Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 9, 1990 TAG: 9003091854
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Some major Wyoming highways remained closed a third day by deep snow, idling travelers in motels, restaurants, truck stops and shelters, although temperatures rose above freezing.
Hundreds of schools were closed because ice or snow made travel hazardous, or because of lack of electricity.
South of the snow and ice belt, up to 7 inches of rain fell overnight and flooded parts of Arkansas, forcing evacuation of some homes in Little Rock. A school bus was swept off a flooded road and into a ditch; its young passengers were evacuated without injury by boat.
But the rain also soaked into drought-parched fields in southern Nebraska.
Freezing rain during the night brought down tree branches and power lines across wide sections of Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin.
Des Moines was hardest hit, with nearly 60 percent of customers in the metropolitan area blacked out. Police said nearly every street in the city was closed or partially closed at some point by downed lines or fallen limbs.
Des Moines received more than 2 inches of precipitation in the 24 hours before 6 a.m., and state Climatologist Harry Hillaker estimated that about half of it was frozen rain.
by CNB