A Highway Patrol officer instructs a vehicle to turn around as it is leaving city limits, Friday, Nov. 7, 2008, in Devils Lake, N.D. In northeastern North Dakota, the Nodak Rural Electric Cooperative said thousands of rural customers in parts of Grand Forks, Griggs, Ramsey, Steele and Walsh counties were without power early Friday.
Madisen Weller, left, and Emilie Shaw clear a path to Shaw's mini van Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008, near downtown Rapid City, S.D. A blizzard that paralyzed western South Dakota on Thursday lost much of its punch as it moved east overnight, and officials on Friday prepared to move an estimated 250 cars, trucks and other vehicles stranded on Interstate 90, the main east-west route across the state.
Vehicles stuck in the snow litter a street Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008, near downtown Rapid City, S.D.
Bolorerdene Bundgaa of Mongolia, a student at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, walks on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008, in Rapid City, S.D.
Northbound traffic is backed up and traveling slow on 19th Street in northeast Bismarck, N.D., as a blizzard takes hold late Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008. A wintry blast of punishing wind and close to 4 feet of snow in places pummeled the Northern Plains, stranding unknown numbers of motorists for a day or more and knocking out power to thousands.
Bob Herz pushes his snowblower through a 3-foot deep snowdrift on his son's Rapid City, S.D. driveway on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008. Rain turned to snow Wednesday evening and, driven by winds which gusted as hard as 76 mph, shut down much of western South Dakota Thursday, with schools, businesses and highways closed throughout the region.
A Bismarck State College student shields her face from snow and wind while walking in white-out conditions on campus, Bismarck, N.D., Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008.
Preston Arity, 10, of Rapid City, S.D., left, plays in a huge snowdrift in the family driveway while his mother Jane turns away from a gust of windblown snow while shoveling the drive Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008. Winter arrived in western South Dakota with a blast, as rain turned to snow Wednesday night, sped by wind gusts as strong as 60 mph.
Winter arrived in North Dakota with near whiteout conditions on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008, and rapidly accumulating snowfall driven by a strong, cold north wind. Cathedral School crossing guard Sandra Krebs halts traffic to allow students to cross in front of the North Bismarck Catholic School in Bismarck, N.D.