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Snow and ice hit Midwest
02/12/2007 22:42 - (SA)
Chicago - The US Midwest is in the grip of heavy snow and freezing rain, leaving at least four dead in car accidents and disrupting air travel, officials and media reported on Sunday.
The winter weather forced the cancellation of numerous flights in Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois and some campaign events in Iowa, where presidential candidates will face their first test in a month for the 2008 White House race.
At Des Moines airport in Iowa, a United regional jet bound for Chicago slid off an icy taxiway on Saturday morning, closing the airport for more than six hours, airport and airline officials said. No one was seriously injured.
In Wisconsin a 37-year-old man died when a jeep hit a truck near DeForest as other cars ahead were slowing down for another truck that had tipped over on a highway, the Wisconsin State Journal reported on Sunday.
Two people died in separate crashes in the same Juneau County area on Interstate 90-94, the paper said.
In Indiana, a member of the Purdue University ice hockey club team was killed and seven teammates were injured when their van crashed on Saturday in freezing rain, the Indianapolis Star reported. Snow emergency
The crash occurred 27km south of West Lafayette, home to the university, when one of the team's vans swerved out of control on a two-lane highway and rolled over.
Purdue said 20 hockey players, two coaches and a manager were headed to Danville, Illinois for a late-afternoon game.
In Madison, Wisconsin, city officials declared a snow emergency through at least 07:00 (12:00 GMT) on Monday.
Snow flurries on Saturday were followed by freezing rain later in the day in Midwestern states and the National Weather Service said cold air moving into the region could produce sleet and more freezing rain in parts of Iowa and Illinois. Light snow was forecast for parts of Wisconsin.
To the northeast, the National Weather Service predicted heavy snow would hit the state of New York and across New England. Freezing rain and sleet was expected across much of New York, Pennsylvania, and northwest New Jersey.
In Iowa, power outages affected more than 20 500 by Saturday evening, the Des Moines Register reported.
MidAmerican Energy spokesperson Allan Urlis said last winter's ice storm caused more serious problems with about 80 000 customers without power.
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