ST. PAUL, Minn. — A storm packing heavy snow and howling wind moved north Sunday, knocking out power in homes and making conditions hazardous for holiday travelers.
High wind and ice that coated power lines blacked out tens of thousands of people in Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin. Ice slicked roadways through the region.
“Everything is just an ice rink out there,” said Rock County Sheriff’s Sergeant Steve Selby in Wisconsin.
Some 74,000 customers were without power in Michigan on Sunday morning, down from 104,000 at the peak, Consumers Energy said. In Illinois, about 58,000 customers were without power in the Chicago metro area and 5,500 others were in the dark in southern and central Wisconsin.
The storm blew heavy snow from Texas to Wisconsin, causing at least five deaths and dozens of injuries as multi-car pileups closed parts of several major highways on Saturday.
Much of the region affected by this storm on the Plains was still recovering from a severe ice storm early last week that knocked out electricity for hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses.
Up to a foot of new snow was forecast Sunday in northeastern Minnesota. Winter storm warnings were posted for parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Strong wind could make traveling hazardous all weekend, said Craig Cogil, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Des Moines, Iowa. Parts of that state were expected to get as much as 10 inches of snow by Sunday morning, he said.
At least three people in Minnesota and one person each in Texas and Kansas were killed in traffic accidents that authorities said were weather related.
The fatality in Texas came in a chain-reaction pileup involving more than 50 vehicles, including several tractor-trailer rigs, on Interstate 40, police said. Authorities said it would take a few days to determine exactly how many vehicles were involved.
Eighteen people were taken to hospitals, two with life-threatening injuries, Sgt. Michael Poston said.
“There were cars crashing while they (firefighters) were there,” Fire Department Capt. Bob Johnson told the Amarillo Globe-News. “They could hear them (the crashes), but they couldn’t see them.”
Many were holiday travelers, including families with small children not dressed for the weather, Sgt. Shawn McLeland said. Other drivers spotted them and opened Christmas presents to provide warmer clothing for the children.
Authorities believe the pileup, which shut down the highway for most of the day, was caused by near zero visibility in blowing snow.
The Kansas traffic death came in a 30-car pileup about 30 miles west of Topeka that closed a 40-mile stretch of Interstate 70.
The storm also was blamed for a wreck involving 20 to 40 vehicles, including three tractor-trailer rigs, on Interstate 29 in St. Joseph in western Missouri. Police closed about 100 miles of I-29.