6 snowmobilers missing in Colorado are rescued; they dined on popcorn and bouillon in cabin

Six snowmobilers missing in the mountains for 2 1/2 days while a howling blizzard swirled around them were rescued on a day that saw severe weather batter much of the United States.

The group, consisting of two couples and two teenagers, broke into a cabin, where they huddled around a gas grill and dined on popcorn and chicken bouillon they found inside.

"We counted 18 blankets. We were cozy," 31-year-old Shannon Groen said Monday after rescue crews on snowmobiles brought the group to safety. "God was looking out for us. When we knew we were safe we began to worry about the rescuers and we prayed for them."

Groen and the others were trapped by one in a series of storms that killed at least three people across the West, unloaded as much as 11 feet (3.5 meters) of snow in the Sierra Nevada range, flooded hundreds of homes in Nevada and knocked out power to a quarter-million Californians. At least three people — two skiers and a hiker — were missing in the snow-covered mountains of California and Colorado.

In the Midwest, a rare January outbreak of tornadoes flattened houses in several states Monday. At least two women were killed in Missouri — one of them when a tornado threw her from her mobile home — and at least six people were taken to hospitals by ambulance, said Michael Taylor, fire chief in Marshfield in the southwestern part of the state.

In Illinois, about 500 people fled their homes after a reported tornado knocked over rail cars carrying hazardous materials. A tank car containing shock fluid leaked for hours before it was contained, and another derailed car contained ethylene oxide, a flammable material widely used to sterilize medical supplies, but was not leaking, Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said.

Storms continued to pummel the nation's midsection as darkness fell on a day when record high temperatures were reported across much of the country. Tornadoes were also reported in Arkansas.

In Colorado, Groen and her husband, Jason, had gone snowmobiling with their daughter Aspen to celebrate her 14th birthday. Also along were one of Jason Groen's employees, Mike Martin; Martin's wife, Missy; and their son, Jessie, 13. All are from Farmington, New Mexico.

The group had set out on what was supposed to be a daylong adventure but got lost and ran out of gas on Friday night near 10,222-foot (3,116-meter) Cumbres Pass, just north of the New Mexico line.

Also in southern Colorado, searchers took advantage of a break in the weather to resume looking for two skiers missing since Saturday near Colorado's Wolf Creek Pass. The search about 40 miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Conejos was slowed by the threat of avalanches.

Elsewhere in the state, two stretches of Interstate 70 — the main route to many of Colorado's major ski resorts — were closed by avalanches.

In Santa Fe, New Mexico, rescuers were looking for a couple missing since Saturday, when they became lost after snowboarding outside the boundary of a ski area. They called police with their cell phone Sunday and said they had built a snow cave, but authorities have not heard from them since.

The storm death toll in the West included a woman who died when she and her boyfriend drove onto a flooded road in Chino, California, and a public worker killed by a falling branch north of Sacramento, California. One woman was killed in Oregon by a falling tree.

In the San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Angeles, rescuers on foot, snowmobiles and in a helicopter searched for a 62-year-old missing hiker, Dean Christy.

Tens of thousands of Californians were still in the dark after fierce storms downed nearly 500 miles (805 kilometers) of power lines over the weekend.

In Fernley, Nevada, waters continued to recede following a weekend levee break that flooded nearly 300 homes and spread sheets of ice over yards and streets.

In the Midwest, several buildings were destroyed in the small town of Poplar Grove, Illinois, where authorities rescued motorists trapped by downed, live electrical lines and crews searched damaged structures to make sure no one was trapped.

To the northeast, a tornado ripped through Wisconsin's Kenosha County, damaging five homes in the town of Wheatland, said Wisconsin Emergency Management spokeswoman Lori Getter.