Last FEMA trailer leaves New Orleans six years after Katrina

The last FEMA trailer in New Orleans has left the city, closing a brutal chapter in New Orleans' history more than six years after Hurricane Katrina stormed through the region and the levee system failed.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Wednesday announced that the trailer, officially known as a temporary housing unit, had departed Sunday. The announcement described the event as "a significant Hurricane Katrina recovery milestone."

The temporary housing units, which included travel trailers and mobile homes, became a symbol of the scale of the 2005 Katrina disaster. Television coverage mesmerized the nation, showing people trapped on rooftops to avoid floodwater, long lines of vehicles packed with people forced to flee inland and people who sought safety in the Louisiana Superdome. Meanwhile, the National Guard was patrolling the streets in an attempt to restore order.

“For more than six years, temporary housing units were located on private properties, group and industrial sites, and in commercial mobile home/RV parks across New Orleans while her residents recovered from the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina,” Andre Cadogan, FEMA’s Louisiana Recovery Office deputy director of programs, said in a statement. “The transition of this final household is a huge success for our agency, the state, the city, local nonprofits, and all others who contributed to helping return normalcy to New Orleans and those who live here.”

That upbeat tone was echoed by Mayor Mitch Landrieu.

“At the end of the day, FEMA trailers were never meant to be permanent housing units, so I’m glad that our code enforcement efforts coupled with FEMA case work has helped individuals transition to permanent housing,” Landrieu stated. He replaced C. Ray Nagin, who served eight years as mayor and was in office when the hurricane hit and the levees failed.

“Another page has turned in New Orleans’ post-Katrina history,” Landrieu said.

The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the most active in U.S. history, and Katrina ranks as the costliest and one of the most deadly hurricanes. Property damage has been estimated at more than $81 billion, and at least 1,830 people were killed in the storm.

Katrina was followed a few weeks later by Hurricane Rita. Ultimately, the season seemed to be never-ending, producing 15 hurricanes, four of which were rated at the top Category 5.

Katrina formed over the Bahamas on Aug. 23, 2005, crossed southern Florida and became stronger as it moved through the Gulf of Mexico. The storm surge caused major damage along the Gulf Coast from Florida to Texas.

In New Orleans, the levee system, designed to protect the city from flooding, failed hours after the storm had passed. At one point, more than 80% of the city and neighboring areas were flooded.

Officials had warned residents to leave the area, but many ignored their pleas. After the storm, relief efforts became bogged down because supplies could not be moved to areas in need. Civil order seemed to collapse amid the looting. The poor emergency response became a political blot on the Bush administration.

According to FEMA, the response to Katrina and Rita was the “largest housing operation in the history of the country, providing THUs (travel trailers, mobile homes and park models) to approximately 92,000 families throughout Louisiana. Approximately 25 percent of these THUs were in service at the peak of the housing program in Orleans Parish.”

FEMA said it has provided about $5.8 billion to assist 915,884 individuals and families in Louisiana for Katrina and Rita, including $4.2 billion in housing assistance for rent, repairs and replacement housing and $1.6 billion in other needs for such things as furniture, clothing and replacement vehicles.

Three trailers from the 2005 season are still in use elsewhere in Louisiana, according to FEMA.

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Photo: A FEMA trailer sits in front of a home in New Orleans' Lakeview section in this photo from 2009. The last trailer left the city Sunday. Credit: Bill Haber/Associated Press

Great ball of fire: Fiery meteor wows Oklahoma and Texas

This post has been corrected. Please see note at bottom for details.

Great balls of fire indeed.

Folks from Oklahoma City to Houston reported having seen a fireball shoot across the sky at about 8 p.m. Wednesday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Astronomers said the fiery display was likely caused by a meteor or some other space matter hurtling through the atmosphere.

Texas observers blogged about the show and described it as a blue-green object trailing sparks.

In central Texas, Little River-Academy Police Chief Troy Hess said he had just pulled over a driver when he managed to capture video of the fireball from his cruiser.

"It kept getting bigger, and the color kept changing," he told the Austin American-Statesman.

No damage was reported from the fireball.

It was not clear whether any of the remnants fell to earth. Meteor sightings are common, with most burning up in the atmosphere and leaving scant debris, according to astronomers.

