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Blowing Snow Strands Students, Forces Interstate Closure

PEYTON, Colo. (CBS4) - Blowing snow caused major problems on Colorado's Eastern Plains overnight, causing major highway closures and stranding some students at a school.

The strong winds led to dangerous driving conditions on highways and roads, and officials had to shut down Interstate 70 from Aurora to the Kansas border late Tuesday night. The closure lasted until dawn on Wednesday.

Roads remained slick with blowing snow still a problem after daybreak on Wednesday.

Between 65 and 70 students in the Miami-Yoder School District were stranded at their small school in the town of Rush east of Colorado Springs overnight.

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Dozens of students were stranded at the Miami-Yoder School east of Colorado Springs (credit: CBS)

"We stayed the night. Fed them dinner last night, watched movies," said Miami-Yoder Asst. Principal Howard Disney.

Snow drifts also piled up on roads around Peyton in El Paso County, where CBS4 reporter Kelly Werthmann got stuck at the home of people she was visiting.

The following are images captured by Werthmann and show the conditions in Peyton.

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Snow drifts in Peyton (credit: CBS)
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Snow drifts on a road near Peyton (credit: CBS)

As of 7:30 a.m. officials with the Colorado Department of Transportation said the following roads remained closed:

- Highway 71 between Limon and Last Chance
- Highway 86 between Kiowa and I-70

Sheri Lucas of Rush shared the following photos of the snowy conditions there Wednesday morning. She wrote "This will be our third time digging out since Friday. Love the moisture, hate it when the wind is so loud that you can't hear yourself think LOL!"

P1020569
(credit: Sheri Lucas)
P1020570
(credit: Sheri Lucas)
P1020575
(credit: Sheri Lucas)
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