"The wind has picked up," Molly said nervously as we left the Central Office.
We had politely stood through Tabby's first meeting as the District Superintendent, and it went well enough for a first time in such a position. Hireman's policies were gone, and there was an additional surprise. Patten, through his connections with the School Board had created a special award for teachers who had overcome specific hardships. As we made our way out, Molly handed the award to me, and looked fairly happy about it. Entitled the "Perseverance Award", it included a brief description of what were the qualifiers for the award. The basic requirement was that a teacher or aide had to face some form of adversity that would make teaching difficult.
Molly fit those criteria easily considering all the racist things that R.A.M. had pulled to get rid of her. Looking at the wording, I guessed that the award could also go to those who overcome serious injury or something that nature as well, which was probably appropriate. Creating an award that only one person could win wouldn't make it much of an award and wouldn't make it fair. I also noticed that the award was post dated to the previous school year. The 2011-2012 year, our first year in Columbia Falls. That probably fit well, as the worst of R.A.M.'s and Hireman's racism went on during that school year. This school year wasn't over yet, and already things were looking up for Molly.
"Yes," I nodded slowly, "Yes it has."
And the wind had picked up. The local paper and local news reporters had reported that a large storm was headed toward Columbia Falls. It seemed to match the blizzards that blew through Arizona, New Mexico, southern Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and southern Nebraska before Christmas of 2011. And now things seemed to be balancing out weather wise. Now it looked as though Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, northern Colorado, and northern Nebraska would get it, and portions of Idaho were already getting it in a way. The reporters had so far figured that the storm would just glance by the Columbia Falls area before moving on, but one could never be sure.
The major clouds from this storm weren't visible yet, even to mine and Molly's eyes, but we could feel the wind against our fur and our clothes. We didn't know if it was going to hit us in full force or just glance by, yet, but the growing gusts of wind let us know that it was coming.
"Do you think it'll get us?" Molly asked, referring to the incoming weather.
"I don't know... at the moment, I'd say, I think we are going get it," I sighed.
And from the way the wind was blowing, we could guess that we would rather easily. The temperature had been fairly cold already, mostly from Columbia Falls' elevation, but we could feel it getting colder. And the wind was slowly starting to pick up, which made it feel even colder. Now, cold wasn't entirely a threat to Molly and I. While the Bengal Tiger rarely encountered cold temperatures in the wild, it did encounter them in zoos that were in colder climates. Now, a zoo tiger was helped by humans, but it had been seen that their fur did grow a bit thicker in the winter, which wasn't seen in India. And Molly and I had noticed enough of this on ourselves already. While our fur hadn't grown out to the length seen in Siberian Tigers, it was a bit longer then the length in Bengal Tigers in India. That kept Molly and I reasonably warm, and we were physically large enough that the corps of our bodies warm enough to do what was necessary. Hopefully, the other people in Columbia Falls would be able to survive what was coming as well.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The next morning, the clouds that the storm was bringing were visible on the horizon and were blowing toward the town. As Molly and I made our way out to begin our day, we could see the clouds running across practically everything in our field of vision. And the wind was blowing harder from the northwest. Based on the wind direction there was no way the storm would miss us.
"You asked me last night if I thought we were going to get it..." I said nervously looking toward those clouds, "I think I know now. We are going to get it..."
"It might only be the edge of the storm, and this will only last a day..." Molly commented, "hopefully."
"Hopefully," I nodded.
We made our way into town quietly. Outside of the wind, it was a fairly quiet walk. The few signs of human activity that was there was the sound of car engines. Most people weren't going to be walking around in the storm that was coming. It wasn't at the town, yet, but was clearly on its way. And the fact that the storm was approaching remained a subject of conversation as I arrived at the High School.
"Today looks like it could be both short and chaotic," Officer Barnes commented as we made our way in, "the clouds out there do not look friendly."
"No... they don't," I nodded, "Do you know when they'll get here?"
"I'd expect by noontime or so," Officer Barnes sighed.
"We might be able to make it through today, then," I commented, "the schools go to about three PM before they end... if it arrives at noon, they'd have only three hours to finish the day."
"I suppose," Officer Barnes shrugged, "but if the storm is as BIG as they think it will be, we'll probably end up missing a few days of school while everyone digs out."
"Really?" I asked.
Some of this was my own concern on these sorts of things. Molly and I had seen blizzards before in Peoria when we grew up, and we had had snow days, but that was on flatter ground at a lower elevation. Temperatures had tended to be warmer then they would be in places like Columbia Falls, which was further north and higher up in elevation. Because of these differences, I tended to figure that winters in Columbia Falls could be much worse then Peoria.
"Yup," Officer Barnes said simply, "normally we get a fair amount of snow and our fair share of blizzards. Because of the volume, they normally close many of the roads into the more rural areas and close access to Glacier Park. They may make some effort to keep the major highways open... but with storms such as the one that's coming, even those are closed from time to time. Some of our more recent years have been more mild then normal... blame global warming if you must... but I think we're about to make up for it now."
Something in the way he finished with the global warming comment seemed to have some sarcasm to it. Not really familiar on it, I didn't say anything. People on the news had seemed to find people who argued on that in both directions, adding to it, though, wouldn't do any good.
"Do you know if this is the edge of the storm or the main part of it?" I asked nervously.
