The Northland certainly didn't need another reminder during this winter of subzero stretches that "dangerous" in "dangerously cold" must be taken seriously.
But news broke Sunday that a body was found frozen in an empty parking lot near the Copasetic Lounge on Central Entrance. Police identified the man yesterday as Scott Anthony Miner, 22. Officers believe he left the bar alone and then either fell or lay down. He apparently died of hypothermia.
Making his story more heart-wrenching was that, as a teenager, Miner survived an emergency kidney transplant. He spent much of the summer of 2000 in a Twin Cities hospital, vowing to be home in time to decorate his family's house for Christmas. Despite blood clots, skyrocketing blood pressure, vomiting, swelling of the brain and other complications, he made it. The News Tribune headline on Dec. 4, 2000, read, "A brighter season."
This winter's unmerciful cold has written far darker stories.
On Thursday, a 43-year-old man was found frozen stiff in his vehicle, which was found stuck in a snowy ditch north of Moorhead, Minn. On Jan. 13, a 51-year-old Hayward electrician named Timothy Brueggeman froze to death after sleepwalking. His body was found in an empty lot 200 feet from his home. He was barefoot and in his underwear.
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Two days after Christmas, Janice Goodger, 64, of Duluth, slipped on a slick patch of snow outside her daughter's home and fell hard. Unable to get up, she wrapped a long scarf around her legs, pulled her coat as snuggly around her as she could and waited as darkness fell. By the time she was revived, her heart had stopped beating for at least an hour and her body temperature had plummeted to 60 degrees. But -- miraculously and thankfully -- she survived.
At least six Michigan residents also have died this month: An 86-year-old woman outside her home; an 85-year-old woman after falling in her driveway; a 16-year-old boy on a frozen river; an 81-year-old man outside a relative's home; a 37-year-old woman in the snow outside her home, her sweatshirt and bathrobe several yards away; and a 93-year-old man who froze to death inside his home after the municipal power company restricted his use of electricity because of unpaid bills.
Moreover, two cold-related deaths were reported in Wisconsin over the weekend.
Victims have been men and women, young and old. The cruel cold doesn't discriminate. It can call and claim anyone, especially people who scoff at wearing weather-appropriate clothing, who don't carry working cell phones and who don't inform loved ones where they're going or take other vital precautions out of respect for a chill that can kill.
Northlanders must continue to be smart and to heed warnings with the steely grip of winter showing no signs of loosening. Tragic reminders of the cold's cruelty aren't needed.
