Storms already have battered the Plains states and northern regions of the country for days and the National Weather Service predicted continuing problems from ice, snow and freezing rain into the weekend.
LOS ANGELES — California and other parts of the West girded Friday for floods and blizzards from the latest winter storm to pound the U.S., while thousands of people in Michigan shivered through extended power outages wrought by one of the worst ice storms in decades.
Meanwhile, a storm that battered the Plains and Midwest for days began to diminish, the weather service said, but gusty winds could still cause blowing and drifting snow. And in the Pacific Northwest, residents began to recover from snow that brought traffic to a standstill in Portland. “People were just spinning out and getting stuck left and right,” she said. “It was just one thing after another. I did not have any idea that that was going to turn out the way it did.”
“Utilities across the country fear ice storms like we fear nothing else,” said Trevor Lauer, president of DTE Electric. “We’ve not had an ice storm in the last 50 years that has impacted our infrastructure like this.” Ice is believed to have caused a pileup on the Massachusetts Turnpike late Thursday in Brimfield, involving about 15 vehicles, including tractor-trailers. People were taken to the hospital, but the number and extent of injuries wasn't clear. Eastbound lanes remained closed early Friday.
Evacuation warnings also were issued in Ventura County for four areas considered unstable after being hit hard by storms last month.
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