Storm Disrupts Travel, Power in Plains States
Thunderstorms and blizzard conditions raked the Plains on Wednesday, stranding travelers on snow-covered interstate highways, toppling mobile homes and peeling up roofs.
Winds gusting over 70 mph in Oklahoma and Kansas blew trucks off highways and yanked down strings of power lines.
One person was injured in Texas, where hail up to 1.75 inches in diameter pounded Del Rio; four persons were reported injured in Mulvane, Kan., where 21 mobile homes were damaged.
At a Wal-Mart store in wind-whipped Weatherford, Okla., the roof “just kind of rolled up like a can opener,” said Mark Norton, assistant store manager.
Blowing snow across South Dakota forced police to close 135 miles of Interstate 90, and zero visibility and growing drifts forced the closing of more than 100 miles of Interstate 80, a major east-west trucking route, across Wyoming and Nebraska.
By noon Wednesday, more than 19 inches of snow had fallen at Deadwood, S.D., and 3- to 5-foot drifts had piled up at Black Hawk, S.D.
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