Anita Cochran, assistant director of the McDonald Observatory at the University of Texas, told the American-Statesman that Wednesday's fireball was most likely small space debris. 

"The rare case is when it is something big," she said.

"It looked like a sparkler, almost," Lisa Coleman, who lives outside College Station, Texas, told local TV station KBTX.

"There was just this huge meteor-like rock falling across the sky and I thought, 'Wow, that's really huge to be a shooting star,' but it lasted about 12 to 15 seconds and it had a sparkling, flaring tail," Coleman said.

Texas A&M astronomy professor Nicholas Suntzeff told KBTX the meteor was not as huge as it appeared -- probably only about the size of a fist. He attempted to dispel some other meteor myths.

"If they do hit the earth, they are not hot, they are cold. ... There is the fire around them, but ... the meteor itself remains cold," Suntzeff said. "It almost never produces a fire when it hits the earth."

Suntzeff said the type of meteor that residents spotted, likely a bolide meteor, is both bright and rare -- most people will probably never see one again in their lifetime.

"Usually it's just a fraction of a second; here it was like five seconds or so. Again, I've only seen a few of those in my life. I wish I'd seen it," he said.

Another odd fact about this week's fireball: The sighting occurred on the ninth anniversary of the space shuttle Columbia falling to earth over east Texas.

[For the Record, 1:05 p.m., Feb.3: An earlier version of this post -- and its headline -- referred to the meteor as a meteorite. A meteorite is a portion of a meteor that reaches the Earth intact.]

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Video: A Texas police officer's dashboard video camera caught a fiery meteorite streaking across the sky this week. Credit: YouTube

'Sexperiment': Texas pastor beds down with wife atop church

A Southern Baptist pastor recently bedded down with his wife atop their Dallas-area church for what they called a 24-hour "Sexperiment."

"We're bringing the bed back in church," the Rev. Ed Young said.

"For far too long, the church has been silent," added Lisa Young, his wife.

Ed Young told Houston's KHOU that he decided to camp out with his wife of 29 years on the roof of their Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, to send a message about faith and marriage.

The message: “Bring God back into the bed,” by having sex with your spouse for seven days straight.

The couple expound upon this point in their new book,"Sexperiment: 7 Days to Lasting Intimacy With Your Spouse."

The couple started what they billed as a "24-hour bed-in" at 6 a.m. Friday. They had a live webcam and even held "bedside interviews," taking questions and comments on Facebook and Twitter.

They cited John Lennon and Yoko Ono's famous bed-ins for peace as their inspiration.

"We're trying not to go for the same hair styles and facial hair," Lisa Young said.

At one point, the couple's four children joined them in bed. Lisa Young asked her teenage daughter what it was like to have her parents write a book about sex.

"It's pretty cool actually," she said. "It's reassuring to know y'all are doing OK, that your marriage is kind of a model."

She urged fellow teens to "save yourselves" for marriage.

Once the kids left, things got a little chilly.

"We have an electric blanket -- it's getting cooler; the wind's picked up," Lisa Young said as she sat next to her husband in bed, tucked under a comforter, both wearing coats and sunglasses ("looking Hollywood," as she put it). In the background, cars zoomed down nearby highways.

"It's like an Arctic zone," Ed Young said.

Several guests chatted with the couple via Skype.

"It is obvious Lisa is doing all the work of the bed-in," joked Steven Furtick, of Charlotte, N.C. "I might make an analogy... "

They all laughed.

Furtick, a young father of three married for almost a decade, quoted Proverbs 29:13, "Where there is no vision, people cast off restraint."

"Usually we approach sexuality from a restrictive standpoint," he said, as the Youngs nodded in agreement. "You can put on all the rules and scare people with tactics, but if there's no vision, no preferable future they're driving towards, the restraint will be cast off. You guys have a vision."

The Youngs agreed.

Judah Smith, a Seattle pastor, also Skyped with the couple. He and his wife said they plan to hold their own "Sexperiment."

"If anybody should have the best sex, it should be the people who worship the one who created it," Smith said.

Critics have called Young's approach extreme, saying he is too focused on sex. Young told KHOU “it’s not a gimmick,” but necessary for pastors to discuss sexuality.

