• Holiday travel alert: Central US storm brings flight disruptions, deadly blizzard, and a tornado

    The powerful storm made for dicey driving conditions in Iowa, causing a 25-car pileup. In Wisconsin, the governor declared a state of emergency. And in the South, several tornadoes spawned from the same weather system. NBC's Kevin Tibbles reports.

    Miguel Llanos writes

    The first major wintry storm of the season hammered the Midwest on Thursday, causing a pileup in blizzard conditions that killed three people, dumping a foot of snow in some areas and creating travel problems during one of the busiest periods of the year. Those travel woes could extend into the Northeast, with high winds and rain expected there Friday.


    Nearly 600 flights were canceled at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on Thursday, according to FlightStats, and an additional 700 were grounded at Kansas City International, Midway (Chicago), Detroit Metropolitan, Minneapolis-St. Paul International and other Midwest airports.

    Southwest Airlines canceled all flights at Midway starting at 4:30 p.m. local time, NBCChicago.com reported.

    Full coverage of the storm at The Weather Channel

    The storm system also spawned a tornado that flipped vehicles in Mobile, Ala., and cut power to 400,000 homes and businesses. Some 130,000 were still without power Thursday afternoon. 

    At least six deaths were tied to the snowstorms: In Iowa, three people died Thursday in a pileup involving more than 30 vehicles on Interstate 35, NBC affiliate WHO-TV reported; in Wisconsin, slick road conditions led to two fatalities; and in Utah, a woman who tried to walk for help after her car became stuck in snow was found dead, officials said late Wednesday. Search and rescue crews on snowmobiles found her buried in the snow just a few miles from her car.

    Snow, whipped by 50 mph wind gusts, have been causing white outs and leaving residents in the dark. The Weather Channel's Mike Seidel reports.

    Blizzard or winter storm warnings were issued for 16 states on Thursday, Weather Channel meteorologist Mike Seidel told TODAY.

    Northeast cities can expect rain and high winds from the system Friday morning, said NBC meteorologist Bill Karins. Most of the snow should move into Canada Friday night.

    A foot of snow fell on Des Moines, Iowa, by early Thursday and residents across the state were urged to stay off the roads.

    "Because of the wind, travel is pretty treacherous, especially into Iowa, as the storm moves east," National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Dergan said.

    The snow cover will drag temperatures much lower in Iowa and Nebraska, he added. "We're talking single digits. We may even see some sub-zero temperatures in Nebraska. This cold weather will stick around for several days, maybe until the day after Christmas. So we're definitely going to have a white Christmas."

    Iowa State Police

    Some of the vehicles involved in a pileup on Interstate 35 in Iowa are seen Thursday.

    Blowing snow led to school closures in parts of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. All state government offices also closed in Iowa. Storms in those four states left around 130,000 homes without power. 

    "Thundersnow" was reported in Iowa Wednesday night, as thunder and lightning accompanied the storm as it trekked across the state. 

    Dietra Tate / NBC 15

    This vehicle at a car dealership was flipped over by a storm in Mobile, Ala., on Thursday, Dec. 20.

    In Alabama, a tornado peeled the roofs off homes and buildings and toppled vehicles in Mobile, but caused no serious injuries, Al.com reported. Arkansas also saw damage from high winds.

    The storm system earlier delivered heavy snow and strong winds to parts of the West, where trucks tangled on icy roads on the Oregon and California state line.

    Snowstorm prompts state of emergency in Wisconsin

    In West Texas, winds from the same system kicked up a dust storm Wednesday that caused accidents along Interstate 27, resulting in one death and more than a dozen injuries, NBC affiliate KCBD reported.

    At Dallas-Fort Worth airport, American Airlines said it canceled about 120 flights Wednesday night due to the storm. 

    In Nebraska, snow blowing sideways on Wednesday night forced the closure of a 146-mile stretch of Interstate 80, a major east-west highway. 

    Much of the nation is dealing with a big blast of winter as a massive snowstorm barrels from the Rockies to the Midwest, with some parts of Colorado buried under more than a foot of snow. NBC's Mike Seidel reports.

    In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker declared a state of emergency on Wednesday. Schools were canceled in advance of heavy snowfall and the University of Wisconsin-Madison postponed Thursday’s final exams.

    Before the storm, several Midwest cities had broken records for the number of consecutive days without measurable snow.

    In Chicago, people made a run on snow shovels and salt ahead of what should be the first snow to hit the city in 290 days (the record is 296). 

