After The Storm
After the winter storms that fell across much of the country from Friday into Saturday, the national weather picture has calmed down, though light snow is falling in Maine and around the Great Lakes, and a broad band of low clouds hangs over the Midwest and Tennessee Valley.
About 100 families in the northern Kentucky town of Falmouth began returning to their homes Sunday, after the rain-swollen Licking River began to recede. The families had been evacuated on Friday. State emergency officials reported three deaths in separate flash-flood incidents in north-central Kentucky.
Five counties in Kentucky have been declared state disaster areas by Governor Paul Patton.
The heavy rain and flash floods killed at least two people in West Virginia too. To the north, residents were coping with the effects of the same winter storm, which spread sleet and snow from the Midwest to Maine.
At Detroit Metropolitan Airport, several Northwest Airlines flights were delayed Saturday -- notably those heading to or coming from New England, socked by the storm after it drifted east.
Boston's Logan International airport saw 60 percent of its flights canceled Friday night. Spokeswoman Georgeane Tacelli said by mid-afternoon Saturday there were no problems outbound and delays of about 35 minutes on incoming planes.
The same weather system that brought the snow brought disaster to Arkansas. Thunderstorms and several tornadoes roared through communities southwest of Little Rock. Only minor injuries were reported, CBS News Correspondent Randall Pinkston reports.
A twister also reportedly touched down at about 5:30 p.m. Friday a few miles southwest of downtown Nashville, Tennessee. No damage or injuries were reported.
New Yorkers awoke to as much as a foot of snow Saturday, and state troopers reported hundreds of car accidents, including one in which two people were killed when their car slid across a highway into the path of a tractor-trailer.
In Michigan, people enjoyed the blanket of snow that weather forecasters said could melt away this week.
"I love it," said William Ammann, a 38-year-old Flushing, Mich., man. "If you're gonna get snow, you definitely want it on a Friday. You just have to have fun while you have it."
The snow was welcomed in sections of drought plagued Nebraska and Iowa. But farmers who hoped the storms would help were disappointed -- what fell wasn't enough.Al Dutcher, a climatologist in Nebraska, agreed. "We need about eight or nine of these little storms over the next couple of months to get us back into a stable environment."
Said farmer Kim May, "Five to six inches of snow means nothing to us."
The winter storm also meant plenty of snow for skiers heading to the slopes for the holiday weekend.
"We couldn't have scripted this week any better than this," said Dave Anderson, marketing director of Loon Mountain ski resort in Lincoln, N.H. "Right now I'm looking out y window at a winter wonderland."
Very warm air is hugging the Gulf Coast, and record high temperatures are possible there on Sunday. Meanwhile, a strong Pacific storm system is predicted to hit California late Sunday or Monday.
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