Storm blasts central US with snow, ice and wind, killing 3
MINNEAPOLIS: A storm system stretching from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes has buffeted the central US with heavy snow, winds, rain and hail, forcing flight cancellations, creating treacherous road conditions and killing at least three people, including a sleeping 2-year-old Louisiana girl.
In the Upper Midwest, the early spring storm brought snow to a region pining for sunshine and warmth. Around 400 flights were canceled at Minneapolis-st. Paul International Airport, which grounded all flights starting this afternoon as heavy snow made it difficult to keep runways clear and planes deiced, while blizzard conditions forced the airport in South Dakota's biggest city, Sioux Falls, to remain closed for a second straight day.
The Minnesota Twins home game against the Chicago White Sox was snowed out Saturday, marking the first back-to-back postponements of baseball games in the stadium's nine seasons.
Sunday's game was also called off because of the storm, which by Saturday night had buried Minneapolis under more than 13 inches of snow (33 centimeters). The Yankees and Tigers were rained out Saturday in Detroit. Authorities closed several highways in southwestern Minnesota, where no travel was advised, and driving conditions were difficult across the southern half of the state. The National Weather Service predicted that a large swath of southern Minnesota, including Minneapolis and St. Paul, could get up to 20 inches of snow (51 centimeters) by the time the storm blows through on Sunday.
"It's a cool experience for me, the best Minneapolis experience," Niko Heiligman, of Aachen, Germany, said as he braved the snow Saturday to take a walk along the Missis- sippi River in downtown Minneapolis. "I'm only here for the weekend, so I guess that's how it goes. There's snow and it's cold. So it's good." The storm is expected to persist through Sunday in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan before moving into New York state and New England.
Up to 18 inches (46 centimeters) of snow had fallen by early Saturday in parts of northern Wisconsin, with another 14 inches (36 centimeters) expected by Sunday evening. Winds of up to 55 mph (88.5 kph) caused blowing and drifting snow, along with ice shoves in Green Bay. WASHINGTON: A woman's body was found by rescuers in the US during the search of a missing Indian family of four who are feared drowned in a swollen river in California, officials said. An inter-agency search and rescue team in California on Friday also recovered some personal items and numerous parts of a vehicle from a swollen river in which the missing Indian family was travelling last week.
Personal belongings of the four members of the family from Santa Clarita in California, who were believed to be travelling through Humboldt and Mendocino County on US-101 while on a vacation, were also found by the team over a two-day period on Tuesday and Wednesday, officials said.
Sandeep Thottapilly, 41, vice president of the Union Bank on Santa Clarita, and his wife Soumya Thottapilly, 38, were on a road trip along with their two kids –Siddhanth, 12 and Saachi, 9 –in a maroon Honda Pilot from Portland, Oregon to San Jose in Southern California, during which they went missing on April 5.
Authorities, who originally had said the body was a child's, anticipate that an autopsy will be performed early next week.
"Searchers located the deceased body of an adult female approximately seven miles north of the reported crash site (Eel River flows in a northern direction)," California's Mendocino County Sheriff 's Office said in a statement.
The body was found on Friday on an exposed terrain which appeared to have covered by the Eel River within the last few days as a result of a recent weather storm which brought heavy rain to the area.
Searchers are looking for the missing family members and their vehicle which is believed to be submerged somewhere in the Eel River.
Meanwhile, the Mendocino County Sheriff 's Office and the California Highway Patrol, Garberville Area Office, are continuing their efforts along the South Fork of the Eel River, just north of the town of Leggett California, to locate and recover a vehicle reported to have been submerged in the river on around 1:10 pm on Friday, April 6.