Storm Brings Snow to Midwest, Icy Rain to Northeast

A powerful storm system swept across Minnesota, Wisconsin and northern Michigan on Wednesday, dumping a foot of snow that made travel hazardous in some places and kept youngsters out of school.

“We keep on plowing, but the wind keeps blowing,” said Arnold Bubolz, acting highway commissioner for Brown County, Wis., which surrounds Green Bay.

The storm was felt as far east as New England and New York, where freezing rain fell.

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was closed for the first time since 1985, as the biggest snowfall in three winters hit the Twin Cities--8 1/2 inches, up to a foot in the suburbs. Schools were closed across the state.

The snow blocked 100 miles of Interstate 90, and 40-m.p.h. wind gusts made travel so hazardous that the highway department called out snow plows.

“It’s blowing right back in where they plowed it out,” said Wally Nesbit, state Transportation Department dispatcher in Windom, Minn., which was buried under 15 inches of snow. “We advise no travel at all. Truckers can’t see anything.”

Marquette, Mich., was buried under 12 inches of snow during the morning, and schools were closed in five counties. Winds exceeding 40 m.p.h. created blizzard conditions across almost all of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

About a foot of snow fell before dawn in northern Wisconsin, where many schools and businesses were closed.

In northwestern Kansas, which had been buried Tuesday under 16 inches of snow and drifts several feet high, schools were closed.