More Storm Remnants

This post is from Gary. I went to the airport to fly home today only to find out that my flight was cancelled due to bad weather in Chicago. Rapid City Airport seemed very normal, but the snow really made for some traveling issues for many. The airport was completely closed yesterday. Here is a summary from Weather Underground regarding the storm:


The epicenter for the heaviest snowfall from Winter Storm Walda was in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Not unusual for an April storm.

In this case, it was the snowfall rate that was very impressive.

At the Rapid City, S.D. airport, 20 inches of snow fell on April 9. That set a new calendar-day snowfall record for that location, topping April 18, 1970 (15.6"). Records at the airport only date to 1942, however.

The final snowstorm total at the airport site was 28.2 inches.

As Weather Underground's Christopher Burt (Wunderblog) correctly points out, it's the 24-hour precipitation records that are most meaningful, from a climatological perspective.

With that said, the all-time 24-hour record for downtown Rapid City is 22 inches from April 17-18, 1970. The storm total downtown was 22.4 inches. It doesn't appear that all fell in a 24-hour period, so that record from 1970 should remain.

If you melt down the snow, the 1.21 inches of "liquid equivalent" precipitation on April 9 was the single "wettest" calendar day in Rapid City since May 19, 2011. Certainly desperately needed for drought relief.

Due to the heavy snow in the west, and ice to the east, a roughly 350-mile stretch of Interstate 90 was shut down from Rapid City to Sioux Falls.

So, the flight yesterday was nonexistent. United Airlines automatically rebooked my flight for today. When I went to the airport today I got dropped off by Stan and went to the ticket counter to find out my flight today was also cancelled. After exploring all options available, the only solution was to go with the same itinerary for Friday. Please pray that this can happen.

While in Rapid City, Stan and I stopped for some construction materials and we also stopped at a service station named Call Of The Wild that is a showplace of animal taxidermy belonging to the man, Dr. Pankratz, who donated the property in Keystone to the Keystone Project. I thought you might like to see some of his trophies. He is a real hunter, and all of these trophies and many more belong to his collection. Many of the trophies will be displayed at the Keystone Project Ministry Center.


After returning to the Rushmore Express, Rick and I tried to drive up the hill to the Ministry Center, but the ice was too much for Rick's car and we went back to the hotel. I went to the third floor to the Safari Room where we have had all of our meals. Pat and Carla were busy there as usual. They and the others who have helped, have provided this team with very good meals and we are very appreciative of that. Some of the women have been painting all week, and some have been cooking all week, but some have helped in both. The food has been superb. The kitchen is not real big, but it has been adequate.


Friday is the last day of work for all the team. I, Gary will go to the work-site with the team for a few hours before heading to the airport around 11 AM. The rest of the team flies home on Saturday morning. Thanks for following along on this brief project.

Wednesday in South Dakota

Today we awoke to the results of about 24 hours of snow.

Fortunately the snow was very light today and actually stopped before noon. At times you could see the sun shining through. How much did we actually get? Well, that is not easy to say, but we probably did not get the 12" to 25" predicted. Perhaps that much snow has fallen in the Rockies or elsewhere. At any rate, things have been very dry in South Dakota for a long time and this moisture is very welcomed, no matter how it arrived.



Gary's flight was cancelled for today and was re-booked for Thursday on the same itinerary, as Rapid City digs out from under this massive snowstorm. This kept the team together for one additional day of work and we ended up working rather late. Much was accomplished today as we concentrated on the Meeting Room. We actually began to install light fixtures. Some time was spent running wires for the L.E.D. backlights for ten frames that will eventually house copies of the Ten Commandments. We called this the Ten Commandment Wall. We also concentrated on painting areas that need finished.

Some mule deer walked past the building and one even took a leap.



