Another Storm Aims at East; Snow, Floods Trail in Its Wake

The latest of this winter’s barrage of snowstorms barreled up the Ohio Valley toward the Northeast on Wednesday with the possibility of a foot or more of snow.

“I’m ready for it to end. I want to get some golf in. I’m getting antsy,” said Mike Verez, an art gallery employee in Edinboro, Pa., where there was a chance of up to 24 inches of snow.

In its wake, the storm left a foot of snow in the Texas Panhandle and 18 inches at Branson, Mo., the country music town in the Ozarks.

Winter also took another jab at western North Dakota, where ice jams caused flooding on the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers that inundated 10,000 acres of farmland. Gerald Beck, McKenzie County disaster management officer, said he knew of about 25 farms where residents had been forced to leave since last weekend.

In Ohio, flights were delayed Wednesday at the Port Columbus International Airport in Columbus and at the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport near Cincinnati as crews struggled to keep runways clear of snow and planes free of ice.

Six inches of snow had fallen in parts of West Virginia, and a flood watch was posted because some areas received an inch of rain for the second straight day.

Up to a foot of snow was possible in southern Illinois, southern Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, the National Weather Service reported.

Even though southern Missouri was hard-hit by the storm, there was no immediate change in plans for the Branson Jam, which runs from today through Sunday and kicks off the show season.

Police Chief Steve Mefford said schools and businesses were closed as crews worked to clear snow from area roads. Tree branches, roofs and awnings buckled under the burden.

“It’s a mess, basically,” Mefford said. “It’s real pretty, but it’s broken a lot of nice trees.”

Cars were abandoned along U.S. 65, which the Missouri State Highway Patrol closed during the night from Ozark to Branson.

On the storm’s trailing edge, snow finally stopped falling in Texas, leaving accumulations of more than a foot in the Panhandle.

Oklahoma National Guard units rescued about a dozen stranded motorists after more than a foot of snow fell in places.

And along the southern edge of the storm, a possible tornado damaged a mobile home park and ripped up trees Wednesday in McComb, Miss. At least two people were injured.