    The storm has package delivery companies nervously checking the weather forecast during this busy time of year. "We’re closely monitoring the storm," FedEx spokesman Scott Fiedler told NBC News. "We have a team of 15 meteorologists who track the weather around the world every day."

    Related: UPS, FedEx weather experts work on timely deliveries
    Related: Chicago braces for 'thundersnow'
    Related: Bad in US? Try Russia, where some parts as low as 50 below
    Related: Slideshow of wintry scenes around the world

    Along the East Coast, the I-95 corridor isn't expected to see much, if any, snow.

    "Snow may make it as close to New York City as Western Connecticut but right now, other than a few flurries Friday night, I think New York City through Boston will be mostly snow-free," Tom Niziol, the winter weather expert at The Weather Channel, told NBC News.

    "Areas to the southeast of the Great Lakes, from Cleveland through Syracuse will get heavier snowfall," he added. "Higher elevations from the Adirondacks through the western slopes of the Central Appalachians will also get snow."

    NBC News' Isolde Raftery and A. Pawlowski, as well as The Associated Press and Reuters, contributed to this report.

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  • In wake of nor'easter, 'patience is the name of the game'

    Those who lost their homes during Hurricane Sandy are salvaging what they can from the wreckage, and trying to stay afloat financially as they cope with the aftermath of the storm. NBC's Ann Curry reports.

    Miranda Leitsinger and Miguel Llanos, NBC News writes

    Updated at 11:24 p.m. ET: BREEZY POINT, N.Y. -- After waking up to several inches of snow and more than 200,000 new power outages, residents in areas battered by Superstorm Sandy on Thursday got back to the long-term work of rebuilding. 

    Miranda Leitsinger

    Snow dusted debris outside homes Thursday in Breezy Point, a community in the Rockaways section of New York City.

    "Patience is the name of the game here," said Joseph Murray in Breezy Point, where snow from the nor’easter dusted the New York City community destroyed last week by flooding and a fire. 

    Families here on Thursday continued efforts to save their waterlogged homes from mold, with some piling items on the layer of snow in 40-degree weather. 

    New York City and Long Island will begin rationing gas to relieve frustration and long lines at the pump, NBCNewYork.com reported. The rationing does not apply to emergency vehicles, taxis or individual gas cans.

    Murray, 27, was at his family’s home after sanitation workers cleared out their pile of garbage, leaving three salvageable nightstands and a lamp standing outside. 

    "Be patient with Mother Nature  because she doesn’t care about any of us," was how Murray rationalized the bizarre bouts of weather. "Let her do her thing and then when she’s ready to let you do your thing, she will."

    Cleanup crews already overextended from Hurricane Sandy are working around the clock to clear snow that recently fell across the region, causing more people to lose power. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

    Murray did have an eye on Friday’s weather forecast, noting that "it’s going to be 60 degrees, this is all going to melt." 

    By late Thursday, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island had their power fully restored. New York and New Jersey saw a drop in the number of customers affected by the nor'easter. Now about 60,000 customers are without power between the two states because of the storm; more than half a million remain without power total in the two states, including outages caused by Sandy.

    West Virginia, however, has struggled to bring power customers back online.

    The overnight nor’easter boasted wind gusts of more than 50 mph and dropped heavy snow on already-weakened tree limbs, leading to new power outages. 

    In New Jersey alone, 167,000 homes and businesses lost power overnight, Gov. Chris Christie said Thursday. "This sets us back about a day" in terms of getting all power restored, he added. 

    "We're right back to the same situation," Kirk Walker of Hackensack, N.J., told NBCNewYork.com after power went out for the third time at his home since Sandy struck. 

    "They said it was gonna be a rough winter," Walker added. "Sign of things to come, I guess."

    Officials there on Thursday said they had convinced the local utility to scrap its policy requiring that each home without power be inspected before power is restored, Newsday.com reported. 

    With the new outages, some 700,000 customers were without power across the Northeast around midday. That number was reduced to some 600,000 by early evening.

    Are you left in the lurch after Sandy? 

    Record snowfall totals were recorded across the area:

    • New York’s Central Park received 4.4 inches of snow on Wednesday -- a record for a Nov. 7 and the earliest 4-inch total in the park's history, NBCNewYork.com reported. By Thursday morning the total had reached 4.7 inches.
    • Newark, N.J., got 6 inches by Thursday -- more snow in 24 hours than during any previous November on record.
    • Bridgeport, Conn., received 3.5 inches of snow, beating the Nov. 7 record of 2 inches set in 1953.

    Some areas inland got 12 to 13 inches of snow.


