More Snow Closes Highways in Plains States

The second major snowstorm in a week hit the Northern Plains with more than a foot of snow Monday, closing hundreds of miles of major highways and causing major collisions, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.

Interstate 94 was closed for about 140 between Bismarck, N.D., and Dickinson, N.D., Sunday night, but it was reopened Monday afternoon, AP said. South Dakota has closed 192 miles of I-90 between Murdo and the Wyoming state line, and part of the highway is closed in Wyoming as well.

I-80 was closed near Laramie and Cheyenne, Wyo., AP said.

The storm caused an 18-vehicle collision Monday on 30 miles northeast of Denver on I-76, and another pileup 40 miles east of Denver on I-70, AP reported.

Colorado officials claimed the weather for three traffic fatalities in suburban Denver, as well as two fatal crashes to the north in Weld County.

The National Weather Service said that by early Monday night, 16 inches of snow had fallen in Bismarck, N.D., AP said. The weather service forecasts that Plains states will get more snow Tuesday and later this week.