Snowstorm in U.S. Midwest wreaks havoc on travel, schools

A major wind and snow storm downed power lines, closed highways and schools and grounded hundreds of flights over a wide swath of the U.S. Midwest on Wednesday.

Blizzard and winter storm warnings were in effect until Thursday morning for parts of Indiana, Michigan and Illinois as the National Weather Service (NWS) predicted as much as 13 inches (33 cm) of snow and winds of up to 50 miles per hour (80 km per hour).

"That's creating a lot of blowing and drifting snow and creating very hazardous travel conditions," said Chuck Schaffer, a meteorologist with the NWS in Illinois.

Some 860 flights were canceled on Wednesday at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.

The NWS predicted as much as 10 inches (26 cm) of heavy snow and strong gusts in the Chicago area during the afternoon commute and into the evening.

"This will create a wind-whipped snow that will reduce visibilities to near zero, making travel dangerous if not nearly impossible at the height of the storm," it said in an advisory.

The Illinois Department of Transportation reported downed power lines and several crashes on state highways and warned motorists blowing snow and slick roads will make for treacherous conditions.

Hundreds of schools in the Chicago area, northwest Indiana and southern Michigan canceled after-school activities and classes on Thursday.

The storm left about 38,000 households without power in the St. Louis area while a downed power line diverted traffic from a portion of interstate I-270 southwest of the city for seven hours on Wednesday. The highway has since reopened, according to local media.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said state offices in the lower part of the state would close Wednesday afternoon.

“I encourage all Michiganders to ... put safety first, especially while driving and heating their homes," he said in a statement.

State officials in Michigan said emergency water operations will continue through the storm in Flint, a city that has gained national attention for high lead levels in its drinking water. Flint Mayor Karen Weaver, however, canceled a town hall meeting on Thursday to discuss the water crisis.

Storm kills 4 in Virginia day after Gulf Coast tornadoes

Violent thunderstorms and tornadoes lashed the U.S. Southeast and mid-Atlantic region on Wednesday, killing at least four people in Virginia a day after twisters claimed three lives along the Gulf Coast, authorities said.

The National Weather Service (NWS) warned of tornado activity along a line of storms stretching from Raleigh, North Carolina, north to parts of Virginia, Maryland and the Washington, D.C. area.

"We're swamped with tornadoes on the ground here," said Weather Service forecaster Brandon Dunston in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Three people were confirmed dead in Waverly, Virginia, a town of some 2,300 residents about 45 miles southeast of Richmond, the state capital, where at least three structures sustained heavy damage in a mid-afternoon storm, state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said.

State police later said the three victims - two men, aged 50 and 26, and a 2-year-old boy, were killed when their mobile home was demolished in the storm. Their bodies were all found about 300 yards (meters) from the trailer site, police said.

The body of a fourth person, an adult male, was recovered late on Wednesday in the Evergreen community of Appomattox County, near Lynchburg, after a funnel cloud was reported over the area, police said.

Two highways leading into Waverly, U.S. Route 460 and State Route 40, were left impassable by heavy debris from the storm, state police said. Authorities also were responding to widespread reports of local flooding.

Virginia state police reported severe storm damage and numerous injuries in the riverfront Essex County town of Tappahannock, northeast of Richmond, and in Appomattox County.

Richmond station WWBT-TV reported more than 20 people injured in Tappahannock, some possibly trapped in storm wreckage. And seven people were hurt, two seriously, in the Evergreen community, state police said.

Tornado watches were posted through much of Virginia, and Governor Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency to hasten delivery of disaster relief to stricken areas.

A storm earlier on Wednesday destroyed a mobile home in Wayne County in central North Carolina and wind gusts of up to 53 miles per hour were reported at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport in South Carolina, the NWS said.

Just north of Oxford, North Carolina, near the Virginia border, high winds damaged several houses, one of them blown "completely apart," Granville County Sheriff Brindell Wilkins said, adding that power outages were widespread. He said a number of people suffered minor injuries.

Schools in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida canceled classes or shifted hours ahead of severe weather forecasts.

Wednesday's severe weather came as rescue teams combed through debris left by several tornadoes that pummeled southern Louisiana and Mississippi on Tuesday, claiming at least three lives and injuring dozens more.

Among the hardest hit was the Mississippi River hamlet of Convent, Louisiana, about 60 miles west of New Orleans, where a mobile home park was largely demolished. In neighboring Assumption Parish, more than 100 homes and businesses were damaged and several were destroyed, authorities said.

Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for two counties lashed by a tornado on Tuesday night. Several people were injured and about 70 homes damaged when a tornado ripped through Pensacola, Florida, local media reported.

Source: Reuters