December 8, 2005
By CHERIE HENDERSON, Associated Press Writer
Yahoo News
Photo: Bob Brumitt, 77, kicks up a cloud of snow as he uses a snowblower to clear his driveway in Overland Park, Kan., Thursday, Dec. 8, 2005. A winter storm passed through the area overnight leaving as much as a foot of snow in the Kansas City area. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Storms across the nation's midsection delivered freezing cold and as much as 10 inches of snow by Thursday, snarling traffic and closing schools from Illinois to Texas.
At least three people were killed in wrecks, including a 4-year-old girl and her mother.
The eastbound system was expected to leave up to a half-foot of snow on central Illinois by Thursday afternoon, hitting Chicago by rush hour before continuing eastward.
Some Texas schools also closed or opened late on Thursday after sleet and freezing rain iced roads there. Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport canceled dozens of morning flights.
The heaviest band of snow fell along the Interstate 35 corridor into Kansas City, with up to 10 inches, said Greg Koch, a
National Weather Service forecaster. Temperatures in the city fell into the single digits.
Numerous vehicles slipped off roads or got into fender benders, troopers said. On snow-packed I-35 near Edgerton, Kan., a 31-year-old woman's pickup slid across the median and collided with another vehicle, killing her and her 4-year-old daughter Wednesday, authorities said.
A 66-year-old man was also killed when his van left a highway and struck a tree in Lyon County, Kan., while as many as 20 cars each piled up in wrecks on Interstate 29, north of Platte City, Mo., and on Interstate 44 near St. Louis.
Photo: A Polar Bear sleeps on a bed of snow at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in Cleveland, Ohio Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2005. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)
"A lot of people aren't slowing down," said Judy Gilchrist, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Turnpike Authority. "They still want to use their cruise control."
In Dallas, an out-of-control tractor-trailer rig on Interstate 20 slid into a parked SUV, which burst into flames. No one was injured. That region's freezing precipitation was expected to taper off Thursday, but a hard freeze will preserve some ice, forecasters said.
In Oklahoma, up to 5 inches of snow fell, and the temperature plunged as low as 6 below early Thursday in Guymon on the sweeping plains of the Panhandle.
Workers at a grain elevator in Hooker, Okla., dressed in three layers of clothes to cut the cold.
"If you keep yourself working, it's not bad," operations manager Jerry Diederich said. "But if I see them shiver a little bit, we stop and get a drink of coffee."
On the Net:
Weather Underground: http://www.wunderground.com
National Weather Service: http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov
Intellicast: http://www.intellicast.com
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