DES MOINES, Iowa – A major snow storm that shuttered airports in Missouri, stranded truckers in Illinois and buried parts of Kansas in knee-deep powder was promising a messy and possibly dangerous commute Friday morning as it crawled northeast.
Wind gusts of 30 mph were expected to churn-up snow that fell overnight in southern Wisconsin, where forecasters were warning Milwaukee-area residents of slick roads and reduced visibility. The same was expected in northeast Iowa, where residents could wake up to as much as 7 inches of new snow, while nearly 200 snowplows were deployed overnight in Chicago.
At a Travel Centers of America truck stop in the central Illinois city of Effingham, all of the 137 parking spaces were filled by truckers unwilling to drive through the storm overnight.
“When it gets really bad, they like to camp out,” cashier Tia Schneider said Thursday night, noting that some drivers called ahead. “They can make reservations from 500 miles away to make sure a space is available.”
The storm system swirled to the north and east late Thursday, its snow, sleet and freezing rain prompting winter storm across the region – and leaving some impressive snow accumulations.
Northern Oklahoma saw more than 13 inches, while Missouri’s biggest snow total was 10 inches, shared by the Kansas City metropolitan area. But in Kansas, 17 inches of snow fell in Hays and nearly the same amounts in a handful of other cities. Farther east in Topeka, 3 inches of snow fell in only 30 minutes, leaving medical centre worker Jennifer Carlock to dread the drive home.
“It came on fast,” Carlock said as she shovelled around her car late Thursday. “We’re going to test out traction control on the way home.”
Numerous accidents and two deaths were being blamed on the icy, slushy roadways.
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State legislatures shut down in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Nebraska and Iowa. Most schools were closed in Kansas and Missouri, and many in neighbouring states.
That included the University of Missouri, where classes were cancelled for one of the few times in its 174-year history. At a nearby Wal-Mart, some students passed the ice scrapers and snow melt, heading directly to the aisles containing sleds and alcohol.
“This isn’t our usual Thursday noon routine,” Lauren Ottenger, a senior economics major from Denver, said as she stockpiled supplies.
All flights at Kansas City International Airport were cancelled for Thursday night, and officials said they’d prepare to reopen Friday morning. On the other side of the state in St. Louis, more than 320 flights at Lambert Airport were cancelled.
Transportation officials in the affected states urged people to simply stay home.
“If you don’t have to get out, just really, please, don’t do it,” Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback said. Interstate 70 through Kansas was snow-packed, and a 200-mile stretch between Salina and Colby was closed. The Kansas National Guard had 12 teams patrolling three state highways in Humvees to rescue motorists stranded by the storm.
For those who needed to drive, it’s wasn’t a fun commute.
Richard Monroe, a technology manager and marketing representative for the Missouri State University bookstore, said he arrived with eight of his colleagues in Kansas City, Mo., on Wednesday for a conference. He said a shuttle bus taking them on what should have been a five-minute trip got stuck in the snow, then ran into a truck. The vehicle was incapacitated for nearly two hours.
“We saw today that Kansas City is just shut down. I’ve never seen a big city like this where nothing is moving,” the 27-year-old said.
Others people came down with cabin fever, including Jennifer McCoy of Wichita, Kan. She loaded her nine children – ages 6 months to 16 years – in a van for lunch at Applebee’s.
“I was going crazy, they were so whiny,” McCoy said.
Heavy, blowing snow caused scores of businesses in Iowa and Nebraska to close early, including two malls in Omaha, Neb. Mardi Miller, manager of Dillard’s department store in Oakview Mall, said most employees were gone by 4 p.m., with “only two customers are in the entire store.”
The storm brought some relief to a region that has been parched by the worst drought in decades.
Vance Ehmke, a wheat farmer near Healy, Kan., said the nearly foot of snow was “what we have been praying for.” Climatologists say 12 inches of snow is equivalent to about 1 inch of rain, depending on the density of the snow.
Near Edwardsville in Illinois, farmer Mike Campbell called the precipitation a blessing after a bone-dry growing season in 2012. He hopes it is a good omen for the spring, noting that last year, “the corn was just a disaster.”
Areas in the Texas Panhandle also had up to 8 inches of snow, and in south central Nebraska, Grand Island reported 10 inches of snow. Arkansas saw a mix of precipitation – a combination of hail, sleet and freezing rain in some place, 6 inches of snow in others.
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Associated Press writers Alan Scher Zagier in Columbia, Mo.; Bill Draper and Margaret Stafford in Kansas City, Mo.; Margery Beck in Omaha, Neb.; John Hanna in Topeka, Kan.; Roxana Hegeman in Wichita, Kan.; Catherine Lucey in Des Moines, Iowa; Tim Talley in Oklahoma City; Chuck Bartels in Little Rock, Ark.; Jim Suhr and Jim Salter in St. Louis; and Erin Gartner and Herbert G. McCann in Chicago contributed to this report.
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