Big Snowstorm Moves Into Great Lakes Region

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he snowstorm that brought blizzard-like conditions and knocked out power to thousands across the Great Plains is moving toward the Great Lakes region, the Associated Press reported early Tuesday.

The storm dumped snow from North Dakota to the Texas Panhandle, closing hundreds of miles of highways and piling up drifts 6 feet high, AP reported.

More than 400 miles of eastbound Interstate 70 was closed, from Denver to Salina, Kan., with no word on when it might reopen, AP said, though westbound lanes were open in some areas. (Click here for previous coverage.)

The Colorado portion of I-70 was dry Monday, but the highway was impassable in western and central Kansas because visibility was nearly zero, AP reported. Colorado halted eastbound traffic because there are so few places to stop and wait on the state's sparsely populated eastern plains.

Parts of I-94 in Minnesota and North Dakota were also closed by the storm, news reports said.

Five deaths were blamed on slippery roads in Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas, and a sixth was killed by a tornado in Arkansas, AP reported.