Joshua Crowe, 28, uses a push broom to get his car out of the snow on Saturday Dec. 22, 2007, in Wichita, Kan. Parts of Kansas have been blanketed with snow for the second weekend in a row. (AP Photo/The Wichita Eagle, G. Marc Benavidez)
Posted on 12/23/2007 1:08:02 PM PST by Libloather
Major Storm Causes Swath of Blackouts
By CARRIE ANTLFINGER
Associated Press Writer
December 23. 2007 2:10PM
Joshua Crowe, 28, uses a push broom to get his car out of the snow on Saturday Dec. 22, 2007, in Wichita, Kan. Parts of Kansas have been blanketed with snow for the second weekend in a row. (AP Photo/The Wichita Eagle, G. Marc Benavidez)
MILWAUKEE Highways were hazardous for holiday travelers Sunday and thousands of homes and businesses had no electricity in the Midwest as a storm blew through the region with heavy snow and howling wind.
At least eight deaths had been blamed on the storm.
Winter storm warnings were posted for parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan on Sunday as the core of the storm headed north across the Great Lakes. Parts of Wisconsin already had a foot of snow, and up to a foot was forecast Sunday in northeastern Minnesota, the National Weather Service said.
Radar showed snow falling across much of Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota on Sunday and moving into parts of Michigan and Indiana.
"Everything is just an ice rink out there," Rock County Sheriff's Sergeant Steve Selby said Sunday morning.
The weather system also spread locally heavy rain on Sunday from the Southeast to the lower Great Lakes.
The storm rolled through Colorado and Wyoming on Friday, then spread snow and ice on Saturday from the Texas Panhandle to Minnesota. Multi-car pileups closed parts of several major highways Saturday in the Plains states.
The area of Madison, Wis., got three to four hours of freezing rain early Sunday, said weather service meteorologist intern Bill Borghoff at Sullivan. The combination of icy pavement and gusty wind there was making driving treacherous, he said.
"It's quite a mess out there," Borghoff said.
Wind gusting to more than 50 mph uprooted trees in parts of Michigan. "I can see the snow moving basically sideways," weather service meteorologist Wayne Hoepner said in Grand Rapids.
Because of the wind, airlines canceled 150 flights Sunday at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, the city Aviation Department said. Municipal officials said the wind had knocked out almost 60 traffic signals, and there were nearly 500 reports of fallen trees and limbs.
More than 11,000 homes and businesses were without power in Wisconsin on Saturday because of the freezing rain, ice, gusty wind and heavy snow, utilities said.
Some 114,000 customers were without power Sunday morning in Michigan, and in Illinois about 48,000 customers were blacked out in the Chicago metro area.
At least three people in Minnesota, three in Wyoming and one person each in Texas and Kansas were killed in traffic accidents that authorities said stemmed from the storm.
The fatality in Texas came in a chain-reaction pileup involving more than 50 vehicles, including several tractor-trailer rigs, on Interstate 40, police said. At least 16 people were taken to hospitals, two with life-threatening injuries, Sgt. Michael Poston said.
"We're not really sure how many cars, probably in excess of 40 cars and in excess of 20 semi-trailers," Amarillo police Sgt. Greg Fisher said Sunday.
Many were holiday travelers, including families with small children not dressed for the weather, Sgt. Shawn McLeland said. Other drivers spotted them and opened Christmas presents to provide warmer clothing for the children.
Authorities believe the pileup, which shut down the highway for most of the day, was caused by near zero visibility in blowing snow and slippery pavement. Multi-vehicle wrecks on Saturday also blocked sections of I-70 in Kansas and I-29 in Missouri.
Where is that climate prophet Algore when we need him? He could just give his canned “Inconvenient Truth” speech and the hot air would melt the glacier that has enveloped KS.
Wonder what would happen if it becomes apparent that another Ice Age is looming? The climate “experts” will never admit it, but it would be amusing to hear their explanations.
Darn global warming.
It’s Canada’s fault. Or was it Bush’s fault. Maybe global warming.
No electric power?
It’s how the environazis want us all to live.
Wait for the glowing reports of the ‘freedom’ of no electricity.
Here in Kentucky, we dodged the worst of that monster - but we’ve been under gale-force winds since late last night.
And this thing came in like a jet! I was outside under sunny skies at 3PM Saturday, ducked inside before going to work - by 3:45, it was overcast and blowing. By 7PM, the rains started.
Power was out in parts of Louisville briefly today. The crews are out there in this mess, and here’s hoping they’re all right.
Pushbroom on a foot of snow? Americans need to think ahead a little, maybe buy a decent snowshovel before it’s actually needed.
This is why God made home generators.
When the power grid goes down (and it will), the standby generator is there to run the electrical devices on which so much of our lives depend.
Home generators may NEVER reach a cost-effective point in terms of pure economics (each kW of energy is going to cost WAY more than the power grid can supply it for) but the uncertainty and inconvenience of relying on the power company to restore power puts a double toll on the guy out there on the tower in a raging storm trying to reconnect the system - without causing a power surge or drop that knocks out the whole grid.
Sunny, 58 degrees and a very slight onshore breeze here in the Bay Area. Ahhh!
Why? They have bought into Algore’s gloom and doom. We don’t need snow shovels...that snow is just our imagination!
58’s where it seems to be topping out here also....down near Palm Springs. I’m freezing. It got into the high 30’s predawn. That sucks too.
He said Dad:
"Why do news reports make such big deals out of snow storms in winter, what do they expect sunny and 75' degrees in December ?"
</GW Bulls**t>
Seriously, it’s been noted in the New Media that these snowstorms are being deliberately played down in the MSM because they don’t fit the Global Warming template.
On the weather channel it’s not being downplayed, indeed it’s being pumped up as the worst weather ever. Jeez, people, it’s called WINTER! It’s a time of lousy weather, cold and snowstorms. It happens every bloody year about this time, too.
I’m in MI. It was 46 degrees here and all the snow we had melted. From what I can see, no white Christmas. Where was this at?
I’m in central Wisconsin. A lot of our snow melted last week but we have 8-10 inches of new snow since last night.
It’s 19 degrees now and 50,000 in SW Michigan are without power.
Where are you?
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