One person died in a chain-reaction pileup involving as many as 80 vehicles, including several tractor-trailer rigs, on Interstate 40 in Amarillo, Texas, police said.
Many were holiday travelers, including some families with small children not dressed for the cold weather, police Sgt. Shawn McLeland. Other drivers spotted them and opened Christmas presents to provide warmer clothing for the children.
The tangle of twisted cars and trucks shut down the interstate for most of the day. Authorities believe the pileup was caused by blowing snow and the resulting zero visibility.
In northeast Kansas, at least one person was killed in a 30-car pileup on Interstate 70, prompting authorities to close a 40-mile stretch of the highway. The pileup occurred about 30 miles west of Topeka.
The fierce snowstorm caused another 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 to the Iowa state line.
10 inches of snow predicted in parts of Iowa
The Plains storm also blew heavy snow across Oklahoma and parts of Nebraska and Iowa, a region still recovering from a severe ice storm early last week that knocked out electricity for hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses.
"We may see some whiteouts in the open areas," said Craig Cogil, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Des Moines, Iowa. Parts of the state could get between 6 and 10 inches of snow by Sunday morning.
Strong winds could make traveling hazardous all weekend, Cogil said.
Wind was blowing at sustained speeds of 25 to 35 mph with gusts to 45 mph in Oklahoma, where U.S. 412 near Mooreland in western Oklahoma was closed after 15 to 20 cars slid off the road or had been involved in collisions, authorities said.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said a six-car collision on U.S. 64 in the state's northwest corner involved an ambulance that was carrying victims from the scene of another accident. Low visibility forced the closure of some highways.
Air travel snarled
The storm also impacted flights at airports in the Midwest, as the busy pre-Christmas weekend travel was getting underway. The delays rippled across the country, affecting flights in the New York region.
In Chicago, flights in and out of O'Hare International Airport were delayed an average of two hours, and about 100 flights were canceled, airport spokesman Gregg Cunningham said.
Flights departing from Newark Liberty International Airport for O'Hare were delayed about three hours.
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source: msnbc.msn.com
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