As snow eases in West, storms turn fatal in South

By The Associated Press Comments 0
Published: October 31, 2009

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — While residents in some Western and Plains states were digging out Friday after an early blast of snow, heavy rain and strong winds that toppled trees, power lines and church steeples lashed parts of the South, leaving one person dead.

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The rain was forecast to let up Friday, but the National Weather Service cautioned that the ground was so saturated that even a modest amount of rain could cause flash flooding from the western Gulf Coast to the mid-Mississippi Valley.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency after storms caused flooded roads, power outages and wind damage in the northwestern part of the state.

A 20-year-old driver was killed Thursday when his car ran under a toppled tree near Shreveport, authorities said.

Meanwhile, the snowstorm that walloped Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas earlier in the week tapered off, but some roads across the region remained treacherous.

Gusty winds and blowing snow kept nearly all major highways in southeast Wyoming shut down. The storm, which began Tuesday, had spread 3 feet of snow and left much higher drifts across parts of northern Utah, Wyoming and Colorado.

About 15 inches of snow fell in the Deadwood, S.D., area. Officials shut down Mount Rushmore National Memorial. It reopened Friday morning.

Winter weather advisories stayed Friday for southeast Wyoming and western Nebraska.

Meanwhile, flood warnings run from the western Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes, with flash flood warnings for eastern Arkansas, western Tennesseee, western Kentucky and southeast Missouri.

Several tornadoes touched down in Louisiana and Arkansas on Thursday. A steeple blew off a church in Shreveport, La., hitting a car. The 57-year-old driver had to be pulled out by rescuers and suffered broken bones, authorities said.

Heavy rain across Arkansas also stranded an unknown number of people in their homes, while strong winds damaged buildings and knocked over trees and utility lines.

In Harrison, Lori Hudson blamed a change in drainage patterns for an ankle-high flood in her home.

"I’ve got a river running through my house,” Hudson said.

In Pine Bluff, part of the roof of a Walmart store blew off during storms Thursday night.