UPDATE: DECEMBER 31, 2010
Rescuers completed their efforts in the Mapleton area overnight.
Hours after an accident near Mapleton involving as many as 100 cars, rescue efforts continue tonight for the drivers still stuck out in that mess.
Visibility and road conditions are so bad, Cass County Sheriff deputies and the North Dakota Highway Patrol are rescuing people by foot and snowmobile.
Crews are still out there in these harsh conditions, rescuing people from car to car.
Sheriff deputies are working out of a tactical operations center, which will be used to coordinate any emergency responses during the storm. So far, they have sent people out on foot, snowmobiles and plows to rescue drivers now.
Once they pick them up, they'll take them to a bus near the Kindred exit and shuttle them to the Cass County Highway Department.
The good news is authorities were able to turn a large group around, and escort about 20 drivers back home a couple of hours ago.
Rudy Sigmund of Fargo was delivering medication when his car was pulled over near the accident sight around three o'clock this afternoon. He sat there with many other vehicles in white out conditions for three hours until sheriff deputies came to get him.
Rudy, who's diabetic, felt sick at one point because he needed his medicine.
"I was getting creeped out because I couldn't see anything," says Sigmund. "I got sort of disoriented when the snow was blowing. I couldn't see anything. I needed to take my medication at a certain time and didn't get it. I'm a Type B diabetic, which makes it even worse."
But for Rudy for others, sheriff's deputies got to him and escorted him home.
He was prepared. Rudy says he did have half a tank of gas but at one point his cell phone died. Good thing he carried his portable charger with him. It allowed him to stay in contact with sheriff deputies.
Tonight, he says he's feeling a little embarrassed, but he's glad to be home.
Sheriff Paul Laney says at this point, they're doing the best they can to bring people home before this storm gets any worse. But they have been in contact with people, who call the tactical operations center.
