Plains digging out after snowstorms
Twisters blow through Carolinas; U.S.’ weather-tied deaths rise to four
MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota residents slogged through a mid-April storm Sunday that battered areas farther south with powerful winds and tornadoes before plowing toward the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states.
The storm system, which dumped 2 feet of snow on parts of the Upper Midwest and coated roads with ice, prompted Enbridge Energy to temporarily shutter twin oil and gas pipelines in Michigan.
The Line 5 pipelines were temporarily shuttered Sunday afternoon because of a power failure at Enbridge’s terminal in Superior, Wis., Enbridge spokesman Ryan Duffy told The Detroit News. Enbridge decided to shut down the twin pipelines until weather conditions improve in the Straits of Mackinac, which links Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, Duffy said.
One death reported Sunday brought the weekend’s death toll to at least four. Police in Greensboro, N.C., said in a tweet that there was one storm-related fatality, but they did not elaborate.
North Carolina authorities declared a local state of emergency in Greensboro after an apparent tornado caused damage Sunday afternoon in several locations. Media reports before the police tweet said high winds damaged at least seven homes, destroyed a mobile classroom at an elementary school, and toppled trees and power lines.
To the south, officials in Lexington County, S.C., said several buildings were damaged and toppled trees were blocking roads, but no injuries were reported.
Tens of thousands of homes and businesses in the Carolinas were without power Sunday.
The other three deaths were previously reported. A sleeping 2-year-old girl in Louisiana was killed when a tree fell on her family’s recreational vehicle early Saturday. A Wisconsin woman was killed when she lost control of her minivan on slick roads and veered into an oncoming SUV. And an Idaho truck driver was killed when his semitrailer struck a semi in western Nebraska that had been stranded on a highway by the weather.
At Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, where more than 13 inches of snow had fallen, 230 flights were canceled Sunday. Two runways were open, but winds were still strong and planes were being de-iced, spokesman Patrick Hogan said. On Saturday, the storm caused the cancellation of nearly 470 flights at the airport.
The prolonged wintry weather is “starting to beat everybody down,” said Erik Ordal, who lives in downtown Minneapolis and was taking his 3-month-old golden retriever puppy, Dakota, out for a walk in the snow. Ordal, who grew up in South Dakota, said he is used to the cold, snowy weather “but I’m certainly ready for some warmth.”
Two northeastern Wisconsin communities, Tigerton and Big Falls, received more than 2 feet of snow over the weekend, the National Weather Service in Green Bay reported. Parts of the state that were already blanketed were getting a second helping of snow on Sunday. The heavy snow caused part of a hotel roof to collapse over a pool at a hotel in Ashwaubenon, which is next to Green Bay, but no one was in the pool area at the time and no one was hurt.
The storm finally let up in South Dakota, allowing the airport in the state’s largest city, Sioux Falls, to reopen for the first time since Thursday. Interstates 90 and 29 in parts of eastern South Dakota also reopened, and no-travel advisories were lifted across the state border in southwestern Minnesota.
In Michigan, freezing rain that began falling overnight had left roads treacherous and cut power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses by midday Sunday.
In Arkansas, a tornado ripped through Mountainburg on Friday, injuring at least four people. In Texas, hail the size of hen eggs fell south of Dallas, according to meteorologist Patricia Sanchez.
And another round of snow is possible midweek in the Upper Midwest, said meteorologist Eric Ahasic at the National Weather Service in Chanhassen, Minn.
“It’s not going to be as much snow as this one, thankfully,” Ahasic said.