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Illustration credit: Shutterstock

Rains drench Houston, cut power; Texas hasn't seen end of drought

 

The Houston area not only had torrential rain, but some locations also had hail, funnel clouds and flash-flood warnings on Monday. The downpour stranded scores of southeast Texas drivers and left thousands without power, but it's unlikely to ease the drought that has plagued Texas for more than a year.

There were up to 4 inches of rain Monday morning in the Houston area as a cold front moving in from the north met warm, moist Gulf air, said Don Oettinger, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Some locations got an inch and a half of hail, and several funnel clouds were reported. Severe thunderstorm, tornado and flash-flood warnings were in effect for some areas through Monday afternoon, Oettinger told The Times.

The rain will help farmers and ranchers in the short term, Oettinger said, but it will do little to diminish -- much less halt -- the punishing drought that's taken a toll on crops, livestock and wildlife.

“We’re still overall behind," he said of the state's total rainfall. "Also, when we get real heavy rain like this, a lot of it washes away and doesn’t do a lot of good."

That's especially the case in areas near Austin that experienced massive wildfires last year.

“This type of rain just runs off of that with little ground cover,” said Oettinger, who is based in League City, Texas, about 25 miles south of Houston.

The rain did seem impressive, however. Some residents posted videos of their perilous morning commute on YouTube; another posted footage of "dancing" manhole covers at a metro rail station.

More heavy rain was expected Monday afternoon, with the storm expected to move out of the area overnight, Oettinger said. Another storm is forecast to hit at week's end, he said. More rain may come later this winter.

Ultimately, the storms' combined effect could alleviate the drought. “If we can get a few more systems like this, that will certainly help,” he said.

Last year was the driest year on record in Texas, as well as the second-hottest, according to the National Weather Service. The average total rainfall statewide was 14.89 inches, beating the previous low of 14.99 inches set in 1917, according to the National Weather Service.

The average temperature in Texas last year was 67.2 degrees, just slightly below its warmest year on record: 1921, when the average was 67.5 degrees.

Some areas of the state received rain last month, but about 98% of Texas remained in severe drought last week, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

The historic drought has killed about a half-billion trees, according to the Texas Forest Service.

Scientists say the drought is also threatening several animal species, including the state's last remaining flock of about 300 whooping cranes, almost half of which make their home southwest of Houston at the coastal Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.

"We're very apprehensive, very concerned, monitoring the population very closely to see what it is the reaction might be," Dan Alonso, manager of the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, told the Associated Press. 

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'Excited' family awaits return of runaway teen from Colombia

A 15-year-old Texas girl deported to Colombia in May after reportedly concocting a fake identity was headed back to the United States on Friday -- with her family anxiously awaiting her arrival, according to staff at her family's lawyer's office in Dallas.

Jakadrien Lorece Turner left Colombia on Friday and was on a flight to Dallas expected to arrive at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport about 7 p.m., according to staff at the office of Dallas lawyer Ray Jackson.

Office staff were in contact with the girl through the U.S. Embassy in Bogota early Friday, and learned she was eager to reunite with her family.

The feeling is mutual, according to Jackson's staff.

"They just want to hold her," paralegal Crystal Cienfuegos said.

The girl's mother, Johnisa Turner, told the Associated Press she'll be meeting her daughter when she arrives in Dallas and said she has "a gazillion questions" for Jakadrien.

"I am very excited," Turner told the Associated Press. "I feel like a weight has been lifted. But at the same time, I won't just feel really, really good until I'm able to touch her."

Jakadrien's family has questioned why U.S. officials didn't do more to verify her identity, but U.S. immigration officials insist there was no sign the girl wasn't a Colombian woman who had immigrated illegally.

The teen ran away from home more than a year ago. When she was arrested in Houston on April 2, 2011, in connection with a misdemeanor theft, she reportedly claimed to be Tika Lanay Cortez, a Colombian woman born in 1990 -- an identity that turned out to be fabricated.

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official told The Times that the teen claimed to be Cortez throughout the criminal proceedings in Houston and the ensuing deportation process in which an immigration judge ultimately ordered her back to Colombia.

"Never during that criminal proceeding did she purport to be someone else, or say she was a U.S. citizen," said Barbara Gonzalez, an ICE spokeswoman. "There was nothing to invalidate her claim. This is someone who’s under oath in a criminal proceeding. The criminal justice system did not know she was a minor."

