October 31, 1991: The Halloween snow storm

I do indeed recall the Halloween blizzard which blanketed the Twin Cities area 25 years ago.

I was almost two months into my senior year of college at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Midterm exams were that week but, thankfully, my last one took place the morning of October 31 (the worst of the storm didn't occur until that evening). If I had an exam on Friday, November 1, no way would my little Chevy Nova have made it the 25-mile drive from St. Paul to River Falls, WI.

Thankfully the weekend job I had (a security officer at the Gillette Co. in downtown St. Paul, now the site of the St. Paul Saints stadium) was a mere 4 miles from my house. Typically weekends saw production workers from all three shifts come in to work overtime. However, other than a handful of maintenance workers, the plant was pretty much abandoned that Saturday and Sunday due to employees not wanting (or being unable) to endure poor road conditions.

The MN Dept. of Transportation was so ill prepared for a storm of this magnitude before mid to late November that Hwy 94 was a quagmire for a solid week after the storm. My commutes to school the following week felt as though I was driving on rocks for several miles. Yet the millisecond I crossed the border into Wisconsin, I-94 was dry as a bone. Yes, even 25 years ago Wisconsin's state government appeared more effective and efficient than that of Minnesota.

What do you remember most about that storm?

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