US travellers brace for snowy Thanksgiving, ‘bomb cyclone’

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A storm packing heavy, blinding snow and fierce winds that wreaked havoc as it whipped through Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska marched into the upper Midwest on Wednesday as anxious Thanksgiving travellers buckled up and barrelled headlong into a busy, if not perilous, holiday week.

The wintry storm that left at least one person dead was expected to push eastward into South Dakota, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, while a “bomb cyclone” weather phenomenon was expected to simultaneously topple trees, knock out power and dump snow as it rolled into California and Oregon.

The one-two punch made for a double whammy of early wintry weather that threatened to scramble plans for millions of people nationwide during one of the busiest travel weeks of the year. Those who left early were confronted with icy and snow-covered roads that made it difficult — if not impossible — to navigate and prompted law enforcement in many places not to even try.

“Stay put,” Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Tod Hileman urged drivers in a tweet, even as a stretch of Interstate 70 on the state’s western border with Colorado reopened after temporarily closing Tuesday at the height of the storm.

Many travellers headed his warning, filling hotels in the area and the National Weather Service said that Dell Rapids had already received 6 inches of snow while many areas around Sioux Falls had about four inches.

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