MILWAUKEE — Residents across the Midwest and the plains who made it home for Christmas were digging out Friday after a fierce snowstorm, while those who spent the night in airports and shelters tried to resume their journeys.
Meteorologists warned that roads across the region remained dangerous.
The National Weather Service said blizzards would hit parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin through today.
The storm had already dumped significant snow across the region, including a record 14 inches in Oklahoma City and 11 inches in Duluth, Minn., on Thursday.
Slippery roads have been blamed for at least 20 deaths this week as the storm lumbered across the country from the Southwest. Ice-storm warnings and winter weather advisories had been issued for parts of the East Coast on Friday, but the region was largely spared.
Paul Mews, who drove from Faribault, Minn., to a relative’s home in Plum City, Wis., on Friday morning, said the first 15 minutes of the 80-mile trip were clear, but a sudden surge of heavy snowfall produced a stretch of near-whiteout conditions.
“It was snow-pocalypse. It was wicked,” said Mews, 25. “We thought about turning around and going back.”
He and his wife decided to continue when the surge passed minutes later, noting that plows were doing a good job of keeping roads clear.
“Spending Christmas Day with family was more important than the weather,” Mews said.
Others weren’t as lucky.
Army Sgt. Mark Matthey was spending Friday night at the Flying J Travel Plaza in Sioux Falls, S.D., after Interstate 90 closed.
Matthey, 26, had left Fort Bragg, N.C., on Wednesday for his hometown of Spokane, Wash., in hopes of making it by late Friday or early today.
Instead, he spent the afternoon drinking coffee, watching TV and making friends at the truck stop. He planned to find a spot to sleep on the floor or in the cab of his truck.
Matthey said he and his fellow stranded travelers were in decent spirits.
“Everybody has the attitude that you have to play the cards you were dealt,” he said. “No use in getting upset about something you can’t control.”
Interstates also were closed in North Dakota and Nebraska.
Since Tuesday, icy roads have been blamed for accidents that killed at least seven people in Nebraska, five people in Oklahoma, four in Kansas, two in Minnesota and one each in North Dakota and near Albuquerque.
Wind was gusting from 45 mph to 60 mph across the Dakotas and Nebraska on Friday. Crews were working to restore power to thousands of customers in Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas, Illinois and Iowa.
About 200 people were stuck overnight at Oklahoma’s largest airport, which closed Thursday afternoon after several inches of snow clogged runways.
