Winter storm packs punch

The unusual winter weather, accented by wind, rain and blowing snow, that hit the region over the weekend took its toll and was especially hard on people, wildlife, and mechanical equipment.

The coating of ice made walking and driving treacherous, and the rain that accompanied the system ultimately turning into ice, made food sources for wildlife difficult to reach, especially the birds, finding it tough to access food because of the icy coating, and browsing animals that had to break through the icy crust to reach their food supply.

The icy coating also wreaked havoc with electrical power supplies, either directly damaging power lines and equipment, or causing tree limbs to fall into lines disrupting power.

In the Eagle Run development, located south of the Interstate off of Sheyenne Street, power was disrupted a couple of different times during the course of the inclement weather for up to three hours time, according to West Fargo Assistant Police Chief Mike Reitan.

He said the cause appeared to be some switch gear that got coated in ice that caused a malfunction.

The outages affected the apartment area in the north portion of Eagle Run, with brown outs and powerbumps experienced in other areas of Eagle Run.

Reitan said that for the most part traffic moved slowly with the end result no major accidents reported in the city.

"The ice coating remains and driving is still difficult in some areas," he said, advising motorists to continue to use caution when they are out and about.