Storms snarl US travel, threaten rare winter tornadoes

Snow, sleet and hail snarled transportation in large parts of the United States on Monday during one of the busiest travel times of the year, after dozens died in U.S. storms — part of a spate of extreme weather worldwide over the holidays.

More than 40 people were killed by tornadoes and floods during the holiday season in the United States, and rare winter tornado warnings were issued in Alabama on Monday. Alabama, Mississippi and the Florida panhandle were expected to bear the brunt of the of the day's strongest storms, said AccuWeather senior meteorologist Michael Leseney.

As of about 3 p.m. Eastern time, more than 1,940 U.S. flights were canceled on Monday, according to FlightAware.com, and 2,790 delays were reported. Chicago-area airports were worst hit, with hundreds of flights canceled as the city was swept by sleet and hail.

More than a foot of snow was forecast for southwestern Wisconsin and southeastern Minnesota, and snow was also falling in Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri.

A flash flood warning was in effect in eastern Missouri and southern Illinois, the National Weather Service said. Thirteen people died in flash floods in those states during the weekend.

The U.S. storms came as other countries struggled with extreme weather and stressed infrastructure.

In Britain hundreds of troops were deployed, and a government agency said a "complete rethink" of flood defenses was needed after swaths of northern England were inundated by rivers that burst their banks.

Severe weather also hit parts of Australia, where more than 100 homes were lost in Christmas Day brushfires.

Bad weather caused two candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, to cancel campaign events in Iowa.

Winter storms that brought ice and high winds to Oklahoma downed power lines, and 54,000 customers were without power on Monday in Oklahoma City and surrounding areas, Oklahoma Gas & Electric said. Local news reports said there were 100,000 without power across the state.

Operators of the Kerr and Pensacola dams, about 160 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, warned that they would have to release large amounts of water because of the storm and that area residents might be forced to evacuate their homes.

Six tornadoes were reported on Sunday: three in Arkansas, one in Texas and two in Mississippi.

Texas was cleaning up from weekend tornadoes that killed at least 11 people in the Dallas area and damaged about 1,600 structures and homes. One twister in Garland, a Dallas suburb, had winds of up to 200 miles per hour and killed eight people, including a 30-year-old woman and her year-old son.

In Garland and Rowlett, another Dallas suburb, which were devastated by tornadoes on Saturday, many residents turned to social media to tell stories of survival and to ask for help finding lost pets.

Ten deaths and 58 injuries were reported in Mississippi from the Christmas storms, Gov. Phil Bryant said at a news conference. Hundreds of homes were damaged.

Some roads still were closed in New Mexico, where storms on Sunday dumped as much as 18 inches of snow on eastern parts of the state.

In flooded southern Missouri, dozens of adults and children forced from their homes took refuge at Red Cross shelters.

Red Cross spokeswoman Julie Stolting said there was no telling when they might be able to return home. "But we're feeding them. We're sheltering them. We're providing health services," she said.

Reuters