Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 22, 1993 TAG: 9302220113
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
5 MISSING IN COLO. AVALANCHE; TORNADOES KILL 2
Colorado avalanches buried cars on a highway and left five skiers missing Sunday as a fast-moving storm blew blinding snow through the northern Rockies and onto the Plains.In another storm pummeling the East, at least two tornadoes spawned by thunderstorms touched down in Tennessee. One in Lenoir City killed at least one person, injured at least 95 others and destroyed several homes, according to authorities, who reported some victims trapped in collapsed homes.
A tornado also touched down in Cedartown, Ga., on Sunday, killing one person, injuring at least several others and causing extensive damage, authorities said.
Thunderstorms in Georgia had earlier knocked out power to about 10,000 homes in the Atlanta, Smyrna and Polk County areas.
No injuries were reported from another tornado that touched down in Powell, Tenn., or from one spotted in central Kentucky.
An 18-year-old man was missing in eastern Kentucky when his canoe overturned in a storm-swollen creek, police said.
Blowing snow in Waters, Mich., caused a pileup of about 75 vehicles on Interstate 75, prompting a four-hour closure of a section of the highway, state police said. Authorities reported about eight people suffered minor injuries.
In Colorado, an avalanche just after noon Sunday swept across both lanes of Interstate 70 on Vail Pass, burying four cars and a semi-trailer truck, the Colorado State Patrol reported.
The occupants were rescued unharmed, the patrol said, but the highway remained closed between Vail and Copper Mountain.
Five cross-country skiers were missing near Aspen, Colo., a day after two avalanches thundered down near the exclusive resort town. Temperatures were in the teens during the night.
A sixth skier who had been reported missing in the same area was located in Moab, Utah, on Sunday. It turned out he had canceled his ski trip, said Pitkin County Sheriff's Deputy Jo DiSalvo.
The avalanche hazard was rated extreme Sunday for the mountains near Aspen and Crested Butte, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. More than 268 avalanches had been reported since a warning went into effect Wednesday.
Blowing snow prevented an airplane and helicopter from being used in the search for the missing skiers. Ground teams could not venture into the area because snow on the mountainsides was so unstable, officials said.
An undetermined number of people were stranded at their rural homes by one of the slides, said Debbie Rounsefell of the sheriff's office. Twenty people were stranded at the Ashcroft ski area, she said.
In Wyoming, up to a foot of snow fell, often accompanied by high wind, and a 320-mile stretch of Interstate 80 was closed from Laramie to the Utah line from Saturday night until after daybreak Sunday.
"It's starting to look like semi city," Jenifer Beachy, a clerk at the Flying J Travel Plaza in Evanston, Wyo., said of truckers waiting out the storm.
A 2-year-old boy died Sunday after he fell into a storm-swollen creek about 40 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, where rains let up after four days of storms.
Emergency crews worked on a levee to channel the swollen Mojave River away from homes in an exclusive area of Spring Valley Lake near Victorville, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. Six houses were evacuated Saturday after the river washed out their back yards.
Elsewhere, the Chicago area was hit by snow, sleet and freezing rain during the night, and O'Hare International and Midway airports had delays of up to 40 minutes.