Massive storm snarls holiday travel in US
A massive winter storm yesterday snarled holiday travel across the central United States as freezing rain and heavy snow caused traffic chaos and threatened to ground more flights.
"There's just a humongous storm moving across the center of the country, basically from the Canadian border to Texas and spreading from west Colorado to Illinois," said National Weather Service (NWS) spokesman Pat Slattery.
"Christmas travel is going to be very difficult."
The northern parts of the storm were expected to drop up to two feet (61 centimetres) of snow while flood warnings were issued further south.
A powerful tornado late Wednesday on the storm's southern flank slammed the town of Longview in eastern Texas, ripping the roof off a house and toppling trees, the local KLTV station reported.
"We would recommend that people if at all possible postpone their travel plans just to be on the safe side," Slattery said in a telephone interview.
"This is not a storm to be messed with."
Freezing rain would make driving extremely dangerous -- especially after dark when the rain turns to ice -- and high winds would dramatically reduce visibility, Slattery warned.
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