| RAWLINS,
Wyo. - Thousands of stranded motorists sought shelter as
a snowstorm shut down 200 miles of Interstate 80 and caused
a 12-car pileup east of Laramie on Saturday.
Interstate 80 was closed between Rock Springs and Cheyenne
for a second day after cars slid and crashed on the icy
asphalt.
Hotels quickly filled with travelers waiting for the
interstate to reopen. The American Red Cross expected
2,600 people in two shelters in Rawlins and 200 people
at a shelter in Rock Springs.
``We were on our way back from a vacation in Yellowstone
and we got kind of caught by surprise here,'' said Robert
Eves, 40, of Erie, Ill., who was with his wife and 2-year-old
son at a Rawlins shelter and expected to end up in a sleeping
bag on the floor overnight.
The family had been forced to stay at a shelter in Wamsutter
on Friday because of an interstate closure, and had gotten
only 40 miles before the interstate was closed again.
The storm draped a swath of snow up to 15 inches deep
from Encampment to Casper before heading southwest into
Colorado late Saturday night. It was expected to taper
off by Sunday, leaving behind temperatures in the 50s
and 60s on Monday.
``The worst of the accumulations is probably over,''
said meteorologist Mike Weiland of the National Weather
Service in Cheyenne.
That was little comfort to the owners of hundreds of
tractor-trailers, campers and cars that lined the interstate
and Rawlins neighborhood streets Saturday evening. Truck
drivers were asked to not park their rigs close together
to avoid carbon monoxide problems, said Brady Fox of the
American Red Cross.
About 1,000 people who had been in Rawlins shelters Friday
night swamped Interstate 80 when it reopened briefly.
The interstate had been shut down Friday from Laramie
to Rawlins and closed all the way to the Utah line early
Saturday.
A 12-car pileup east of Laramie was part of the reason
for Saturday's closure. Two tractor-trailers crashed in
the area, and other motorists were injured, but there
was no word on how extensively, a Wyoming Highway Patrol
dispatcher said.
The closure came as football fans were traveling to Laramie
for an evening game between Wyoming and Nevada. Football
players were also stuck in traffic, delaying the 7 p.m.
kickoff by an hour.
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