Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Bright lights, cold city
A man is silhouetted as he crosses a rain-covered street on a cold, windy night Tuesday in Kansas City, Mo. The area is forecast to have cold wet weather for the Thanksgiving holiday.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Hundreds of cars remained stranded Wednesday on Interstate 5 headed north from California into Oregon in the aftermath of a major storm dumping snow and creating white-out conditions on both sides of the California-Oregon border.
The stranded cars made it difficult for plows to clear the freeway, which was closed in both directions late Tuesday because of the storm.
Southbound lanes reopened at Ashland, Ore., early Wednesday and Don Anderson, deputy director of the California Department of Transportation in Redding, said northbound lanes will reopen later Wednesday.
As the skies cleared Wednesday, drivers reported being stuck for 17 or more hours in blizzard conditions and some spent the night in their vehicles.
Locals helped others by driving them to look for a place to sleep in Redding, where snow was already melting Wednesday, said Redding Police Cpl. Will Williams.
Travel was particularly perilous over the Siskiyou Summit, one of the more treacherous mountain passes, and just south of the Oregon-California state line.
“There is a large number of spun-out vehicles, large trucks and smaller cars, along the road that didn’t put chains in their tires as required,” Denise Yergenson, a Caltrans spokeswoman said. “That blocked the road and it’s hampering our ability to plow.”
Anderson said Caltrans and many other agencies worked hard to communicate the seriousness of the storm but that many drivers were still caught by surprise.
“You must use your chains when directed to do so. Of all the trucks and vehicles that spun out nearly all did not put on their chains as they were required to do,” he said in a statement.
Portland, Ore., resident Christina Williams and her 13-year-old son were some of the lucky ones who made it through the storm, but not without plenty of scary moments. They were driving from Oregon to the San Francisco area for Thanksgiving when they first hit snow around Roseburg, Ore.
Williams said it took them more than 17 hours to reach Redding, Calif., where they got a hotel room. Conditions were so treacherous, she said, that she was afraid to try to exit the freeway because it was so slippery.
Cars all around them were getting stranded and ice formed on her windshield even while the car was on.
“There were spin-outs everywhere, there were trucks that were abandoned and every time we stopped and started moving again, there were people who couldn’t start moving again,” Williams said. “Every time we stopped I was like, is this it? Are we going to be here overnight?”
At the peak of the storm, Pacific Power said 19,000 customers were without power in Northern California and Southern Oregon. As of late Wednesday morning the company said that number was down to about 1,700.
The storm — called a “bomb cyclone” — came ashore near Brookings, Ore., late Tuesday afternoon packing heavy snow and wind gusting up to 106 mph in some coastal areas.
A bomb cyclone forms when air pressure drops 24 millibars or more in a 24-hour period. They are rare in the U.S. West and this storm’s pressure dropped even more precipitously than expected, leading forecasters to say it was one of the worst such storms in the past 15 to 20 years.
The widespread storms choked transportation across the center of the nation Tuesday and Wednesday, bringing 30 inches of snow in some areas and causing closed interstates and hundreds of canceled flights. Little relief was expected, with forecasters projecting powerful winds in the Northwest, whiteout blizzard conditions in the Midwest and rain in the Northeast that threatened to shut down airports.
More than 55 million people were expected to fly or drive out of town during one of the busiest travel weeks of the year. At least, that’s how many had hoped to.
Parts of Minnesota expected up to 11 inches of snow, and delays piled up at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Thirty-five flights had been canceled as of Wednesday morning and another 60 had been delayed, according to the airport’s website.
The National Weather Service in the Twin Cities said there had been “many accidents across central and southern Minnesota” on Tuesday night, advising travelers to “stay off the roads until you must travel.” Wind gusts in parts of Minnesota and central Wisconsin were expected to reach up to 40 mph.
The winter storm also arrived as a fire broke out at an apartment building in Minneapolis killing at least five people and displaced many other residents.
The storm that buried much of the Midwest on Tuesday was expected to continue east through the region toward New England. High wind warnings, with potential wind gusts of up to 50 mph, were in effect from Kansas City to western Ohio.
Heavy snows and whipping wind hit the Northwest Wednesday in what the National Weather Service called a “historic, unprecedented” storm, unlike any hitting the region since the 1960s. It was believed it would qualify as a bomb cyclone, a designation given when barometric pressure drops by at least 24 millibars in 24 hours.
Wind reached 106 mph Tuesday near Cape Bianco, Ore., with sustained wind of 85 mph, exceeding the 74 mph definition of hurricane force. Travelers were encouraged to stay off the roads, with as much as a foot of snow blanketing Northern California and Oregon.
But the Sierra Nevada was expected to be hammered by blizzards Wednesday, with 1 to 3 feet of snow possible in areas.
Denver International Airport returned to normal Wednesday morning after heavy snowfall in the area Monday and Tuesday.
“Today will be a busy day at DEN!” the airport said on Twitter, directing travelers to arrive two hours before their flights.
The airport received 9.5 inches of snow and saw at least 463 flight cancellations Tuesday. The storm made for Denver’s snowiest November day since 1994, according to the National Weather Service.
Colorado saw a wide range of snowfall totals from the storm. Drake, about 30 miles north of Boulder, saw 33 inches of snow, while Bayfield, in the state’s southwest, saw just 1 inch, according to the weather service.
While parts of the country are battling rain and snow that affected travel Wednesday, tornadoes touched down in Mississippi and Louisiana on Tuesday night, according to Alan Campbell, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Jackson, Mississippi.
At least two tornadoes hit the Franklin and Madison parishes of Louisiana and two more hit in Rankin County, Mississippi, Campbell said on Wednesday. There were no deaths or injuries reported in any of the areas affected by tornadoes as of late Wednesday morning, according to sheriff departments there.
There were reports of toppled trees, downed power lines and damaged homes in some areas, he said, but that the worst of the weather might have passed.
High wind in Missouri and Illinois led to power failures for about 13,000 people, according to a local news report and a Wednesday morning report by Ameren, an electrical company servicing the area. The National Weather Service in Weldon Spring, Mo., issued a high wind warning Wednesday afternoon.
High wind could put Thanksgiving parades at risk, including the annual Macy’s parade in New York City. City regulations forbid the famous mega-sized balloons from flying when there are sustained wind above 23 mph or gusts above 34 mph.