Big storm targets Midwest with snow, wind

DES MOINES, Iowa — A fierce wintry storm moved into the nation's midsection Tuesday, covering roads with deep snow that was set to be followed by high winds, creating blizzard conditions.

The storm already blanketed much of the mountain west and drenched Southern California with rain. In the Phoenix area, fierce wind brought down power lines, left four hospitals temporarily without power and created wide outages. Freezing temperatures in Oregon were being blamed for one death.

Ice was the problem Tuesday morning in Oklahoma, where Interstate 40 was closed for about 25 miles between Clinton and Elk City, leaving truckers to wait out the storm. Mitch Dodson, a trucker hauling soda pop out of Durango, Colo., to Virginia, was waylaid at the Travel America plaza near the town of Sayre in western Oklahoma.

"It's just a sheet of ice from Amarillo to here," Dodson said. "It's a disaster."

Misty Willis, the assistant manager at the plaza, said I-40 had become a "skating rink."

"I drove 20 miles an hour to get here," she said. "I literally slid into my parking space."

Travel was likely to get worse as the day wore on, and officials were warning residents in parts of the west and Midwest to stay close to home. Some schools closed before the worst of the storm was expected to hit so that school buses wouldn't slip on slick roads.

"Anybody traveling tomorrow morning is really taking a huge risk I would say — a risk of being stranded and not having anybody be able to help you for 6 or 12 hours, probably," Karl Jungbluth, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Johnston, Iowa, said Tuesday.

Jungbluth said a "classic, big, deepening winter storm" was affecting more than a dozen states. He said it would take shape over Oklahoma and Kansas on Tuesday, then swing northeast through Missouri and the Upper Midwest before heading toward Lake Michigan. A foot or more of snow was expected in parts of Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin. Wind gusts of up to 50 mph could create snow drifts of 8 to 15 feet.

In Schaller, Iowa, Sparky's One Stop gas station assistant manager Rose Jansen said they were getting ready for the snow.

"Snow and lots of it!" Jansen said. "We'll be here, no matter what."