Deadly Winter Storm Slams Northeast

ALBANY, N.Y. – A storm system slid across the Northeast with snow, sleet and freezing rain Sunday, glazing roads and tying up air travel after blacking out thousands of customers in the Midwest.

At least 10 traffic deaths have been blamed on weather-related traffic accidents.

Winter storm warnings were in effect into Monday in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine and into Tuesday in parts of New York state. On the other side of the weather system, warnings were issued for parts of Michigan, where freezing rain and sleet was predicted to turn to all snow late Sunday.

The National Weather Service said a foot of snow was possible in the mountains of northern New England, with the potential for 20 inches in northern Maine. In higher elevations of upstate New York, 13 inches of snow was possible. Lake-effect snow and high winds were forecast for parts of western New York.

"It's kind of a mess — probably the best way to term it in one word," meteorologist Bob Kilpatrick said in Albany.

Three to 6 inches had fallen by Sunday afternoon in central New York state, and parts of New Jersey measured less than 3.

With snowfall that light in New Jersey, and a changeover to rain expected later Sunday in places, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority salted its roads Sunday and didn't bother to plow.

"Compared to what's happening in the Midwest, we've kind of got it easy right now," said Joe Orlando, a spokesman for the authority.

Hundreds of flights into the New York City area's three main airports — Kennedy, Newark Libert and LaGuardia — were delayed as long as two hours Sunday because of wind and ice.

Airlines at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport worked to move travelers stranded when hundreds of flights were canceled when the storm struck there on Saturday. Flights also were canceled Saturday at airports in Des Moines and Milwaukee as blowing snow reduced visibility.

The storm created snow and ice from the Plains across the Upper Midwest on Saturday.

Minnesota's Grand Marais, on Lake Superior's North Shore, got 20 inches of snow, and the port city of Duluth marked a Dec. 1 record of 10.3 inches, the Weather Service said.

Roads were already cleared Sunday in Grand Marais, said Jane Shinners, owner of the downtown Harbor Inn.

Utility companies in Illinois said the lights were back on for most of the nearly 140,000 customers who lost electricity Saturday as ice weighed down power lines. The ice also had blacked out more than 14,000 customers around Iowa, utilities reported.

Before the storm hit the Plains and Midwest, it had dumped up to 2 feet of snow in the mountains of western Colorado.

One member of the Purdue University ice hockey team was killed Saturday when a team van overturned on a slippery Indiana highway, school officials said. Seven others were injured.

Elsewhere, the weather was blamed for three deaths in Wisconsin, three in Michigan, and one each in North Dakota, Illinois and Colorado.

While the Midwest dug out and the Northeast braced itself, a separate storm raked the Oregon and Washington coasts with winds gusting higher than 100 mph in some spots. Officials warned of coastal flooding, and one sheriff reported 45-foot surf and power failures.