LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — From blinding snowstorms in Colorado to tornados in the South and Midwest, the U.S. has seen its share of wild weather over the past 24 hours. At least three people were killed Thursday night in Midwest tornadoes.
Current weather conditions are available at the National Weather Service website.
A major storm dumped heavy snow in Colorado on Thursday — forcing flight cancellations and shutting down Interstate 70 for much of the day, stranding some people in their cars for hours.
The storm comes as other parts of the country face severe weather. Massive chunks of hail pelted parts of Kansas and Missouri on Wednesday night, with storms unleashing possible tornadoes in Kansas. Earlier this month, a blizzard dumped more than 10 feet of snow on a northern California ski resort.
The Colorado storm, which began Wednesday night, delivered the slushy, wet snow typical for March, one of the snowiest months in Denver, and wasn’t expected to wind down until Friday morning. The heaviest accumulations were expected in Colorado’s Front Range region, where the eastern plains meet the Rocky Mountains and the vast majority of the state’s population lives. Most of the snow was falling in the foothills west of Denver.
Those higher elevations had up to 3 feet of snow by Thursday and more than another foot was forecast by Friday morning. Denver itself got up to about 9 inches by Thursday. Up to another 10 inches were expected in the Denver area.
A mountain stretch of I-70, the state’s main east-west highway, closed as the storm moved in Wednesday night. Trucks, many without the tire chains required to travel the route, got stuck and blocked other vehicles from getting through for hours. The big rigs were towed out by the afternoon, said Sgt. Patrick Rice of the Colorado State Patrol.
Some drivers may have been stranded until I-70 reopened, he said, but no injuries were reported. The highway remains closed to trucks through noon Friday and could shut to passenger vehicles too as the storm picks up. Rice urged any drivers setting out to bring food and blankets in case they get trapped.
“We’re going to continue to work at this and keep the road open the best we can,” said Matt Inzeo, a spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Transportation.
Severe weather
Tornadoes tore through several central U.S. states Thursday night, flattening homes and trailers in an RV park and killing at least three people, authorities said. Crews and cadaver dogs searched for more victims in the rubble Friday.
Thursday night’s storms left trails of destruction and injuries or deaths in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Arkansas. Tornadoes were also suspected in Illinois and Missouri.
In Hot Springs Village, Arkansas, residents began picking up the pieces late into the night. No serious injuries were reported.
In Indiana, State Police said there are “many significant injuries” to at least 38 people after a tornado tore through the community of Winchester on Thursday, part of a storm system that also unleashed suspected twisters that damaged homes and businesses in parts of Ohio and Kentucky.
Residents of the town of 4,700 about 70 miles northeast of Indianapolis picked tree branches and sheet metal from their yards Friday morning. Shingles littered the streets and fields in the southern part of town. The high school was serving as a temporary shelter.
Carey Todd, 55, said the tornado looked like a “a bunch of black birds.”
A church was destroyed. A few remnants still stood, as well as a mural depicting a flowing river, with a white awning still attached. A sign below the mural read, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.”
The storm damaged or destroyed about 130 homes and a Taco Bell restaurant, Mayor Bob McCoy said. He and his wife hunkered in a closet during the twister, which hit around 8 p.m.
“I’ve never heard that sound before; I don’t want to hear it again,” McCoy said.
West of Winchester, officials said as many as half the structures in the town of Selma, population 750, might have been damaged. Only minor injuries were reported, emergency officials said in a news release.
Earlier in the night state police said they were investigating reports of deaths but at the news conference Carter said there were “no known fatalities.”
State officials called on Indiana Task Force One to help with search efforts in Winchester. The team is one of 28 Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency-sponsored Urban Search and Rescue teams in the United States.
“I’m shaken; it’s overwhelming,” McCoy said. “I heard what sounded like a train and then I started hearing sirens.”
He and his wife were hunkered in a closet during the twister, which hit about 8 p.m.
“I’ve never heard that sound before; I don’t want to hear it again,” McCoy said.
The suspected tornado damaged a Walmart store and a Taco Bell in Winchester, Randolph County Sheriff Art Moystner told FOX59/CBS4. Travel throughout the county is restricted to emergency management workers only, he said.
At about the same time as the tornado hit Winchester, another suspected twister touched down about 75 miles to the east in Ohio. The tornado hit near the southern end of Indian Lake, impacting the villages of Lakeview and Russells Point, said Sheri Timmers, a spokesperson for Logan County, home to the villages.
“As far as we know, we have lots of injuries. We don’t know the extent of the injuries,” Timmers said. “An RV park was impacted.”
Multiple buildings in the Indian Lake area were damaged, Timmers said, but the full extent of the destruction was still being assessed. Whether anyone was missing in the aftermath, was not immediately known.
“They’re right now doing some searching,” she said.
Amber Fagan, president and chief executive of the Indian Lake Area Chamber of Commerce, called the village of Lakeview “completely demolished,” saying homes, campgrounds and a laundromat were hard-hit by the tornado.
