By Valerie Bauman
Associated Press
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press
 AP Photo/Kevin Sanders Trucks pass under a message board indicating an ice storm warning in Iowa. Winter conditions across northeastern U.S. caused at least 11 deaths over the weekend. |
ALBANY, N.Y. — Drivers in much of the Northeast navigated a treacherous mix of rain, sleet and snow Monday as a storm blamed for at least 11 deaths blanketed the region after glazing roads in the Midwest.
Lake-effect snow and high winds gusting to 40 mph hit parts of western New York Monday morning. Three to 6 inches fell in central New York state, and schools from New York to Maine either delayed or canceled class. Parts of northern New Jersey measured about 3 inches of snow.
“It’s kind of a mess — probably the best way to term it in one word,” meteorologist Bob Kilpatrick said in Albany.
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. Upstate New York’s central Adirondacks and Lake George region could see 12 inches of snow.
Ice storm warnings were issued for Massachusetts and Connecticut, while winter storm warnings were in effect in Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and northern and western New York. On the other side of the weather system, winter storm warnings were issued for parts of Michigan, which could get 3 to 5 inches of snow by Monday afternoon.
Ice caused a JetBlue plane to slide off the runway at Syracuse’s Hancock Airport late Sunday. No one was hurt, but it took crews two hours to free the stuck plane.
The storm dumped 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, according to the weather service.
Roads were already cleared Sunday in Grand Marais, said Jane Shinners, owner of the downtown Harbor Inn.
More than 200 passengers stranded at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport because of canceled flights Saturday were finally able to reach their destinations Sunday, said Gregg Cunningham, a spokesman for Chicago’s Department of Aviation.
But lingering rain and poor visibility caused about 50 flight cancelations Sunday afternoon, forcing about 75 people to stay at the airport overnight, Cunningham said.
Hundreds of flights into the New York City area’s three main airports — Kennedy, Newark Liberty and LaGuardia — were delayed as long as two hours Sunday because of wind and ice, but no delays were reported early Monday.
Before the storm hit the Plains and Midwest, it dumped about 3 feet of snow in one mountain area in western Colorado. Silverton Mountain ski resort workers had hoped to open for the season Sunday but postponed the opening a day because of the storm.
The weather was blamed for four deaths in Michigan, three in Wisconsin, and one each in Illinois, Indiana, North Dakota 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. One sheriff reported 45-foot surf and power failures, and officials warned of coastal flooding.
“You might be living literally more on the ocean than you had in mind,” said Andy Bryant, a hydrologist at the National Weather Service.
Associated Press writers David N. Goodman in Detroit, Rebecca Santana in Trenton, N.J.; and Amy Westfeldt in New York City contributed to this report.