Heavy Snow Strands Motorists in Black Hills of Dakota
A rare and fierce October snowstorm rolled out over the central Rocky Mountains on Friday, stranding motorists, downing trees and forcing closures of hundreds of miles of Interstate 90 across parts of Wyoming and South Dakota, officials said.
The storm dropped more than three feet of snow in parts of the Black Hills region of western South Dakota, according to a Rapid City National Weather Service report.
An unknown number of motorists were stranded in Pennington County in South Dakota, Alexa White, spokeswoman for Rapid City-Penngton County Emergency Management, said.
Some called emergency services to say they were out of gas and feared they might not stay warm through the night, and rescuers in snowcats were trying to reach them, she said.
Four-wheel-drive vehicles and even rescuers in firetrucks were stuck in the snow, White said. Fire stations have opened as emergency shelters.
Thousands of people in Pennington County homes were without power, White said.