Towed for the holidays: Priceless

The longest, most soul-testing line of the day on Christmas Eve wasn't at the department store or the grocery checkout or the liquor store.

It was at the Minneapolis impound lot.

Owners of the nearly 1,000 vehicles that were towed from Minneapolis streets during the abbreviated snow emergency Sunday and Monday queued up at the lot, hot with anger, cold on the wet pavement, late for holiday gatherings and resigned to a $150 dent in their Christmas budgets.

The snow emergency was invoked Sunday night after a hard-driving winter storm dropped an official 3.9 inches on the Twin Cities area, although the amount seemed like much more.

In Minneapolis, 930 vehicles were towed through 4 p.m. Monday.

In St. Paul, where another snow emergency was declared, 468 were towed by 11 a.m. Monday.

Statewide, nine people were killed in traffic accidents over the weekend in difficult driving conditions.

At the Minneapolis lot, Joe Carl waited more than two hours to retrieve his car. More than half that wait was outside, until he was able to squeeze into the lobby. He carried a bag of wrapped Christmas presents the entire time; as soon as he got his car he was headed to a Christmas Eve dinner.

Carl, whose car was towed from near his home near W. 26th Street and Humboldt Avenue S., said he knew about the snow emergency and even had received the automated phone warning from the city, but misunderstood the timing.

"I was angry this morning, but they froze it out of me," Carl said.

"It's annoying no matter when it happens," he added. "But if they need to plow the roads, they need to plow the roads. They can't help that it snowed right before Christmas."

Indeed, Minneapolis officials invoked the holiday spirit in changing the regular snow emergency protocol. The snow emergency was called off at 5 p.m. Monday, leaving one side of residential streets unplowed. City spokeswoman Sara Dietrich said officials didn't want to blind-side visitors in town for the holidays. The snow, she added, is light enough that streets should be passable, but in coming days trucks will simply plow around cars.

The nine people killed:

•Leonard W. Kasten, 69, of Stewartville, Minn., and passenger Michelle L. Pederson, 35, of Albert Lea, Minn., who were killed in a rollover Sunday on Interstate Hwy. 90 west of Austin, Minn.

•A 31-year-old Circle Pines woman, who lost control of her truck on Hwy. 65 near East Bethel on Sunday.

•A 17-year-old Oak Grove girl who died after losing control of her vehicle at the intersection of NW. Flamingo Street and 181st Avenue, Oak Grove, Saturday.

•Eugene Segler, 87, Brainerd, Minn., who was killed while walking on Crow Wing County Road 8 around 11:15 a.m. Saturday;

•John Becklin, 46, of Harris, Minn., who was killed around noon Saturday after losing control of his vehicle on Chisago County Road 10 and was hit by another vehicle;

•Robert Maurice, 47, of Oconomowoc, Wis., who was killed in a rollover accident on Interstate 90 Saturday in Winona County.

•Sara Daysi Lopez Velasquez, 39, of Glencoe, died when she lost control of her car, crossed the center line and hit a pickup truck on McLeod County Road 2 about 3 p.m. Saturday.

Regionally, at least 20 deaths were linked to the weekend-long blast of ice and windblown snow, which led to multi-car pileups that closed sections of several highways on the Plains.

Accidents on slick highways killed three in Indiana, three in Wyoming, four in Wisconsin and one each in Texas and Kansas.

More than 70 stranded drivers found shelter overnight Sunday at the National Guard Armory and Salvation Army offices in Albert Lea, at the intersection of Interstates 90 and 35. The city's motels and restaurants were also full, said county emergency manager Mark Roche.

Staff Writer Courtney Blanchard and the Associated Press contributed to this report.