A Blizzard in the Great Plains - the Schoolhouse Blizzard

We don't think of winter blizzards as being especially dangerous nowadays, with all the technology we have today. But in the winter of 1888, they were not so lucky.

It was oddly warm on the days of January 11 and 12th in the Great Plains. People were out and about doing their chores, children went to school, and being warm that morning, nobody thought to wear warm clothing.
Nobody had seen it coming, nobody dreamed such a disaster would happen on a nice day such as that.

It has already snowed earlier in the month, but this was a nice warm break from the cold. It was like a spring day in the dead of winter. By early afternoon, the snow began to fall, lightly at first, then increased with a vengeance. The storm began to howl, and whistle through the houses and empty fields. The suddenness of it caught most people off guard. It was as deadly as it was fierce.

Within hours, the temperatures dipped to near 40 below, and visibility was almost blindingly zero. Some say the temperatures dropped nearly 100 degrees in just 24 hours. High winds blew the thick raging snow across the land. And the Artic air that blew was bone-biting. Some people tried to make it home, others tried for just plain shelter, not caring where. Most were the children who were in school, some stayed, but most tried to get home when the storm hit it's worst.

One of the lucky one's were the children under the care of Seymour Dopp, in Nebraska, who insisted the children stay with him, at the school. Burning what wood was stockpiled, and sharing what little food was left from the lunch meal, they extended the school day into over-night. By morning, the snow had stopped, and parents hiked through 5-ft drifts to reach the school. Some were not so lucky, Loie Royce and three of her school children ventured out into the raging storm, toward her house for warmth and food. Her house was less than 90 yards away. And yet, they got lost and with no sense of direction, the children died of hypothermia, Loie lost both her feet, to frostbite.

About 235 people died on that winter day of January 12th in 1888. The storm raged all across the Plains, the deaths were scattered. To this day, it is considered one of the worst winter blizzards of the Great Plain area.