Hays ? Officials closed the westbound lanes of Interstate 70 west of Hays to keep travelers from driving into the winter storm that has pounded Colorado and Wyoming.

“We don’t want people to get stranded,” said Joy Moser, a public affairs officer for Kansas Emergency Management.

There is little evidence of the storm — which has dropped several feet of snow in parts of Colorado and Wyoming — in western Kansas, and eastbound lanes remain open.

The state closed the westbound lanes at Colby, 53 miles from Colorado’s state line, early in the day, and later moved the shutdown to WaKeeney and then Hays, about 160 miles east of Colorado.

Moser said the westbound lanes might continue to be closed farther east as hotels fill up.

“It depends how many people are traveling,” she said.