Photo: Tim Vizer/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/AP
Winter Storm Gia arrived in the Midwest this weekend, causing crashes, flight delays and power outages in states across the area — including large parts of Missouri, Illinois and Kansas — as well as Virginia.
The storm is also blamed for the deaths of at least 10 people, who died in weather-related crashes, including an Illinois state trooper, according toThe Weather Channel.
“He’s a hero,” Illinois State Police director Leo P. Schmitz said at a news conference. “Trooper Lambert deliberately placed his vehicle in a position to protect the lives of the victims of the previous crash, and took on the danger himself.”
Snow in Terre Haute, Indiana.Austen Leake/The Tribune-Star/AP
According to the Associated Press, at least five people were killed in crashes on icy roads in Kansas and Missouri. The AP reported that these included a woman and her 14-year-old stepdaughter in Clinton, Missouri, a 62-year-old man who skidded onto the Kansas Turnpike and a 41-year-old driver from Mexico.
Topeka resident Bradley S. Horton, 62, died after crashing into a barrier while driving in the snow in Kansas on Friday,KSNT reported.
A West Virginia man died on Saturday when his car “spun out” and collided “nearly head-on” with another vehicle, Marshall County Sheriff Kevin CeciltoldThe Intelligencer.
The storm has also affected airports and electricity across the Midwest. Hundreds of thousands of power outages have been reported across Kansas, Missouri, Virginia and North Carolina, according toPoweroutage.us, and over 650 flights have been canceled as over 1,100 have experienced delays across the U.S. on Sunday as of 12 p.m. EST, according toFlightAware.
source: people.com