Gonzalez noted that a Colombian consular official interviewed Jakadrien and issued her travel documents before she was deported.

"The U.S. cannot deport someone without a country issuing travel documents,” Gonzalez said.

The Colombian consulate in Houston did not return calls about the case Friday.

Gonzalez said ICE worked with the U.S. State Department to facilitate Jakadrien's return home.

It was not clear if the teen might be charged upon her return in connection with falsifying identity in a criminal process.

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Photo: Jakadrien Lorece Turner, a Texas teen who ran away more than a year ago, posed as a Colombian illegal immigrant and was deported. She was located in Bogota last month by Dallas police, with help from Colombian and U.S. officials, and due home late Friday. Credit: WFAA-TV/Associated Press.

Texas police in 911 call tell student, 'Put the gun down!'

In a 911 recording released by police Thursday, south Texas officers can be heard confronting an eighth-grader who they believed was brandishing a real gun at a middle school in the border town of Brownsville.

An assistant principal at Cummings Middle School made the 911 call early Wednesday, and as officers arrive, she can be heard saying the teen was drawing a weapon, according to the Brownsville Herald, which obtained the recording.

"Be careful not to charge through the front door, he's right there," she says. "Don't walk in --there's a kid with a gun!"

She later says, "He's drawing the gun!"

Someone else yells that the student says he's willing to die, so be careful. An administrator shouts, "Lock the door!"

Throughout the six-minute call, police can be heard yelling, "Put the gun down! Put it on the floor!"

At one point, the administrator says, "Oh, gosh, there's shooting going on..."

A moment later, police can be heard yelling that the student is running down the hall.

Police said that when 15-year-old Jaime Gonzalez refused to drop the weapon, officers shot him three times, killing him -- only to discover that he was armed with a pellet gun. No one else was injured.

Interim Brownsville Police Chief Orlando Rodriguez told the Brownsville Herald that, in the wake of the shooting, the department had received death threats.

Gonzalez's parents have questioned why Brownsville officers thought they had to shoot the boy.

"Why was so much excess force used on a minor?" Jaime Gonzalez Sr. said, according to the Associated Press. "Three shots. Why not one that would bring him down?"

Gonzalez told CBS that he did not know where his son got the gun or why he brought it to school.

Noralva Gonzalez displayed a photo to reporters of her son in his drum major uniform standing with his band instructors. Then she showed three photos she said she took of bullet wounds in her son's body, including one in the back of his head.

"What happened was an injustice," she told the Associated Press. "I know that my son wasn't perfect, but he was a great kid."

Rodriguez told the Brownsville Herald that the teen "had plenty of opportunities to lower the gun and listen to the officers' orders" and that police did what they could to protect themselves and other students.

Shortly before the shooting, Gonzalez had walked into a classroom and punched another boy in the nose, Rodriguez told the Herald. It was not clear why, he said.

Police also did not know why Gonzalez pulled out the pellet gun, but Rodriguez told the Herald he thought it may have been "a way to bring attention to himself."

Police declined to say what the boy said before he was shot.

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Photo: Jaime Gonzalez, 15, was fatally shot after reportedly pointing a pellet gun at police officers in the Texas border town of Brownsville on Wednesday. Credit: Gonzalez family

Alleged 'Handsome Guy' bandit not looking so good in Mississippi

Mississippi authorities who stopped the dashing alleged "Handsome Guy bandit," a.k.a. the "Hollywood bandit," may be none too impressed. They said he apparently scarfed down a bunch of pills, then vomited in the back of a police cruiser after being arrested in connection with assaulting a police officer as he allegedly fled the latest bank robbery.

Steven Ray Milam, a budget-casket salesman from east Texas, had been dubbed "Handsome Guy" by investigators based on a lifelike silicone mask that authorities say he wore during a series of north Texas bank robberies. The mask, which sells for more than $800, is called "Handsome Guy."

Unmasked, Milam, 44, of Tyler, Texas, is clean-cut, trim and tan. He was driving a red BMW with a Texas license plate Tuesday morning when Jackson County, Miss., sheriff's deputies attempted to stop him, throwing down tire spikes and shooting his right rear tire, according to The Mississippi Press.

Before he was arrested, Milam managed to swallow a number of pills, police told The Times. By the time investigators delivered him to the sheriff's office, Milam had vomited in the back seat of their cruiser, The Mississippi Press reported, with photos to corroborate the story.

