Detroit, Mich.

The wreck stretched an entire mile according to police. (Image: Associated Press)

Blinding snow squalls passing through the Great Lakes Thursday created nightmarish chain reaction crashes near not one, but two major cities.

The first massive crash happened Thursday morning on Interstate 75 south of Detroit, Michigan. The second played out on Interstate 70 about 10 miles west of Indianapolis, Indiana early Thursday afternoon.

At least three people have been confirmed dead in the Michigan crash -- two of them children, Between 30 and 35 cars were involved. The children who died, a 7-year-old boy and 9-year-old girl from Windsor, Ontario, were believed to be siblings whose parents were injured in the accident, Michigan State Police Lt. Michael Shaw. An adult also was killed, though no other information about the victims has been released.

Semi-truck driver Phillip Bost saw the I-75 wreck. He tells the Associated Press there were ". It was a bad ordeal," he recalled several hours later. "I'm quite shaken up."

Detroit was under a at the time. Drivers are telling local media they experienced white-out conditions for as long as 13 to 20 seconds.

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Wintry conditions were similar about 300 miles to the west in central Indiana, where two separate accidents just miles apart brought traffic to a dead halt on Interstate 70.

At least were hospitalized, according to WISH-TV.