Snow Halts Travel, School From Plains to Northeast

A storm that dropped more than a foot of snow in some areas bogged down highways and closed schools Tuesday from the Plains to New England.

“I like snow. But I’d like to see this go. I thought the winter was over,” said Bob Neeley of Olmsted, Ill., which got about eight inches of snow, the most to fall in the Southern Illinois town since 1979.

Many motorists ended up in ditches or in fender-bender accidents. Police in western New York state blamed one traffic death on the weather. A Missouri woman who suffered a seizure at her rural home died while 12 inches of snow prevented ambulances from reaching her, authorities said.

“It’s very bad,” said Illinois State Police Sgt. Al Manint in Pesotum. “Roads are extremely slick and hazardous.”

About eight inches of snow had fallen in mid Ohio and up to 14 inches in Southern Illinois, the National Weather Service reported. Up to 10 inches of snow was forecast in parts of the Northeast.

Some Indiana state government offices were closed, or were opened late. Gov. Evan Bayh canceled an airplane tour of the state that he had planned to discuss Medicaid funding problems.

Schools were closed Tuesday because of snow and slippery roads in parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Grissom Air Force Base near Peru, Ind., closed for the day.

Even in New Hampshire, where snow usually isn’t a big problem, some schools announced before the snow began falling that they would close early to avoid slippery roads later in the day.

The storm had moved out of Mexico on Monday and collided with cold air over the Plains and the Ozarks, dropping 24 inches in parts of Arkansas. The storm pushed up through the Ohio Valley on Tuesday and into the Northeast.

Rain fell along much of the East Coast, but snow moved into the Appalachians with up to five inches reported in western Maryland.

In Southern Illinois, 12 to 14 inches of snow had fallen at Vienna, on the Kentucky state line, and about 80 stranded motorists spent the night on the floor of dining rooms at a motel or at St. Paul’s Catholic Church, said Johnson County Sheriff Elry Faulkner.

Interstate 70 west of Hays, Kan., was reopened Tuesday after being closed during the night with drifts up four feet high. The Kansas National Guard opened armories in Russell and Colby for about 50 stranded motorists, officials said.

The weather service reported up to 21 inches of snow at Southwest City, Mo. City Clerk Gayla Benge said the total was closer to a foot, but she added: “It is kind of dead in town today. People just aren’t getting out.”

The Southwest Kansas Research Extension Center in Garden City said it had recorded about 50 inches of snow since late November.