Winter storm slams parts of US, causing accidents and deaths

Associated Press

A winter storm of snow, freezing rain and bone-chilling temperatures socked the nation’s mid-section and East Coast on Saturday, causing hundreds of accidents on icy roads and putting a crimp on Christmas shopping.

At least nine deaths were blamed on the slick roads and authorities were investigating a few other traffic fatalities as possibly weather-related. Perhaps the biggest accident happened in Baltimore, when a tanker carrying gasoline skidded off a highway and exploded, authorities said.

Two people died in the 70-vehicle pileup on Interstate 95, Baltimore City Fire Chief Roman Clark said. Hospital officials said nearly two dozen people were treated for injuries including broken bones and head trauma.

Clark said it was too early to determine the cause of the crash.

It was unclear whether the pileup started before the tanker crash or was caused by it. The northbound lanes of I-95 were closed while crews cleaned up the mess.

Winter weather advisories were posted from Denver to Bangor, Maine. Airports reported hundreds of flight delays or cancellations, interstates and toll roads reduced speed limits and authorities urged drivers to use extreme caution.

The nasty weather put a damper on holiday plans for Luke Perez, who was hoping to make it home to Los Angeles on Saturday for a family party. Perez’s flight out of D.C., where he is in graduate school, was canceled, so he said he’s going to try again today or Monday.

There were dozens of crashes in Indiana – two of them involving fatalities – due to freezing rain and ice, officials said. It was not immediately clear how many people were killed. The roads were so slick that authorities had to move motorists stranded on an overpass with a ladder.

In Ohio, a Columbus woman died Saturday when her car skidded off a off a wet, icy road in Jackson Township, became stuck, then was hit by another vehicle as it went off the road. Franklin County authorities say the woman, 20-year-old Savana Carrier, was standing outside her car when she and her vehicle were hit. Multiple other crashes were reported late Friday and early Saturday, including two multi-vehicle crashes on the Ronald Reagan Highway just north of Cincinnati.

In the Mahoning Valley, light and moderate rainfall was expected to turn to freezing rain overnight by about 3 a.m. today, after which light snow was expected produce an accumulation of up to an inch through the day, said Candace Monacelli, meteorologist for 21 WFMJ-TV, The Vindicator’s broadcast partner.

Overnight today, temperatures are predicted to drop from the 20s to near 10 degrees early Monday when mostly sunny skies will help produce the last cold snap of the week with highs near 30 degrees and a low near 10 degrees.

The rest of the week’s temperatures could reach the 30s possibly rising into the 40s on Christmas Eve, Monacelli said.