience, I can tell you that one of two things happens. The first time it happened to me, it put a hole in my plastic snow chute. After buying a new chute and reinforcing it with a metal plate, the next stone ended up putting a dent in the siding of my house. I was lucky it wasn’t a car window. So if you get a chance before the next snowfall, walk around the areas you are clearing with a snow thrower and remove any flying projectiles. Of course, if you only use a snow shovel, you can ignore this advice for now. Just save it to your memory when you upgrade to snow thrower.

The last few systems that came through the area had some rain/sleet that turned to snow. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t use my cruise control after it’s snowing because it can cause you to lose control of your vehicle pretty quickly. Just because you drive a vehicle with four-wheel drive, or four-wheel drive, doesn’t really make a difference when it comes to using cruise control. What gets you is when you go from a dry surface to a wet, snowy surface or black patches of ice on the roadway. Black ice tends to sneak up on you. It’s almost like bridges. I see bridge signs that say the bridge freezes before the roadway, why would it do that you might be wondering? Because the bridge deck does not have the ground protecting it from the wind like the road surface.

I may sound like a broken record, but: Carry an emergency kit when traveling in this type of weather. Vehicles can break down in any weather, but if you’re not prepared in the winter, it can become a life-and-death situation in a hurry.

You say you can’t afford a fancy set? I have been known to grab a few blankets from my bed and throw them in the back seat. You live in South Dakota, so you probably also have an extra hunting coat in the closet or garage that comes with the car. This also applies to a stocking hat and some kind of gloves. Take your cell phone charger from the house with a few bottles of water and you can survive at least one night.

If you ever break down on a road, it’s always best to stay with the vehicle. It is easier to find a vehicle than a single person in a blizzard. Some people will say, ‘Well, there’s a farmer’s house in the distance. I can handle it’. I’ll have to say, ‘Are you sure?’ When the wind blows and it snows, your eyes can start to see things that aren’t there.

Another thing recommended in this area is to let people know where you are going and when you are expected to be there. It will help first responders try to get you help if they are called. It is also important to pay attention to the weather forecast. Yes, I realize that sometimes they are wrong, but then they are also right some of the time.

The final part of this article will discuss our area’s first responders. Brookings County and the surrounding area has the best first responders I could ever hope for. All interactions with hazardous situations—a fire, a car accident, a hazardous substance incident—each one starts locally, and the people who respond to them are you, your neighbors, your friends, and often people who don’t know you , but who put down whatever they are doing and respond to the emergency.

The recent fire in downtown Brookings is a good example of this. I have seen it on Interstate 29 during accidents, after wind events in Elkton, Sinai, Volga, Bruce, White and other parts of Brookings County. I have seen first responders give their all to try to save life and property. To say thank you, try to support the first responder agencies when they have events such as dances, pancake feeds, rocky mountain oyster feeds and other fundraising events to raise money to buy equipment.

In conclusion, let’s work together as a community and make Brookings County a safer place in 2025 and beyond.

And of course, always keep an eye on the sky.

Bob EM.