Bone-Chilling Snowstorm Immobilizes Plains

A blinding snowstorm driven by frigid hurricane-force winds shuttered schools and businesses Thursday across the Plains, stranding drivers on closed highways as temperatures took a dizzying drop.

Hundreds of students slept over at school in Nebraska and awoke Thursday to eggs and juice served by their teachers.

In Minnesota, authorities ordered even snowplows off the roads and threatened to arrest any driver making a nonemergency trip. Hundreds of accidents were reported.

The storm dumped more than a foot of snow in parts of Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin and the Dakotas. It knocked out power to thousands of homes. Abandoned cars embedded in snowdrifts littered roadways.

Tornadoes tore off roofs in Arkansas and Texas, where winds gusted to 110 mph. A man and a woman were killed when a store roof collapsed in Anthony, Texas.

The violent weather was spawned by a powerful Arctic frontal system pushing out warm, moist air and driving down temperatures by more than 40 degrees in a matter of hours.

Waterloo, Iowa, was a balmy 54 on Wednesday; on Thursday, the windchill hit 50 below zero.

Ahead of the storm, to the east, record high temperatures brought the threat of flooding as snow from last week’s blizzards melted and rain was forecast. Chicago reached 58 degrees, Cleveland hit 60 and Jackson, Ky., 69.

In Minnesota, wind gusting to 60 mph pushed the windchill down to 90 degrees below zero at Crookston. The windchill hit minus 72 in Grand Forks, N.D., and more than 60 below in parts of Nebraska.

National Guardsmen used armored vehicles to help rescue stranded motorists in Polk County, Minn. But elsewhere, even rescuers had to stay indoors.

“We’re not sure whether there are people stranded out there or not,” Minnesota State Patrol dispatcher Roxanne Engum said. “Because of the zero visibility, we can’t get out there.”

At one point, more than 200 cars were stranded in Nebraska. Some drivers used cellular phones to call for help as they waited in their cars, their engines running to keep them warm.

“There are people running low on fuel and we’re making them a priority,” said Maj. Andy Lundy of the Nebraska State Patrol.

About 400 students and teachers spent Wednesday night at two schools in Kearney, Neb. “It just hit so fast, it was a whiteout. The buses just couldn’t go anywhere,” Principal Jerry Menke said.

“The girls were in the chorus room and the boys were in the media center,” said junior Christina Bokenkamp, laughing. “They made sure of that.”

Parents and volunteers used four-wheel drives later Thursday to evacuate the students.

In Fargo, emergency vehicles were called out to transport two women to hospitals when they went into labor during the height of the storm, police said.