Winter Weather Wracks Nation's Midsection

Dec. 17 -- The nation’s midsection is suffering through another vicious bout of subzero wind chills, and snowfall.

In parts of the northern Plains, blowing snow cut visibility to near zero and police urged travelers to stay off the roads.

Highways had been shut down overnight in parts of Wyoming, cutting off access to one town, and wind gusting to 41 mph produced windchills as low 47 degrees below zero at Fergus Falls, Minn.

“If anybody gets out on the roads, you’re nuts,” said SouthDakota Highway Patrol Trooper John Norberg in Sioux Falls.

The western part of Minnesota is looking at temperatures that are running with a wind chill of about 54 below zero degrees Fahrenheit, and wind gusts as strong as 50 to 60 mph, according to Kevin Leuer, director of Minnesota’s Office of Emergency Management in Minneapolis.

“[With] the wind gusts that we have with the new fallen snow, you basically have blizzard conditions,” he said. “It makes it really challenging for the responders.”

“We’re pretty accustomed to this stuff,” said Steve Johnson, a spokesman with the Minnesota State Police in Minneapolis. “The last two or three years have been very mild, and our snowfall has been down, so even Minnesotans are beginning to re-experience what winter is truly like.”

Kindly Strangers

In northwest Louisiana, 30,000 customers were still without electricity on Saturday, three days after the region was hit by an ice storm, and more than 50,000 others remained in the dark in Texas, said the utility AEP-Swepco.

Saturday’s roughest weather stretched from the northern Rockies to the Mississippi Valley, with wind driving snow across the northern Plains at more than 50 mph in places.

Because of poor visibility, Wyoming authorities closed a number of highways Friday night, including stretches of Interstates 25 and 80.

All roads were closed late Friday in and out of Lusk, a ranching community of 1,500 in east-central Wyoming, stranding people who were in town for a basketball game. The town’s six motels filled up before Judy Ludemann could get a room.