Denver — Severe weather, including hail and reports of at least one tornado, was reported in the Midwest as other areas began digging out of a spring blizzard that shut down the Denver airport, closed hundreds of miles of roads and left cars stranded along highways on the Plains.

Meanwhile, crews were trying to get a foothold Thursday against wildfires that have scorched hundreds of square miles in Oklahoma and Kansas and led residents of some small communities to flee their homes. 

Several homes were damaged or destroyed and injuries were reported in northwest Arkansas after storms swept through the area around midnight Wednesday.

Two people were taken to a Fort Smith hospital with severe injuries, then flown to a Tulsa hospital, the Crawford County Sheriff's Office said.

A tornado touched down on the southeast side of Lake Charles in Louisiana, damaging one home, the National Weather Service confirmed Thursday.

In northern Texas, authorities said a hailstorm broke windows in homes and vehicles. Parts of Denton and Collin counties were blanketed with hail Wednesday night, with some stones the size of golf balls.

In Wisconsin, forecasters predicted another 1 to 4 inches of snow would fall across most of the state Thursday. In Minnesota, snow was still falling and the Minnesota Department of Transportation discouraged travel in some areas.

Denver International Airport reopened Wednesday evening. But by then, most of the day's flights had already been canceled, leaving people to sleep on the floor there or return home and come back and wait to try to get on another flight during an already busy spring break travel week.

The storm also brought heavy and blowing snow to parts of Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.

Up to a foot of snow fell in the southern Twin Cities, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker called members of the National Guard to active duty to help local authorities.

Drivers in northwestern Iowa and southeastern South Dakota also were warned to avoid travel because some roadways were still blocked by vehicles that got stuck in the blowing snow that fell Wednesday.

Forecasters with the National Weather Service said snow accumulations in South Dakota ranged from fewer than 2 inches in Sioux Falls to up to 7 inches north of Humboldt, while gusts reached between 40 mph to 45 mph.

"It's pretty common that we see a couple of big storms in March, certainly not unheard of in this neck of the woods, but it is a high amount," weather service meteorologist Kerry Hanko said.

Earlier, in Colorado and Wyoming, the wind and heavy, wet snow typical for a spring storm weighed down power lines and snapped them into one another, causing outages and flickering lights.

The storm mainly hit the eastern, flat halves of those states before moving farther east. The snow shut down long stretches of Interstates 25, 70 and 80 in Wyoming and Colorado on Wednesday, but they were back open Thursday, except for portions of I-70 in eastern Colorado.

Even politics had to take a snow day in Wyoming as Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and former President Bill Clinton canceled campaign events in the state.

Meanwhile, strong winds were fanning the flames in Oklahoma and Kansas, and firefighters haven't been able to establish effective containment lines yet, the Oklahoma Forestry Services said.

Gusts of 50 mph fed the fires Wednesday, but the winds were expected to die down to about 10 mph by sunset Thursday, the National Weather Service reported.

Smoke was reportedly detected as far away as St. Louis, hundreds of miles to the northeast.

In Barber County, Kansas, which is southwest of Wichita along the state's southern border with Oklahoma, crews were trying extinguish a 30- to 40-mile line of fire. Darcy Golliher, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Incident Management Team, said that blaze is expected to last through Friday, but that there hopefully would be only a few hot spots to monitor over the weekend.

"It will all depend on the wind," she said.

On Wednesday, the blaze came close to Medicine Lodge, destroying two homes on the outskirts of the Barber County community of about 2,000 residents. Voluntary evacuation orders issued there earlier were lifted Thursday afternoon. Voluntary evacuations also were sought for the small towns of Sun City and Lake City.

Medicine Lodge Memorial Hospital was evacuated, sending 12 patients to a nursing home and two others to a nearby hospital. The hospital kept its emergency room open and treated one firefighter and one member of the public for smoke inhalation.

On Thursday, Sherry and Craig Prothe were packing clothing and keepsakes into two cars at their home south of Medicine Lodge, where they could see smoke from the fire.

"We're not trying for big stuff," Sherry Prothe said. "We're trying for the mementoes."

They said the fire reduced their elderly neighbors' home to just a chimney, but that they felt a bit more confident that their home would survive because it is surrounded by green wheat fields rather than dry land. But they said they hadn't decided whether they'd leave the home yet.

"Our saving grace is the wheat is still green," Sherry Prothe said.

With conditions "not as intense" and more crews arriving, firefighters were able to "get out there and really attack the fire" on Thursday, said Shawna Hartman, the spokesman for the Kansas Forest Service.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback declared a state of disaster emergency for some areas, which freed up resources that could be used to assist. He planned to discuss the fires at an afternoon news conference.

In Comanche County, just west of Barber County, the wind blew embers that reignited the fire Thursday morning after it had been brought under control late Wednesday, said John Lehman, Comanche County Emergency Management coordinator.

"The wind blows things around," he said. "It hits dry grass and away it goes."

In Burrton, which is about 30 miles northwest of Wichita, grass fires burned one home and forced the evacuation of others, and killed several head of livestock, the Harvey County sheriff's office said in a news release. That fire had been controlled later Thursday.

In Oklahoma, the fire was moving toward the city of Alva, population about 5,000, although no evacuations were immediately ordered, said Mark Goeller, fire management chief of Oklahoma Forestry Services.

In Texas, where strong winds and low humidity created ideal fire conditions, some people were evacuated Wednesday from their homes in Skellytown, about 45 miles northeast of Amarillo, but were allowed to return after a few hours, said Linda Moon, Texas A&M Forest Service spokesman.

The fire also forced the closure of a stretch of U.S. 160 and U.S. 281 in Kansas and briefly a section of Interstate 40 in Texas. Scattered power outages were been reported.

Associated Press writers Roxana Hegeman, Heather Hollingsworth and Maria Fisher in Kansas City, Missouri; Daniel Houston in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Diana Heidgerd in Dallas contributed to this report.