State of emergency declared in Missouri, Kansas due to winter storm

Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled as a frigid, windy winter storm whipped through the middle of the country on Thursday, dumping more than a foot of snow in some areas. Highways looked like obstacle courses with jackknifed trucks and other vehicles stuck on roads and in ditches.

Hundreds of flights were delayed or canceled throughout the Midwest, including two commercial flights from Omaha that Gov. Dave Heineman of Nebraska was scheduled to take to Washington for a convention.

Thursday’s storm was part of a larger system that started in the southwestern part of the country earlier this week and has stretched from southern South Dakota down to the Gulf Coast. It produced thunderstorms in Louisiana, and heavy rain is expected, with the possibility of flooding, in areas from Mississippi through South Carolina, according to the National Weather Service. Snow is expected to push through the Great Lakes states on Friday.

By Thursday afternoon, 17 inches of snow had accumulated in Hays, Kan., in the western part of the state, the weather service said, and some of the suburbs east of Kansas City had recorded more than 10 inches. South-central Nebraska also saw heavy snow, with 9 inches near Eustis.

Many businesses, schools and universities closed, and city and state officials urged people to stay off the roads. The frigid temperatures — wind chills in the single digits — and wind gusts around 30 miles per hour produced a stinging, blinding, icy snow.

At least one death has been attributed to the storm, which began early Wednesday in some areas — a two-car crash Wednesday that killed a 19-year-old woman in southeast Nebraska, New York Times reports.