Milam, who has already served a two-year federal prison sentence for a pair of Dallas bank robberies in 2005, could hardly stand after his arrest Tuesday and was taken to Singing River Hospital for treatment, the newspaper reported.

Sgt. Kevin Perlich, a Richardson, Texas, police spokesman, told The Times that witness accounts and bank surveillance video link Milam to the "Handsome Guy" robberies.

Perlich said the mask that police believe was used in the robberies was recovered from the scene of the latest heist in Richardson on Saturday as the suspect fled, along with the suspect's clothes, cash and a 9-millimeter pistol he may have used to shoot at a police officer as he escaped.

"It's very realistic," Perlich said of the mask. "There's nothing that would draw your attention," adding that from the inside, the mask  has "good sight lines."

Perlich said Milam appeared to have recovered from the pills he ingested at the time of his arrest.

"He's been checked out -- it's not a problem," Perlich said, adding that police were planning to transport Milam back to Texas, although it was unclear when.

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Photo: Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd, center, and investigator Jeff Smith, left, question Steven Ray Milam, 44, who may be responsible for more than half a dozen Dallas-area bank holdups, on Tuesday in Pascagoula, Miss. Credit: Cherie Ward /The Mississippi Press

 

Jury awards record $150 billion to family of burned boy

A Texas jury has awarded a record $150 billion in punitive damages to the parents and estate of Robert Ray "Robbie" Middleton, who was set on fire when he was 8 years old -- two weeks after he was allegedly sexually assaulted by the same person.

The largely symbolic award is reportedly the biggest personal-injury award from a jury in U.S. history. The previous record, according to Bloomberg News, was a $145-billion award -- later reversed -- in a Florida class-action suit against the tobacco industry.

Colleen and Bobby Ray Middleton filed the civil lawsuit against their son’s alleged attacker, Don Willburn Collins, 26, who is in prison for an unrelated crime. But their real target is prosecutors in Houston’s Montgomery County, who they hope will feel so pressured by the award that they finally charge Collins in connection with the alleged sexual assault and subsequent attack.

A jury in La Grange, Texas, about 100 miles west of Houston, on Tuesday found in the Middletons' favor, ordering Collins to pay them $370 million in actual damages, according to their attorney, Craig Sico, who spoke with The Times. The jury was able to address damages after a district judge issued a partial summary judgment on liability in September.

Middleton was sexually assaulted June 14, 1998, and was set on fire on his birthday two weeks later, Sico said.

In the second attack, Middleton had just received a tent as a birthday gift and was walking to a friend's house to try it out. His assailant caught up with him in woods near his family's home in Splendora, about 35 miles northeast of Houston, Sico said. The attacker threw a cup of gasoline in Middleton's face, tied him to a tree with fishing line, poured more gasoline on him and set him on fire, Sico said.

As the plastic fishing line melted, Middleton was able to escape, and neighbors found him collapsed at the edge of the woods, Sico said.

Collins, then 13, was detained in connection with the assault, but was later released, officials said.

“They tried to sweep this under the carpet,” Sico said.

Middleton was covered with third-degree burns and had to receive numerous skin treatments, Sico said. He later developed skin cancer and, on April 29, he died at age 20.

Sico, a partner at a Corpus Christi law firm, took the case pro bono. He told the jury that the award should be symbolic, bigger than the largest civil settlement he could find on record: the $145 billion Florida class-action tobacco settlement in 2000.

He told them the award was intended to send a message to the Montgomery County attorney to charge Collins in connection with the assaults on Middleton.

“This is a plea for justice,” Sico said of the jury award.

Collins, 26, did not appear at the civil trial. He was convicted in 2001 of assaulting another 8-year-old and is a registered sex offender. He is due to be released from prison in September 2012, officials said.

Montgomery County Atty. David Walker, whose office handles juvenile cases, was not county attorney at the time of Middleton’s assault but was working at the office.

He told The Times that Collins was not charged at the time because “the case was very, very difficult, with evidence that was not clear or necessarily compelling at that time.”

Walker said investigators recovered scant physical evidence from the assaults. And because Middleton was severely injured, he added, “his ability to say what had happened and who did this horrible crime to him was extremely difficult.”