There are two more days of work here and much has been accomplished this week. We did say "Goodbye" this evening to Rich and Jean who will be leaving before breakfast in the morning. Rich needs to be in Missouri tomorrow. We have all felt that this time spent together in South Dakota has formed friendships that will last into eternity. We are anxious to leave behind us a building that is very functional for the Keystone Project. Within one month they will have a rather large contingent of trainees here who hail from a number of countries throughout the world. We are hopeful that the facility will be very functional for these kinds of activities. The work on the building will continue long after the I-TEC team has left, but we are thankful that we have been given the privilege to make a dent in the project. Perhaps some of us will see this place again someday and take part in the work on the second, third or fourth floors. We have concentrated only on the basement and first floor in this trip. Maybe the Lord will make it possible for YOU to help out here someday???

Day 2 - Snow Day!

And then it snowed... the blizzard hit today and we are glad we can work inside. However, the drive from the Keystone Express Motel up to the Ministry Center is a treacherous one now.



First thing this morning we assembled outside the Ministry Center for a group photo of the entire team.


For a short time this morning we could see Mount Rushmore, but now everything is white.


As we moved inside we grouped to discuss what may be needed in the way of supplies to keep this large team in motion.
Stan and his twin brother Stuart have been extremely helpful in keeping us supplied.



The painters in the group continued on with second coats where needed and the building is really starting to look good.




A number of the men and women worked hard at cleaning the stainless steel and equioment in the kitchen.


The electrical work is progressing well. By the end of the day we had every receptacle on the main floor working except for three in the meeting room. We marked all of the outlets with the Panel number and the Circuit number to make it easy for the people here to be able to find and turn off a circuit breaker when necessary. We also marked all of this on the drawings.



Here are some general shots of the team working on the electrical project.


The snow came down hard most of the day. The team went down to the motel for lunch and on the way up the road after lunch we got one van stuck and ended up using Stuart's 4x4 pickup truck to shuttle the team to the top. The road was extremely icy and temperatures were expected to dip into the single digits over the course of the day with 30MPH winds. At times we could only see about 50 feet out through the windows of the Center. The forecast keeps changing. Originally we were to be finished with snow by 6 AM on Wednesday with the potential for 9" - 15" of snow. Later this changed to snow until noon Wednesday with the potential for 12" - 20" of snow. As I write this it is near midnight and it is still snowing. Gary was able to check in for his flight home, but the chances of the flight being on time at 1:49 PM Wednesday seem remote right now. Will have to check in with the airline in the morning. Rapid City Airport was completely closed today due to the weather.

The kitchen crew has fed this entire team very well. After dinner each evening there is a time of fellowship or challenge. Continue to pray for this team that God will do some wonderful things int he hearts of each team member and that the work He has desired for us to do will all be done for His glory. Thanks.

First workday

Today was Monday and we look back on all that was accomplished today and ponder the remaining work that needs done.
Electrically, we took the drawings given us and attempted to mark them up with correct panel names and circuit designations. Doug and Gary identified all of the main feeders and marked all of the panels. We marked up the Riser Drawing and Gary plans to draw this up in CAD. The engineering firm that drew up the original plans was willing to give them to us in PDF format, but not in CAD format, so we will attempt to modify the existing drawings we have so that the Keystone Project will have a good roadmap for many years to come. Pictures today did not show any of the electrical work we have done, but we are satisfied that the outlets we were able to install in the main Dining section of the building as well as outside, will suffice for future activities. The conduits and wiring in the basement are extremely difficult to trace and try to determine what the original installers had in mind so many years ago before the building was abandoned. A number of the crew were involved in painting ceilings and walls and also cleaning the very large commercial kitchen, which has never been used as of yet. Tomorrow we feel like we may accomplish more due to gaining some understanding of the original installers' methods. We expect to hang many light fixtures as well.


Yesterday we took a group photo of those who went to Mount Rushmore.


It was a great experience to look at the faces of those famous Presidents and to reflect on the heritage of this great nation.

Tonight the snow is falling very heavily and forecasts are for 9"-15" of snow by the time it stops around 6 AM on Wednesday morning. Gary is scheduled to leave Wednesday afternoon due to some prior commitments at his home church this weekend. This could be a real problem, so prayer would be appreciated. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the wind chills are predicted to be -5 to -15 degrees here in South Dakota, while the Wednesday temperature in Pennsylvania is predicted to be 86 degrees. This is very unusual.

The next post will have some more work pictures that will portray some of what is happening in the electrical field. Thanks for following.