Mississippi officials said they were sending 135 snowplows Wednesday to clear ice and snow from two interstate highways where frozen conditions caused huge traffic jams.
Emergency officials said they were rushing supplies to drivers stalled along ice-covered stretches of Interstates 55 and 22 in northern Mississippi, an area still reeling from a weekend winter storm that blasted parts of the South and the Northeast with ice and snow.
Helping stranded drivers and moving stalled vehicles ''remains a top priority,'' Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said in a social media post. The Mississippi National Guard said citizen-soldiers equipped with wreckers began arriving before dawn to help clear I-55 and I-22.
Traffic remained snarled on the two interstates in northern Mississippi at mid-day Wednesday, many hours after problems began when plunging temperatures Tuesday night caused the highways to refreeze. Roadside cameras operated by the Mississippi Department of Transportation showed semitrucks and pickups bumper-to-bumper on stretches of I-22 lined with snow.
The Mississippi National Guard said citizen-soldiers equipped with wreckers began arriving before dawn to help clear I-55 and I-22.
In the small community of Red Banks, Mississippi, local authorities were asking people with all-terrain vehicles to bring water, food, blankets or gas to stranded motorists, said Lacey Clancy, who works at a cafe near I-22 and neighboring Highway 178.
Clancy said sheets of ice covered the highways and cars and trucks sat idle, covering the highways and backing up along on ramps and exit ramps.
''The highway kind of looks like a parking lot," Clancy said in a phone interview. ''A lot of people have run out of gas, abandoned their vehicles.''
