Depending where on the plains
you were that day, there was between
eight inches and a foot of snow
fresh on the ground. From all accounts,
the blizzard picked it up
and ground it fine to a powder,
then added another foot
of new snow to it. The drifts
on the morning after the storm
were twenty and thirty feet deep.
In one low draw, a windmill
thirty-five feet high was covered
clear up to the topmost blades.
Houses and barns were buried,
and one man found his soddy
by falling in through the roof.
The temperature dropped
from just above freezing, at three,
to fifty below the next morning.