MINNEAPOLIS – Fierce wind blew snow across roads and stranded hundreds of drivers on Midwestern highways Friday, as thousands shivered without power and airlines were forced to call off hundreds of flights.
More than a foot of snow fell in some areas, and even as the flakes stopped falling by afternoon, gusts of 40 mph prompted blizzard warnings and prevented major highways from reopening.
Officials at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport canceled 500 flights, blaming bad weather elsewhere.
In the Northeast, a storm dumped snow across northern New England, while areas to the south were left with a messy mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain.
Hundreds of miles of interstate highway in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota remained closed for much of Friday, with plow drivers forced to pull off roads because of the wind-blown snow.
More than 100 vehicles were abandoned as their stranded drivers were rescued in Iowa, where blizzard warnings were extended into today.
“Mobility and visibility are horrendous right now, with wind chills hovering around zero – conditions are very treacherous,” Lt. Col. Greg Hapgood, a spokesman for the Iowa National Guard, said Friday afternoon.
Close to 400 rigs crowded the parking lot of the Trails Truck and Travel Center, where Interstates 90 and 35 converge at Albert Lea, Minn.
“All I see is trucks. It’s just a sea of trucks,” manager Rick Boyer said.
“Everybody’s standing around watching weather reports on our display TVs. They’re blocking up the aisles,” he said.
Minneapolis had 11 inches of snow by sunrise Friday. Western Iowa got up to 17 inches, and strong wind built up drifts 10 feet high. The eastern Dakotas had up to 18 inches.
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