The spring storm that walloped the Black Hills and northwestern South Dakota for almost 48 hours shattered snowfall records, stranded scores of motorists, shut down schools and businesses and snapped power poles, leaving hundreds of people without power.

It also left behind the danger of flooding for some areas.

Act I of the storm began Wednesday night and Thursday morning, dumping 6 to 18 inches of snow in the higher elevations of the Northern Hills.

Then, after a short intermission midday Thursday, Act II began, with rain that changed to snow late Thursday. About midnight, the storm began in earnest, dumping as much as 4 feet of snow in one location in Harding County in northwestern South Dakota. Most of that snowfall came horizontally, driven by 40 to 50 mph winds gusting up to 65 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

Early Friday morning, Buffalo area rancher Bob Johnson fired up his 4-wheel-drive Case tractor and drove through the blinding snow to fetch his daughter, Ann, and her 2-year-old, Emma, from their house a mile away.

Ann Johnson, like hundreds of others in Harding County, had lost power Thursday night and had no heat. So Bob hauled her and the toddler back to the home place where he and his wife, Mary, have a propane furnace - and a generator.

Johnson said as he drove toward U.S. Highway 85 from his ranch, power poles were down as far as he could see.

At least 8 miles of power lines were down in Harding County and hundreds of power poles likely were down, according to Grand Electric Cooperative general manager Jerry Reisenauer. He estimated the cost of repairs at more than $1 million.

Meanwhile, Bob Johnson and other ranchers began getting out Friday afternoon to see if they had lost calves or sheep to the storm.

In Rapid City, the deep ruts in the snow Friday morning looked like wagon tracks along West Chicago Street. One motorist reported she couldn't see a car length ahead of her.

Snowplows made a windrow of snow 3 feet high on Omaha Street, and motorists trying to cross it in sedans ended up high-centered.

Police reported 10 to 20 cars stuck in the streets in several locations in Rapid City. They threatened to cite motorists who got stuck while traveling on nonessential business.

The storm shut down Rapid City Regional Airport, Ellsworth Air Force Base, schools, businesses and medical clinics and postponed the grand opening of an exhibit honoring Pope John Paul II.

Officials in Spearfish, Belle Fourche and Butte County closed all roads to travel except for emergency vehicles.

In some areas, thunder accompanied the snow.

At 1 p.m. Friday, as the snow stopped, authorities allowed tow trucks to go out.

As the sky cleared, residents could see huge drifts of snow in their driveways - and in some cases, a few feet away, patches of green grass rich with new moisture and nutrients.

The storm also left behind a batch of records.

Rapid City Regional Airport received 11.0 inches of snow on Friday, a record for May 2, and the one-day snow record for the entire month, according to meteorologist Eric Helgeson of the National Weather Service office in Rapid City. The previous record was 7.5 inches in 2005.

At the NWS office in town, 11.8 inches had fallen by noon, breaking the previous one-day record for May of 10.8 inches set in 1950.

Perhaps even more important than records, the storm brought a lot of moisture to areas that had run behind normal averages for precipitation for most of this decade.

The storm brought total precipitation for the year to date, as of noon Friday, to 5.02 inches, 1.14 inch above the normal average of 3.88 inches in Rapid City.

With the storm, the NWS office had 5.04 inches of precipitation as of noon Friday, .27 above the average of 4.77 inches.

Some snow totals around the area

Harding County, 48 inches

Spearfish, 14 inches

Deadwood, 26 inches

Lead, 32 inches

Rapid City Regional Airport, 11 inches

Rapid City, 11.8 inches

West of Hermosa, 6 inches

East of Hermosa, 7 inches

Oelrichs, 6 inches