• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- In the span of 24 hours, the scenic Black Hills in South Dakota were coated in up to three and a half feet of wet, heavy snow, one of several Great Plains states walloped by a storm system that's caused millions of dollars in damage.
• National Weather Service meteorologist Katie Pojorlie said the snow was expected to end later Saturday, giving people a chance to start digging out from the unusual, record-setting early fall snowstorm.
• But wintry weather wasn't the only thing wrapped into the powerful cold front, as thunderstorms brought heavy rain, hail and as many as nine tornadoes to Nebraska and Iowa. Fifteen people in northeast Nebraska were injured in a tornado Friday, and three died in a car accident on a snow-slicked Nebraska road.
• Forecasters said the front would eventually combine with other storms to make for a wild -- and probably very wet -- weekend for much of the central U.S. and Southeast.
• Power outages and impassable roads plagued western South Dakota on Saturday. More than 25,000 people lost power in the Rapid City area, and authorities were recruiting snowmobilers to help rescue about 80 motorists who'd been stuck in their vehicles overnight.
• Rapid City plow driver Jesse Curnow said Saturday morning things weren't moving so smoothly in chest-high drifts after a 21-inch snowfall.
• "My truck is still stuck on company grounds, Curnow, one of about a dozen workers who usually work at a local quarry, said by telephone from the cab of his truck. "I'm trapped. I can kind of move, but only a little bit."
• One of the five front-end loaders dispatched to downtown got stuck en route, he said, calling it simply "a mess."
• Pennington County Emergency Management spokeswoman Alexa White said the stranded motorists turned on their cars at times during the night to stay warm. The rescue efforts, she said, were slow-going, because "the only way to get there is the snowmobiles or the Sno-Cats."
• "The plows have gotten stuck in the roads," she said.
• Also stuck were four employees of the National Weather Service's Rapid City of

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