OMAHA — Wind-blown snow whipped across the northern plains on Tuesday, closing major highways as a powerful storm stalled over western Nebraska and South Dakota.
In neighboring Montana, the Army National Guard dispatched two helicopters to help find motorists stranded by a snowstorm in the southeastern part of the state.
Nearly 2 feet of snow had piled up in South Dakota’s rugged Black Hills, and the storm system also had generated tornadoes.
The blowing snow cut visibility and piled up in drifts as much as 4 feet high in parts of Wyoming.
Meanwhile, an unexpected dip in the Red River miles upstream on Tuesday cheered sandbaggers in Fargo struggling to raise the North Dakota city’s protective dikes high enough to withstand possible record flooding.
An emergency dike to protect downtown Fargo was being raised to 42 feet, but the expected crest would still threaten several neighborhoods.