"From what I saw on the news this morning... it looks like the cell has changed direction and moved further south then originally protected," Officer Barnes sighed, "we're a lot closer to the center of the storm front then the edge... maybe not dead center, but we aren't on the edge."
"So what will we have to do?" I asked.
"So long as we're in the DARE program, we'll finish out today," Officer Barnes shrugged, "if the blizzard gets strong enough to cancel the following days of school, we'd be considered "on call" to be used as Officer Howard needs us... you might not be called in, being as your out there on the mountains outside of town... but then again, you might be called to check in on some of the other ranches and homes out there. It will depend on what we get in the city limits and what the County Sheriff is able to do... though they usually do fairly well. Each county around here has at least one treaded patrol vehicle."
"Cops in tanks," I couldn't resist the joke, "Next you'll tell me we play Army at football."
"You're the pulling guard," Officer Barnes chuckled back, "anyway, we'll need to be ready this afternoon. Make sure we're on hand in case there are any accidents trying to leave the parking lot.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And the snow did arrive around noontime. The wind was still blowing hard, but at first the flakes that came down were fairly far apart. Over the course of the afternoon, however, the snowfall began to get heavier. Shortly before the High School's day ended, I managed to make a phone call to the Elementary School. I got one of the secretaries, and told her to pass a message to Molly that I would be doing a bit of "traffic control" type work after school and that she should head straight home. When the school day, did end, the snow was falling very hard and it was rapidly beginning to impede visibility.
It was a weather condition on a scale I'd never seen before. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the High School students managed to get out of the parking lot safely. As they did so, Officer Barnes then sighed and looked up.
"Well... if this keeps up, I'm sure tomorrow's school day will be canceled," Officer Barnes said slowly, "if you can... I'd hunker down and stay inside."
"I intend to," I commented, doing my best not to shiver.
The air temperature was cold, but still tolerable for me. What was the real biting cold was the wind that was blowing. With my work done for the day, I headed back toward Bandhavgarh as quickly as I could. As I went, I wondered over some things. Would the power last, or would the weight of the snow take out power lines somewhere? Would Dave's vineyard make it? Grapes were normally a very warm climate plant and didn't do well in the cold. Dave had made assurances that his vines could withstand the cold, and he seemed to be smart on the subject, so I couldn't really judge there. But I wondered if they could withstand the wind the blizzard was generating.
I found Molly setting out a couple of candle holders in spots.
"Thank goodness you made it home!" Molly stated as I shut the door and began wiping the snow from the bottom of my feet on the mat that we had near the door, "It's worse now then it was when school got out for the day!"
"It's not looking good," I nodded, "Have we lost power at all?"
"No... but I'm getting things ready," Molly answered, "If the power does go out, I figure our eyesight will be good enough to light candles... but we'll wait until that happens before actually lighting them."
I nodded, "Sounds okay."
Molly then began to update me on the things that had been going on.
"Uncle Frank has also moved all his cattle into the barn/shed/stable area down there in the hopes of keeping them warm," Molly spoke, "or at least keeping them out of the wind."
I nodded. The security of the cattle, however, was fairly easy to understand. People had been ranching in areas like this for many years, and had picked up various tricks to keep as many cattle as possible alive. I was sure there were always the odd loss here and there, but the ranching industry was familiar with winters in regions such as this.
"Do you know how Dave is doing?" I asked, "Did you call him?"
"Just to see if he might need help with anything," Molly nodded, "you know the fence he's built around his vines to keep deer and bears away from it?"
I nodded. I had seen it when the ranger had asked me to check the scent the bear that had gotten to Dave's vines this past fall to see if it matched the bear that had been trapped near our garage at our cabin. And both us had seen it when we made our way up to Dave's home for New Years.
"He's got some old pieces of plywood from somewhere and bolted them to the chain part of the fences," Molly answered, "he said that'll keep the worst of the wind off them... and that if he could keep the wind off of them, the vines he's planted are engineered to withstand the cold."
"He's always said the vines he had were specifically engineered for colder temperatures," I nodded.
"A good thing, too," Molly answered, "it's freezing out there! Even with all the fur... it's freezing."
I moved into our living room to look out a window to see the snow coming down outside our cabin. We had had some snows here and there before this storm hit, but the accumulation of snow in each snowfall wasn't too much and there was no heavy winds going on. Now, a large amount had already fallen, and the winds were picking up and throwing snow around, and that included the snow that had fallen before this storm arrived. It was accumulating deep in places with drifts rising even higher.
"Did they tell you if they're going to cancel school tomorrow?" I asked.
"Just about everyone figured if this kept up, school will be canceled," Molly nodded, "a lot of that is up to either the bus company or to the District Superintendent."
I was about to say something when the phone rang upstairs. Being closer to the stairs, Molly was the one who answered the phone. I continued to watch the snow fly outside as I heard Molly give a series of "yeahs" and "uh-huhs" to whoever had called. After a few moments I heard Molly returning downstairs.
"That was Tabby," Molly spoke, "based on what's come down already, and what is expected to come down through the night and into tomorrow, there will be no school tomorrow. Things for the day after won't be determined until tomorrow afternoon... but based off of expectations at the moment... that day might also be canceled."
"And to think we used to look forward to snow days," I commented.
"None like this," Molly answered, "this could kill someone if he or she was out in it!"
"Then hopefully people are smart," I commented, "and stay out of this."