Hundreds Remain Stranded as Crews Work to Reopen Roads : Wind, Snow Shut Down Upper Midwest

A snowstorm that dumped up to 7 feet of snow shut down travel in the upper Midwest on Saturday and whipped up 15-foot waves on Lake Superior, while crews worked to reopen highways across the plains, where hundreds of people had been snowbound for two days.

Up to 7 feet of snow stranded skiers on Terry Peak in South Dakota’s Black Hills and 15-foot drifts were reported near Badlands National Park. In the hard-hit Nebraska Panhandle, 31 inches of snow was reported at Chadron, with 10-foot drifts at Crawford.

The Cheyenne County, Neb., Sheriff’s Department worked through the night and into the morning Saturday to reach people believed to be stranded in vehicles in the Sidney area, dispatcher Harlan Sage said.

“We’ll be lucky if we don’t find someone out in the country . . . dead possibly,” Kimball ambulance director Jim O’Brien said. He and Kimball County Sheriff John Thacker Jr. said the storm was the worst to hit western Nebraska in at least 18 years.

An elderly couple from Springview, Neb., were rescued Saturday by a relative on a snowmobile after spending the night stuck in their pickup truck, Keya Paha County Sheriff Gary Sell said.

Waves Top Seawalls

More than a foot of snow fell Saturday in sections of northern and central Minnesota, and it was whipped by a 50-m.p.h. wind that closed the Duluth airport for six hours. Waves estimated at 15 feet topped some seawalls along Lake Superior, the National Weather Service reported.

Hundreds of Hutchinson High School girls’ basketball fans, including the school band, were stranded overnight in Mankato, Minn., by snow and zero visibility after a victory in regional playoffs. The seven busloads of fans stayed in Mankato State University’s arena while team members got motel rooms. The motel operators said they checked out Saturday morning.

Up to 8 inches of snow blown by strong winds drifted over roads in northern Wisconsin moments after they were plowed Saturday. “We’re totally shut down,” said police Sgt. William Cronin at Superior, Wis.

Snow also fell across northern Michigan. “We’re getting a blizzard,” said state police Sgt. Larry Brown at St. Ignace at the southeastern tip of the Upper Peninsula.

On Terry Peak, skiers had been snowbound since Thursday, and Terry Peak Lodge manager Bob Ekeren said: “We’re out of bread and meat and potatoes. We’re making soup. There’s three, four feet of snow on top of cars. We can’t even find them.”

Crews Reopen Roads

Crews in Wyoming, Nebraska and South Dakota worked Saturday to reopen roads that had been closed by drifting snow and zero visibility, some since Thursday.

More than 200 miles of Interstate 80 across Wyoming and into western Nebraska reopened Saturday, and Interstate 25 was reopened in Wyoming. But many other roads in eastern Wyoming remained closed, the Highway Patrol said.

The reopening of I-80 allowed travel for the first time since Thursday out of Kimball, Neb., where about 700 people had been holed up in motels, private homes and the Kimball County Courthouse.

A 200-mile section of Interstate 94 in North Dakota, closed Friday afternoon, was reopened Saturday. Parts of a 265-mile section of Interstate 90 in South Dakota were reopened but a 140-mile section between Kadoka and Spearfish remained closed, with 15-foot drifts in the Kadoka area, the Highway Patrol reported.

Residents of Rapid City, S.D., began digging out under bright sunshine, but some people were stranded in their homes with drifts up to the second floor.

Two busloads of children spent a second night snowbound in isolated farmhouses in western Nebraska and awakened Saturday to blowing snow but a clear sky. Road crews reached them Saturday.