Winter storm forces major Nebraska road closures

The storm is expected to bring blizzard-like conditions to far southern Minnesota through Tuesday night.

“From Wyoming to MI, winter-storm alerts were in effect across at least eight states, with strong winds likely to snarl travel and make roads hazardous”.

Authorities say strong winds in eastern MS damaged student housing at a community college, though no injuries were immediately reported.

“Crews have been pulled off the road because of conditions”, she said.

Total snowfall amounts of a foot or more are forecast from southeastern Nebraska into western Iowa, with 6 to 12 inches across the Upper Midwest through Wednesday afternoon, the weather service said. The power of the storm tore some mobile homes apart.

Greg Flynn, spokesman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, said a confirmed tornado was reported just before 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in eastern Newton and Lauderdale counties, largely rural areas in the eastern part of the state.

A “dangerous” winter storm was expected to dump up to 18 inches snow across much of the Plains and the Midwest on Tuesday, with blizzard and white-out conditions forecast for many areas.

Later, in west Tennessee, high winds damaged several homes and school buildings in Crockett County.

The blizzard warnings are also in place for south-central Nebraska, north-central Kansas, and parts of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Back in the Midwest, the livestock felt the pain of the winter storm too. The high in Evansville, Indiana, could hit 69F Tuesday, for example.

In Kansas, sections of 13 highways were closed and the other roads were icy and slippery, said Kim Qualls of the Department of Transportation.

Further south, on the warm side of the system, areas from southern IL and IN to Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama could experience severe storms and tornadoes later today, according to AccuWeather.