“There will be people who will say that’s an excuse,” Walker said, “but the professionals here worked very hard.”

Walker said he and Montgomery County sheriff’s investigators reopened the investigation earlier this year after Sico began gathering documents for the civil case.

Walker said investigators are “still working on the case, still tracking down and attempting to interview witnesses.”

“Depending upon the results of that further investigation, authorities here will make a decision about whether prosecution of Mr. Collins or anyone else is possible,” Walker said.

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Texas man will pay $1 parking ticket -- 58 years later

A Houston Army veteran is expected to pay a delinquent parking ticket Wednesday. Normally, such an event would merit little media coverage -- but this particular ticket was written more than 58 years ago.

Dale Crawford, 79, received the ticket Feb. 3, 1953, the day he was inducted into the U.S. Army at age 21.

He left his green 1946 Nash at a parking meter near the induction station in downtown Houston and boarded a bus to Fort Sam Houston at 4 a.m. When his father picked up the car hours later, it had been ticketed. His father tucked the ticket into Crawford's belongings. Crawford found it in 1995 after his mother died, but forgot about it until recently.

When Crawford unearthed the ticket among keepsakes, he sent a letter to city officials. They notified him that so much time had passed, the traffic violation had been expunged.

He said he wanted to pay it anyway.

The cost? One dollar.

Crawford told Houston’s Fox 26 this week that he needed to clear his conscience by paying the debt, even though it's a negligible amount.

“It’s only a dollar, but it is still a debt and I think the Bible says something about us paying our debts,” Crawford said.

A spokeswoman for Houston Mayor Annise Parker told The Times that she plans to accept Crawford's payment after Wednesday’s City Council meeting, which was streaming online, and to thank him for setting an example for others who owe debts to the city.

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Winter storm drops snow, sleet on Southwest

A powerful winter storm dumped heavy snow across sections of the Southwest and Great Plains on Monday, stranding motorists in New Mexico and Oklahoma and prompting blizzard warnings in Texas two days before the official start of winter.

Forecasters warned late Monday that up to 18 inches of snow was expected across the region as the storm traveled toward the Texas Panhandle and parts of Kansas and Colorado.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced late Monday that he had activated state military personnel and equipment ahead of the storm as a precautionary measure to protect Panhandle roads and communities. 

“I urge Texans in the path of this winter storm to remain cautious and heed warnings from local officials as this severe winter storm may create dangerous driving conditions for holiday travel,” Perry said in a statement. “We will continue to closely monitor this storm to ensure state resources are available to assist impacted communities.”

The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for several Texas counties, with up to 6  inches of snow expected and wind gusts up to 50 mph. 

Although the storm could make roads hazardous for holiday travelers, weather experts noted that in bone-dry Texas, farmers and ranchers were thankful for the moisture.

The Texas drought, which has lasted more than a year, forced many ranchers to sell their cattle or send them to leased land in Nebraska, Wyoming and other states where pastures are still green.

Those that remain in West Texas often rely on a diet of winter wheat, which grows like a green carpet, low to the ground.

Snow sits atop the wheat, allowing it to flourish, said Tabatha Seymore, observing program leader for the National Weather Service in Amarillo, who spoke with The Times on Monday.

“They look for these good snows, all this moisture we’re getting, to sit on the ground and keep it wet,” Seymore said of farmers and ranchers. “The more snow we have on it, the better it grows. It’s a lifesaver for the cattle industry here to have this.”

By late Monday, she said, Amarillo was already seeing rain, snow and sleet as the temperature dropped to 35 degrees, although the snow had yet to stick.

“We’re waiting for it to turn over here and see some accumulations,” Seymore said.

About 120 miles to the northwest in Texline, along the New Mexico border, about 6 inches of snow had fallen, she said, while Dalhart, about 85 miles northwest, had received 2 to 4 inches, with winds gusting up to 45 mph.

Seymore said officials in the Oklahoma Panhandle were dealing with numerous accidents and had to close a few highways because of snowy conditions.

She said the storm, which originated in Southern California and drew moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, is expected to blow over by morning. Another, weaker storm system is expected in the region later this week.

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Photo: Traffic heads slowly south on I-25 in Santa Fe on Monday as snow accumulates. Credit: Dean Hanson/Albuquerque Journal