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Plains snowstorm kills four and closes roads

More than a foot of snow in the north and heavy rain to the south ease a drought in the region.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - A powerful storm dumped more than a foot of snow in the Plains, closing schools and roads Monday in Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado and South Dakota and causing at least four deaths.

The National Weather Service was still compiling snowfall totals Monday, but South Dakota got up to 18 inches. Parts of Nebraska had 15 inches, northeast Colorado had at least a foot, and northwest Kansas had up to 10 inches.

"We could be looking at over 20 inches by the time this is done," said Kyle Carstens, a meteorologist with the weather service's Rapid City, S.D., office.

Several stretches of Interstate 80 were closed in Nebraska; parts of Interstate 70 were closed in western Kansas; and in Colorado, more than 150 miles of highway were shut down.

In South Dakota, a stretch of about 200 miles of I-90 was reopened Monday. The highway had been closed from Rapid City to Chamberlain because of the heavy snow and semitrailer trucks that had gotten stuck.

The storm postponed the final day of the South Dakota Legislature's 2006 session and forced Nebraska's Legislature to cancel its session today.

Farther south, heavy rain during the weekend soaked parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.

Up to 8 inches of rain was reported in northern Texas, causing weekend flooding around Dallas.

That eased what has been classified as a severe drought in the region, but the weather service said the Dallas-Fort Worth area was still 11.5 inches below normal.

[Last modified March 21, 2006, 02:30:40]