Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
The behemoth storm was the worst to hit the region in 80 years.
Jorde Hamilton of Clovis cleared the parking lot of an apartment complex he owns. Hamilton said he worked on the lot for three days.
File photo: Tony Bullocks Snow from the storm lines Seventh Street in the days following Winter Storm Goliath. Sights likes this could be seen throughout the city of Clovis.
It was the seventh named storm of the 2015-16 season, but you'd be hard-pressed to find anybody who called Winter Storm Goliath lucky.
The best thing an eastern New Mexico resident could say about it? The storm that hit the day after Christmas could have been worse for the area.
Goliath, which stretched from New Mexico to Georgia and went as far north as Michigan, had twisters, floods and snowfalls of about a foot in Clovis and Portales and more than twice as much elsewhere in the country.
The death count was listed at 20, with none from Roosevelt or Curry counties. In Roswell, a 68-year-old man died of a heart attack suffered while shoveling snow and law enforcement found a 60-year-old man buried in the winter blast.
Most people postponed their after-Christmas shopping, which worked out because most businesses didn't bother opening. The Eastern New Mexico News' former iterations - the Clovis News Journal and Portales News-Tribune - went online-only because there was no point to print papers when most delivery roads were closed.
The dairy industry took a substantial hit, as many area dairies lost 5 to 10 percent of their cows, and New Mexico and Texas lost a total surpassing 30,000.
Gov. Susana Martinez mobilized the New Mexico National Guard to help stranded motorists throughout the state, but volunteers came through in a pinch as well. Ty Gonser, an equipment company worker, and Clovis Assistant Public Works Director Bill Kshir heard yelling and a car horn. They dug and found newspaper carriers Jimmy and Betty Anderson, who had been trapped under a 12-foot snowdrift for 20 hours.
A year later, we caught up with residents on their experiences with the worst storm to hit the area in more than 80 years.
