Sioux Reservation Struggles After Blizzard
http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=123418458
In South Dakota, some residents of the Cheyenne River Reservation remain without power. Thats more than two weeks after one of the worst ice storms in the area's history. To make matters worse, the reservation sits in the poorest county in the entire U.S., with more than half the county's population living below the poverty line.
Charles Michael Ray of South Dakota Public Broadcasting has their story.
CHARLES MICHAEL RAY: On the Cheyenne River Reservation in north-central South Dakota, you're very lucky if you have one of these.
(Soundbite of generator)
RAY: For days, small gas powered generators like this one have been the only thing supplying electricity to parts of this isolated reservation. An ice storm that hit two weeks ago brought down some 3,000 power poles. The loss of electricity then took out the tribe's antiquated water treatment plant, leaving 14,000 people without reliable water. Before repairs could be made, a blizzard brought whiteout conditions and a wind chill of 45 below zero. Bernard Long with the Public Health Service is helping with recovery.
Mr.�BERNARD LONG (Public Health Service): They've been completely overwhelmed, like any other sovereign nation or sovereign state or even like what's happening in Haiti right now, they've been devastated that their communication, transportation, power, water, they've all been shut down.
RAY: The needs here outstrip the resources. Without power or water, some tribal residents are boiling snow in wood stoves to get drinking water. Areas where water is restored are seeing frozen pipes and indoor flooding.
Reservation communities like La Plant were among the hardest hit by this storm.
(Soundbite of children playing)
RAY: Children play and throw snowballs outside a trailer house that has become the town's emergency shelter. A few well used port-a-potties sit out front. About 25 people are crammed into this three-bedroom house. Cody Hill(ph) and her two children are here seeking shelter.
Ms.�CODY HILL: This is very hard, especially when you've got people complaining about all their needs, and then I can't get them their needs, you know.
RAY: Hill is exhausted and frustrated at the pace of the recovery. She says it's hardest on the kids at night.
Ms.�HILL: They have to all lay just anywhere and everywhere and on the floor, not at their own home, where they should be, you know, where they're safe.
RAY: Safety is a concern here. Cheyenne River Reservation is roughly the size of Connecticut, but with only 11 tribal police officers for the entire area. Residents are doing their best to look out for themselves.
Mr.�DANIEL LEBEAU(ph): This the only way I can get around is by horseback.
RAY: Daniel LeBeau and Ford Hill(ph) are riding their horses on the hard packed snow on the side of the road.
Mr.�LEBEAU: Right now we're going down and checking on elders and stuff along the road.
Mr.�FORD HILL: Elders need the help first.
RAY: One of those needing help is Florence Shaving(ph), a frail, elderly woman who's been without electricity or heat for nearly two weeks. A Coca-Cola bottle sitting on her kitchen table is frozen solid. She's keeping her plumbing from freezing by running the propane burners on her kitchen cook stove, risking carbon monoxide poisoning. But Shaving has no other heat.
Ms. FLORENCE SHAVING: What I'd like to have is a heater, but no place to get it, and we have to keep our sweaters on, our jackets on. I hope the lights come on.
RAY: Rural homes on this reservation could be without power for weeks as the need for the basics continue here. But the real concern for tribal officials is that winter is not over. The biggest storms of the year traditionally don't hit this part of the country until March or April.
For NPR News, I'm Charles Michael Ray.
This Jan. 29, 2010 photo provided by the South Dakota Rural Electric Association shows Moreau-Grand Electric Cooperative crew digging a 4-mile long trench in the snow north of South Dakota's Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe reservation to get to two broken wires following power and water outages caused by an ice storm.
This Jan. 29, 2010 photo provided by the South Dakota Rural Electric Association shows a Moreau-Grand Electric Cooperative truck driving down a 4-mile long trench to get two broken wires north of South Dakota's Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe reservation following power and water outages caused by an ice storm.
http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=123418458
In South Dakota, some residents of the Cheyenne River Reservation remain without power. Thats more than two weeks after one of the worst ice storms in the area's history. To make matters worse, the reservation sits in the poorest county in the entire U.S., with more than half the county's population living below the poverty line.
Charles Michael Ray of South Dakota Public Broadcasting has their story.
CHARLES MICHAEL RAY: On the Cheyenne River Reservation in north-central South Dakota, you're very lucky if you have one of these.
(Soundbite of generator)
RAY: For days, small gas powered generators like this one have been the only thing supplying electricity to parts of this isolated reservation. An ice storm that hit two weeks ago brought down some 3,000 power poles. The loss of electricity then took out the tribe's antiquated water treatment plant, leaving 14,000 people without reliable water. Before repairs could be made, a blizzard brought whiteout conditions and a wind chill of 45 below zero. Bernard Long with the Public Health Service is helping with recovery.
Mr.�BERNARD LONG (Public Health Service): They've been completely overwhelmed, like any other sovereign nation or sovereign state or even like what's happening in Haiti right now, they've been devastated that their communication, transportation, power, water, they've all been shut down.
RAY: The needs here outstrip the resources. Without power or water, some tribal residents are boiling snow in wood stoves to get drinking water. Areas where water is restored are seeing frozen pipes and indoor flooding.
Reservation communities like La Plant were among the hardest hit by this storm.
(Soundbite of children playing)
RAY: Children play and throw snowballs outside a trailer house that has become the town's emergency shelter. A few well used port-a-potties sit out front. About 25 people are crammed into this three-bedroom house. Cody Hill(ph) and her two children are here seeking shelter.
Ms.�CODY HILL: This is very hard, especially when you've got people complaining about all their needs, and then I can't get them their needs, you know.
RAY: Hill is exhausted and frustrated at the pace of the recovery. She says it's hardest on the kids at night.
Ms.�HILL: They have to all lay just anywhere and everywhere and on the floor, not at their own home, where they should be, you know, where they're safe.
RAY: Safety is a concern here. Cheyenne River Reservation is roughly the size of Connecticut, but with only 11 tribal police officers for the entire area. Residents are doing their best to look out for themselves.
Mr.�DANIEL LEBEAU(ph): This the only way I can get around is by horseback.
RAY: Daniel LeBeau and Ford Hill(ph) are riding their horses on the hard packed snow on the side of the road.
Mr.�LEBEAU: Right now we're going down and checking on elders and stuff along the road.
Mr.�FORD HILL: Elders need the help first.
RAY: One of those needing help is Florence Shaving(ph), a frail, elderly woman who's been without electricity or heat for nearly two weeks. A Coca-Cola bottle sitting on her kitchen table is frozen solid. She's keeping her plumbing from freezing by running the propane burners on her kitchen cook stove, risking carbon monoxide poisoning. But Shaving has no other heat.
Ms. FLORENCE SHAVING: What I'd like to have is a heater, but no place to get it, and we have to keep our sweaters on, our jackets on. I hope the lights come on.
RAY: Rural homes on this reservation could be without power for weeks as the need for the basics continue here. But the real concern for tribal officials is that winter is not over. The biggest storms of the year traditionally don't hit this part of the country until March or April.
For NPR News, I'm Charles Michael Ray.
This Jan. 29, 2010 photo provided by the South Dakota Rural Electric Association shows Moreau-Grand Electric Cooperative crew digging a 4-mile long trench in the snow north of South Dakota's Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe reservation to get to two broken wires following power and water outages caused by an ice storm.
This Jan. 29, 2010 photo provided by the South Dakota Rural Electric Association shows a Moreau-Grand Electric Cooperative truck driving down a 4-mile long trench to get two broken wires north of South Dakota's Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe reservation following power and water outages caused by an ice storm.
