Public Safety and Severe Weather

More than 100 vehicles — including up to 40 tractor‑trailers — were involved in a pileup on I‑196 near Zeeland Township, Michigan, amid blizzard‑like whiteout conditions from an intense snow squall, resulting in multiple non‑life‑threatening injuries and an hours‑long closure for removal and cleanup as motorists and bystanders tried to help ambulances navigate the wreckage. The crash was part of a sprawling Arctic blast affecting roughly 200 million people with wind chills as low as −40 in parts of the North, widespread winter‑storm warnings across the Midwest and Northeast, and rare measurable snow or flurries reaching as far south as Alabama, Georgia and the Florida Panhandle.