    "This is a classic nor'easter," NBC meteorologist Al Roker said on TODAY, "just very early."

    PhotoBlog: Hot meals on Staten Island

    Conditions were still miserable Thursday morning. In New York City, winds were around 25 mph and it was 36 degrees with showers forecast before sunny skies on Friday.

    In New Jersey, parts of which saw 9 inches of snow, police said ice and snow contributed to the deaths of two people in a car whose driver was speeding, NBCPhiladelphia reported.

    Two people also died in Connecticut in traffic accidents attributed to snow, The Associated Press reported.

    Full NBC coverage of Sandy's aftermath

    Hundreds were evacuated ahead of the nor'easter, some because of flooding fears and others due to post-Sandy logistics.

    John Makely / NBC News

    Medeleine Dobriner was moved by the Red Cross to the Manresa Jesuit Center shelter on Staten Island so that her earlier shelter, a school, could reopen.

    Medeleine Dobriner of New Dorp on Staten Island was among the latter -- having to move because her shelter was in a school that was reopening.

    "This is my third shelter and usually change is good," Dobriner, 66, told NBC News, "but not in this case."

    Throughout the region, people wore coats indoors as they endured yet another night without heat.

    "I thought I was lucky when power was restored last Thursday, but last night it went out again," said Michael Platt, an electrician from Toms River, N.J., who estimated a foot of snow fell in his area. "The kids have been home for nearly two weeks and I'm not working, and when I'm not working I'm not making any money. This hasn't been easy." 

    "Can you believe this? Enough is enough," added Cindy Casey, whose Belle Harbor home one block from the beach in the Rockaways was swamped by Sandy, as she looked out at the snow blanketing the neighborhood devastated by flooding and fire. 

    Some of those who had weathered Sandy told NBCNewYork.com they felt like a cruel joke was being played on them.

    "Kind of laughing about it at this point," said Danny Arnedos, of Oyster Bay, Long Island. "To go from a hurricane to a nor'easter and driving in the snow in 10 days is pretty unbelievable."

    "I am waiting for the locusts and pestilence next," New Jersey Gov. Christie said Wednesday. 

    Coastal flooding proved minimal, but commuter bus and train services were disrupted by the storm, with the Long Island Rail Road briefly shutting down all operations to the city's eastern suburbs on Wednesday night.

    Gasoline remained in short supply in the New York City area, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday announced rationing based on odd and even number license plates.

    Official: NY disaster chief fired over tree removal

    Airports saw 1,600 canceled flights on Wednesday due to the storm. Some 600 more flights were scratched Thursday, according to the flight tracking service FlightAware. The majority of those are in the New York area.

    The losses from Superstorm Sandy are still rough, but New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday he had seen a report estimating $50 billion in damage and economic losses across the region, with $33 billion in New York state.

    "That's a staggering number," he said.

    Slideshow: Recovering after Sandy

    Mario Tama / Getty Images

    A snowstorm hits the Northeast as residents are still struggling to pick up the pieces after Superstorm Sandy.

    Launch slideshow

    NBC's John Makely as well as Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Digging out of the snow in Valdez, Alaska

    Cynthia Shidner / NBC News

    As snow slammed into the Pacific Northwest today, readers have been sending in pictures of the storm that shut down most of Seattle. From Olympia, Wash., to the Oregon coast, schools closed and there were hundreds of car accidents.

    Meanwhile, in Valdez, Alaska, Cynthia Shidner and her family are still digging out after nearly 5 feet of snow invaded her home last week. Shidner sent us these pictures from Valdez where her husband, two children and dog are safe despite the scare they had late last week.

    "It’s pretty amazing nobody’s gotten hurt around here," she told MSNBC.com.

    Cynthia Shidner / NBC News

    The snow poured into the Shidners' home Thursday morning, pushing open the front door and pouring into the bedroom.

    Cynthia Shidner / NBC News

    "It’s a good thing it happened at 9 in the morning and not at 2 because it was pretty easy to get people to come out and help right away," Shidner said. "Our roof shed it later on that day into our neighbor’s house."

    Cynthia Shidner / NBC News

    The Coast Guard brought over snow removal equipment and four volunteers spent one and half hours helping the Shidners remove the snow from their home so that they could close their front door. Even now, almost one week later, they're still battling the snow that piled up against the house. Their neighbors are assessing structural damage.

    Cynthia Shidner / NBC News

    Valdez has already received almost 27 feet of snow this winter, according to The Associated Press.

    "It is still is a bit of mess around here with all the snow removal," Shidner said. "We knew from our first winter that it was a problem but it’s never been anything like this."