Interstate 5 in Northern California is closed at this hour for nearly 150 miles because of a fierce snowstorm.

The California Highway Patrol says the freeway is closed from Medford, Oregon to Redding, California. A CHP dispatcher says drifts are as high as five feet in some areas and that hundreds of cars and trucks are stranded. Some people have been stuck on I-5 for as long as 14 hours. The CHP cannot estimate when the freeway will be open again. A dispatcher in the patrol´s Yreka dispatch center says it is still snowing heavily in the area. Crews trying to clear the freeway are being hampered by strong winds that are blowing snow back onto the freeway.