A historic winter storm has paralyzed the Midwest, causing a 100-car pileup in Michigan and bringing rare snowfall to Florida, disrupting travel and daily life across the U.S.
A sudden lake-effect snowstorm resulted in a stretch of dozens of wrecked vehicles along the side of a highway near Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the same arctic weather pattern has brought unusually frigid weather as far south as Florida. The storm has caused significant disruptions, with more than 100 vehicles, including as many as 40 tractor-trailers, piling up in western Michigan due to intense snowfall.
“It was absolute chaos,” said Stephanie Biesboer, who was caught in the pileup. “Everyone was everywhere. People out of their cars. People rushing around trying to get the ambulances through.”
The I-196 in Zeeland Township was expected to be closed for several hours for the removal and cleanup of vehicles, as reported by CBS Detroit. The crash is the latest impact of the major winter storm moving across the country. Some areas along the Great Lakes saw at least 9 inches of snow, according to CBS News meteorologist Rob Marciano.
Forecasters warned Monday that freezing temperatures are possible overnight into Tuesday across much of north-central Florida and southeast Georgia. The National Weather Service has issued warnings about either extremely cold temperatures or the potential for winter storms across several states starting in northern Minnesota and stretching south and east into Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, as reported by The Associated Press.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul warned those in western New York earlier Monday to “take this storm seriously.” More than 200 million people across the U.S. are in the path of the arctic blasts, Marciano said. Wind chills hit negative 40 degrees in parts of the North and dipped into the 20s in Florida. On Sunday, snow fell as far south as the Florida Panhandle and made it harder for football players to hang onto the ball during playoff games in Massachusetts and Chicago.
The rare snowstorm also dusted Alabama and Georgia with 1 to 3 inches of snow over the weekend, forcing drivers to brace for icy roads. Those as far south as Orlando and Fort Myers, Florida, are expected to see near or below freezing wind chills through at least Wednesday, according to Marciano.
Frigid weather is expected to spread from the north-central U.S. to the Northeast by Friday, according to the NWS Weather Prediction Center. Then the bitter cold is forecast to move to the southern Plains to the mid-Atlantic, and could linger the rest of January, the center said Monday.
The storm’s impact has been widespread, affecting travel, daily life, and even sports events. The rare snowfall in Florida and the massive pileup in Michigan highlight the storm’s severity and the need for caution during such extreme weather events.
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