© APGoing nowhere: Motorists had to abandon their cars in North Dakota after 60mph winds caused a blizzard and plunging temperatures turned roads to ice rinks.
Motorists were yesterday forced to abandon their vehicles after 60mph winds created whiteouts and plunging temperatures turned roads to ice rinks throughout the state.
Traffic came to a grinding halt and there were multiple pileups that caused more delay. Miraculously there were reports of only minor injuries.
Rescue workers, including around 70 soldiers, had to use military lorries and other heavy vehicles that could plough through huge snow drifts to pluck people from more than 500 cars abandoned along major highway routes.
They were taken to churches, schools, bars and gas stations that became makeshift shelters while the highways were closed.
Katie Woodbury, a North Dakota State College freshman, was driving from the school in Fargo to her family's farm in Stanley, northwest North Dakota, when road conditions forced her take shelter at a church in Medina.
'It was scary - I was talking to myself the whole time,' she said of her drive. 'I just want to get home and see my mom and dad and the 13 new piglets at the farm.'
She said she talked to her parents by phone today and, after having a hot meal, was just waiting for the weather to clear.
Some 400 travellers sheltered at the church and nearby school, more than doubling the population of the town with 335 residents.
Bar owner Bill Fleetwood called the scene surreal.
'People are walking around in the streets looking for something to do,' he said today. 'It's crazy.'
A pregnant woman who went into labour last night night on Interstate 94 was rescued near Steel and taken to a shelter in the town, about 40 miles east of the nearest hospital in Bismarck, Highway Patrol, Lt Jody Skogen, said.
'There was no way to get her in to Bismarck,' Skogen said. 'You name it, we had all kinds of situations playing out.'
The pregnant woman was being cared for at an ambulance station in Steele and had not yet given birth this morning, said Mona Thompson, director of the Kidder County ambulance service.
Todd Hamilton, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Bismarck, said only two to four inches of snow fell in most parts of the state yesterday, but the strong winds that came with the storm made conditions bad.
The storm had largely moved out of North Dakota by early this morning but below-freezing temperatures remained, he said.
Jim Albrecht, the emergency manager in Stutsman County, said about 600 people were still taking shelter in Medina and other small towns there.
He said he couldn't remember a worse storm in a state known for nasty winter weather.
'It's been a long time since we had a storm like this that hit us so hard and so fast,' he said.
Today state troopers were still patrolling highway entrances but a 'no travel' advisory had been lifted despite the snow and abandoned cars that still blocked the road, authorities said.
All highways that had been closed have now re-opened.
Hello. Just wanted to mention that this photograph is not from north Dakota as the caption implies, but is from Cumberland Maine. The storm hit Maine on February 25th, and was reported in the Bangor Daily news the day after.
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