Winter storm heads toward East Coast

The remnants of a huge winter storm plowed toward the East Coast after dumping as much as 2 feet of snow in the Upper Midwest, grounding hundreds of airline flights and closing major highways on the Plains.

There was a blizzard warning in southern Wisconsin and storm warnings stretching from southeast Nebraska to northern Michigan and from northern Virginia to the southern East Coast. A snow warning was in effect for New York City today.

Eight traffic deaths were blamed on the storm, seven in Wisconsin and one in Kansas.

Crews labored to clear roads and restore power after the storm blacked out hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska and Ohio.

Moist air that the storm system pulled from the Gulf of Mexico fueled violent thunderstorms in the South, sweeping cars off roads, crumpling businesses and sending mobile homes flying. Tornadoes were reported in Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana.

Dozens of homes and businesses looked like they were shredded by “high explosives,” Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter said as he surveyed the damage from a tornado in Dumas that injured about 40 people.