Freezing rain closes I-90 for ten hours

“Superior looked like a traffic jam,” said Robert Lyons as he described the scene last Friday when freezing rain and black ice closed I-90 from Superior to Haugan.

“Trucks and cars were parked along the roads, sometimes two deep,” Lyons said.

When the interstate closed, trucks and cars pulled into town to wait out the weather.  

Robert Ireland, with the Superior Fire Department, said that there were at least six accidents from Superior to the border.

“There were 150 to 200 cars and trucks parked along the I-90,” said Ireland, “we even had to chain up the fire truck, which is 6,500 pounds.”

He said that this is only the third time he’s seen this type of weather since 1983.  

The weather also closed some area schools, including Superior and St. Regis, as well as Bigfork and Trout Creek. 

Warnings for black ice and freezing rain started Thursday evening, and the highway was closed just after midnight. It reopened Friday morning at 10:30.