South Warned of Tornadoes, Freeze : Storm Strands Travelers Across Plains

Travelers spent the night snowbound in motels, armories and a stalled bus as blowing snow from the second blizzard in less than a week closed hundreds of miles of highways across the Plains.

“If you can imagine holding a piece of white paper up to your face and driving, that’s what it looked like,” Bill Hendrick of Des Moines said of driving in hard-hit eastern Nebraska.

The storm plastered eastern Colorado on Friday, then on Saturday shut down hundreds of miles of interstates and other highways there and in western Kansas and central Nebraska.

Dumps Foot of Snow

On Sunday, it moved into Iowa, dumping more than a foot of snow on the western two-thirds of the state, with 30- to 45-m.p.h. winds piling the snow into drifts up to eight feet deep around the community of Carroll. Snow also blew across Wisconsin and Upper Michigan.

More than a foot of snow fell Sunday on parts of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula while the southern third of the state had temperatures as high as 70. Spaulding had a 13-inch snowfall, while about 10 inches fell in Gladstone.

To the south, freeze warnings were issued into southeastern Texas, and Alabama peach growers were warned of lows in the 20s for late today. A tornado watch was issued for parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, and a second storm spread snow over southern New Mexico and southwestern Texas.

Wind Damages Houses

A storm packing winds up to 90 m.p.h. damaged houses and knocked down trees and power lines south of Houma, La., and there were unconfirmed reports of a tornado, authorities said.

Blizzard conditions abated Sunday in Kansas, and the sun shone in Nebraska although high winds still whipped snow on the ground.

Eighteen people spent about 23 hours trapped in a Trailways bus that got stuck Saturday near Holdrege in south-central Nebraska. They were joined by two stranded truck drivers, who raided their cargoes of pizza ingredients and produce to feed their companions, and three Phelps County road workers who went to check on the bus and got stuck.