At Least 6 Dead as Winter Storm Blair Wreaks Havoc Across the U.S., Bringing Snow and Ice to Over a Dozen States

Mar. 15, 2025

At least six people are dead as Winter Storm Blair marches across the mainland United States, bringing dangerous snow and ice along with it.

This deadly winter storm has impacted more than a dozen states from coast to coast since Saturday, Jan. 4, and is currently bearing down on portions of the East Coast.

Michael Taylor, a long-haul driver from Los Angeles, was just one of many truckers who got off the road amid the storm, according to theAssociated Press.

“It was too dangerous," Taylor explained after stopping in Cincinnati. “I didn’t want to kill myself or anyone else.”

A tractor-trailer that went off the road during Winter Storm Blair in 2025.Missouri State Highway Patrol/Facebook

Missouri State Highway Patrol/Facebook

Several deaths have been reported in connection with Winter Storm Blair.

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State police in Missouri respond to a crash during Winter Storm Blair in January 2025.Missouri State Highway Patrol/Facebook

The day prior, authorities said a33-year-old man diedafter a parked semi-truck “became a downhill runaway” in Holt County and hit the pedestrian around 12:40 p.m. local time.

That same day, a man died after a 2019 semi truck jackknifed amid “icy conditions” on the eastbound side of U.S. Route 56 and hit a 2017 Toyota Tacoma traveling in the opposite direction.

A tractor-trailer that veered off the road in Missouri during Winter Storm Blair in January 2025.Missouri State Highway Patrol/Facebook

Two others died after a 2002 GMC Yukon slid off Interstate 235 in Wichita, Kan., “due to inclement weather” and rolled down an embankment early on Sunday,Kansas Highway Patrolsaid in a separate crash report.

The victims have been identified as 24-year-old Nathaniel Boyd, of Wichita, and 26-year-old Whitney Allmond, of Clearwater.

Jack D. Brinkoetter, 10, was transported to Decatur Memorial Hospital, where he later died. A second boy who was also on the innertube was transported to a trauma center in Springfield with life-threatening injuries.

The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

A Missouri state trooper’s car amid the snow from Winter Storm Blair.Missouri State Highway Patrol/Facebook

Tens of thousands of customers are currently without power in states like Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia and Illinois, according toPowerOutage.us.

Hundreds of flights have been canceled across several states due to the winter weather, according toFlightAware.com.

The storm is still pushing east, bringing “moderate to heavy snow from parts of the Ohio Valley through to the Mid-Atlantic” through Monday, Jan. 6, according to the National Weather Service’sWeather Prediction Center.

Hundreds of crashes have already been reported in Maryland as the storm, according tostate police.

source: people.com