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(UPDATE 12:25-p.m.) Authorities say 7 dead in Iowa as winter storm sweeps state

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February 6th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say seven people have been killed — including two teenage sisters — on Iowa roads as a winter storm swept the state Monday, leading to dozens of crashes and a 50- to 70-car pileup near Ames. The Des Moines Register reports that 17-year-old Avery Arneson and 13-year-old Aiden Arneson, sisters from Decorah, died a two-vehicle crash around 8:30 a.m. Monday on a county road in northeast Iowa. Four other teens were injured and hospitalized in that crash.

In Cedar Rapids, two men died in a crash on Interstate 380. Killed were 24-year-old Jacolby Jesse Burks, of Cedar Rapids, and 21-year-old Devion Martel Luster, of Dixon, Illinois. One person died and several people were critically injured in the pileup that closed Interstate 35 near Ames. The victim was identified as the driver of a bus, 53-year old Dana Easter, of Independence, MO.

On I-80, police say a person was killed in a crash east of Grinnell around 1:20 p.m., and another person died and two others were injured at 1:40 p.m. near Durant.