Strong Winds Spawn Great Lakes Flooding : Western Blizzards Maroon Thousands

Wind-whipped snow drifted across the Western Plains on Monday in the wake of a storm that dumped two feet of snow on the Rockies, closed more than 360 miles of interstate highway and stranded thousands of travelers.

“Roads are treacherous,” said Tripp County, S.D., Highway Supt. Marty Anderson.

Several thousand homes in rural northwestern Kansas were without electricity after ice accumulations snapped power lines, said Bill Ohlemeier of the Kansas Electric Cooperative in Topeka.

Small Plane Crashes

One South Dakota traffic fatality was blamed on icy roads, and a passenger was killed when a small plane crashed in poor weather near Colby, Kan.

Farther east, strong wind gusting to 45 m.p.h. pushed Great Lakes water onto eastward-facing shores Monday in Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin, flooding roads and forcing some people to evacuate their homes.

The wind made Lake Erie rise about 2.5 feet above recent average lake levels along both the Ohio and Michigan shores, the National Weather Service said.

Wind blowing across Lake Michigan drove waves up to nine feet high onto shorelines in Wisconsin.

Tucson Shivers

Chill air slid across the West, with Rawlins, Wyo., getting down to zero, and Tucson, a warm desert mecca for winter refugees, shivering through a record low for the date of 29 degrees.

The National Weather Service posted advisories warning of blowing and drifting snow from northern New Mexico across eastern Colorado into parts of Kansas, and rain, some of it freezing, fell to the east across the Plains.

Snow blown by wind gusting to 48 m.p.h. cut visibility to near zero over much of western Kansas on Monday, the weather service said, and snow had piled up in drifts four to six feet high in parts of southeastern Colorado.

Colorado’s Winter Park ski area reported two feet of snow in two days, said meteorologist Keith Williams, and the Denver suburb of Littleton got 14 inches.

‘Like a Burst Pillow’

“It’s coming down like somebody just burst a feather pillow,” said Kiki Woodard, communications coordinator for Winter Park.

A 360-mile section of Interstate 70 between Denver and Hays, Kan., was reopened Monday after being closed for up to 20 hours, and many other highways in western Kansas also had been closed.

The closings and poor driving conditions forced thousands of people, many returning home from Thanksgiving visits, to spend the night in motels and community shelters, especially along Interstate 70.

At Limon, Colo., about 1,500 travelers spent the night at motels, churches, the Town Hall and schools, said Police Chief Jim Trahern.

‘Not Going Anywhere’

“They all seem to be pretty good natured about it,” he said. “No need being any other way. They’re not going anywhere until they can see.”

“I don’t know how many people we’ve got here,” said the Rev. Ben Parmer at the Limon Bible Chapel, where people slept on pews and floors. “They’ve been coming in so fast lately that I’ve lost track.”

About 130 miles to the east, some 500 people slept on blankets in the National Guard Armory at Colby, Kan., and in the town’s community building.

Naming New Dog

“I’m not used to sleeping on a concrete floor,” said Rick Lundy, 14, of Colorado Springs, Colo., adding that he and his family had bought a dog over the holiday and, “We’re going to name it Colby, in honor of being stranded here.”

Some of those stranded in Colby tried to run roadblocks on Interstate 70, said Ken Messamore, Civil Defense director for Thomas County. “But there’s a patrolman sitting out on the edge of town, and there’s no use trying to beat him.”

Icy weather also sidetracked travelers along Interstate 80 in western Nebraska.