Snow and Freezing Rain Hit Midwest, Cause Blackouts

Winter storms brought snow and freezing rain from the southern Plains to the upper Great Lakes Tuesday, dumping more than 19 inches of snow in Illinois, knocking out power and making travel hazardous.

Winds gusting to 40 m.p.h. piled drifts up to four feet deep in southeastern Wisconsin and northeastern Illinois, the National Weather Service said.

Winter storm warnings were posted for northern New England, and the weather service predicted that up to a foot of snow could cover Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont by this morning.

Meanwhile, unseasonably warm temperatures were breaking records from Ohio to Georgia, and flooding from heavy rains was reported in parts of Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma and New York.

By Tuesday afternoon, 19 inches of snow was on the ground in northwest Lake County.

Other snowfall reports included nine inches in Dubuque, Iowa; seven inches in Kansas City, Mo.; and seven inches in Chicago, where O’Hare International Airport, the world’s busiest, was closed for 40 minutes because of ice and snow.

Snow was also falling in eastern Colorado, where up to six inches was expected in the Rocky Mountain foothills.

Thousands of homes and businesses in Illinois and Michigan were without electricity as ice-heavy power lines cracked, and authorities said many residents faced at least one night without power.

About 40,000 Detroit Edison customers from Lansing to Ann Arbor were in the dark. A dispatcher at the Lansing Police Department said that “almost all of the city” suffered from outages, adding, “We have advised it will be as late as Thursday” before all power is restored.

In suburban Chicago, about 3,000 Commonwealth Edison customers were without power early Tuesday.

Travelers’ advisories were issued for much of Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska as cars slid on snow-packed highways. Hundreds of minor traffic accidents were reported.