“There’s places burning,” she said. “There’s power lines through people’s windows.”
A shelter has been opened for anyone displaced.
In Ohio’s Huron County, emergency management officials posted on Facebook that there was a “confirmed large and extremely dangerous tornado” near Plymouth — some 75 miles northeast of Indian Lake.
To the west of Winchester in Delaware County, emergency management officials said initial assessments suggested that up to half of the structures in the small town of Selma were damaged by a possible tornado.
“We are relieved to report that only minor injuries have been reported thus far, with one individual transported to the hospital for treatment,” the Delaware County Emergency Management Agency said in a news release. About 750 people live in Selma.
Earlier, storms damaged homes and trailers in the Ohio River communities of Hanover and Lamb in Indiana.
The Ohio governor’s office said they did not have any information about fatalities in the state.
Jefferson County Sheriff Ben Flint said storms destroyed three or four single-family homes and four or five other structures and demolished several uninhabited campers along the river.
“We were fortunate that no one was injured,” Flint told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
Sgt. Stephen Wheeles of the Indiana State Police earlier said another suspected tornado struck Jefferson County, damaging several homes and downing trees and power lines.
He posted photos on X showing one home with its roof torn off and another missing roof shingles as well as an image of a baseball-sized hailstone.
Around 2,000 Duke Energy customers in Hanover lost power at one point during the storms, the company reported.
In Kentucky, Trimble County Emergency Management Director Andrew Stark said the storms damaged at least 50 structures, including homes.
“We have a whole bunch of damage,” Stark told the Courier Journal of Louisville.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear issued a statement saying a tornado touched down along the Indiana state border in Gallatin and Trimble counties and there were reports of a couple of minor injuries. He urged Kentuckians to stay aware of the weather as more storms were expected across the state Thursday evening and overnight.
“It does appear that there is some really significant damage, especially to the town of Milton in Trimble County,” Beshear said. “We think there are over 100 structures that are potentially damaged.”
The state’s emergency operations center was activated to coordinate storm response, Beshear said.
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb posted on Facebook Thursday night that the Indiana Department of Homeland Security is monitoring the current weather situation.
“Severe weather has impacted Hoosiers all across the state, and we have emergency response personnel in the impacted areas,” he wrote.
The Indiana Department of Homeland Security posted on Facebook that their staff are on scene in Randolph County, home to Winchester, working with locals and that the State Emergency Operations Center has been activated to an enhanced staffing level to respond to the storm.
A Facebook post on the Winchester Community High School page said all the schools in that school district would be closed on Friday. Another post said the high school had electricity and was open for emergency use for people who “need somewhere warm and dry.”
Large pieces of hail also was reported in parts of the St. Louis area Thursday afternoon.
There were unconfirmed reports of tornadoes in Jefferson County, Missouri, and Monroe County, Illinois, but no immediate reports of damage.
Severe weather was possible into Thursday night from northeast Texas to Indiana and Ohio, the National Weather Service said on X.
Back in Colorado, more than 53,000 customers were without power across Colorado on Thursday primarily in metro Denver and along the Front Range, according to poweroutage.us.
But plenty of people were enjoying the snow, like Melanie Brooks, who was out walking her dogs Thursday morning in Denver.
“I’m kind of sad that I didn’t make it up to the mountains because now it’s tough to drive there, and I’m missing a powder day,” she said.
Since the storm is the rarer kind that brings more snow to the eastern half of the state rather than the mountains, it may not do much to feed the Colorado River, which supplies water to more than 40 million people in the West.
The storm started as rain in the Denver area and turned into snow. The area was expected to get 10 to 20 inches of snow, with up to 2 feet in the western suburbs, the weather service said.
Jarmila Schultz, 77, was tackling her sidewalks in shifts as the snow continued to fall.
“I have to get out early because I have to do it like four times because it’s going to snow all day,” she said, noting she has cleats on her boots to prevent her from falling. “It’s water, ice and it’s very hard for me to lift.”
But she still loves the snow.
“You know, in my time I skied, snow-shoed and did all this and I think Colorado’s incredible for those type of things.”
Denver deployed 36 residential plows starting at 3 a.m. Thursday with the plan to shave the top few inches of snow off streets, to help clear paths to main streets.
Tyler Barnes, a Miami native who drove a ride-share overnight, was trying snow-shoeing for the first time Thursday morning, and found it was pretty easy.
“It was really what I hoped it would be like,” he said. “I feel confident I could walk a long way in these.”
Denver International Airport was open Thursday, but about 800 flights were canceled with nearly 200 more delayed, according to Flightaware.com.
The snowstorm comes as other parts of the country face severe weather. Massive chunks of hail pelted parts of Kansas and Missouri on Wednesday night, with storms unleashing possible tornadoes in Kansas.
The Trucker Staff contributed to this report.
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