Carriers deal with deep-snow challenges
In bringing the news to Northwest Montana, carriers for The Daily Inter Lake don’t get snow days — even when record-breaking snow falls as it did on Monday.
For Mike Fugina, home delivery manager for the Inter Lake, the job only ends when it is finished or too dangerous to continue.
“I was out delivering papers myself this morning,” he said. “I started at Creston and it was drivable, but it started getting deeper and deeper out by Lake Blaine until it was just too deep to drive.”
He’s far from alone. The many paper carriers that bring the news to the Flathead and elsewhere in the region had to fight through drifts and snow-choked roads to deliver it.
“We were getting phone calls as early at 12:30 a.m. about how deep the snow was,” Fugina said. “We got lots of reports in [that described] over a foot of snow. All the people who got out there put forth one heck of an effort.”
The carrier who delivers on Buffalo Hill, Cecilia Diaz, drives a Ford Focus and found it difficult to overcome the snow.
“The police stopped me and asked why I was walking in the road,” she said. “I said my car couldn’t make it so I need to walk on the berm.”
Diaz delivered to the 59 seniors at Buffalo Hill Terrace, moving that up in priority among her other routes.
“I needed to get them the paper,” she said. “My people just love me and I couldn’t let them not get their paper.”
The snow was so bad that Diaz was planning to rent another vehicle for the next two days to keep up with her routes.
Fugina said this was the worst storm he has seen since he moved to the area in 2003.
Not quite every route was fully delivered, despite the effort.
“We didn’t get up Big Mountain this morning,” Fugina said. “The carrier who handles that route got up Iron Horse and along the lake, but the mountain was too much.”
A driver handling Polson and up the west side of Flathead Lake was moving at half her usual speed, even on the highway. Fugina said he was lucky to drive 20 mph on some sections of highway.
“I think the worst has happened,” he said. “It’ll take a few days to get back to normal, but I think people should be getting their papers soon.”
Despite the snow challenges, however, most Inter Lake subscribers received Monday’s newspaper. As usual, should you not receive your paper, you may call the Circulation Department at 755-7018.
Online:
For our readers who did not get the Inter Lake delivered due to the snow, here is a free link to our e-Edition:
http://eeditions.shoom.com/doc/daily-inter-lake/05jan15dil/2015010501/#0