By ROWENA PLETT

Staff writer

Snow amounts estimated at eight inches or more were reported in northern Marion County.

Rural mail carrier Steve Jirak of Ramona said mail never made it to the office Tuesday.

“This is only the second time in my 40 years as a mail carrier that this has happened,” Jirak said.

He still had to show up at the office and drove through two- and three-foot drifts to get there with his four-wheel- drive truck.

A northwest wind caused drifts in both directions.

The Jiraks, who live four miles west of Lost Springs, experienced flickering electricity throughout the night, but electricity was steady by noon Tuesday.

He planned to deliver mail today.

“It’ll be late, but I’m sure we’ll get it out tomorrow,” he said.

Derek Belton lives in Tampa and farms with his father south of town.

“There’s a lot of snow, a lot of drifts, and it’s muddy underneath,” he said.

With his four-wheel drive truck he was able to get through drifts on the road. He said north-south roads were pretty good, but east-west roads were not.

The Tampa area lost power around midnight, he said. As of 12:45 p.m. Tuesday, it still hadn’t been restored.

Belton said his house in town was not too cold, but he planned to install a generator soon. The farm has a generator to keep electricity flowing.

Ronnie Carlson and his sons, who have several feeder cattle operations east of Lincolnville, pushed snow all Tuesday morning to get to their cattle. Son Lucas reported plowing through six-foot drifts.

They also worked to get farm generators going because they needed electricity to load feeder wagons and water cattle.

Their electricity was off overnight but was restored later Tuesday morning.