Winter Blast Dumps Snow Over Midwest

A snowstorm Tuesday left Detroit commuters scrambling, whipped up whiteouts in Indiana and gave schoolchildren in at least eight states an unexpected break from classes.

“Our problem today was with county roads--we couldn’t find them,” said Darwin B. Johnson, the school superintendent in the central Michigan community of Jackson.

The worst winter storm in Detroit since 1982 dumped nine inches of snow, weather officials said, closing Detroit City Airport, crippling rush-hour traffic and sending pedestrians into the streets because sidewalks were blocked by snowdrifts.

Detroit also had rare “thunder snow,” or a heavy accumulation accompanied by thunder and lightning, National Weather Service officials said.

In East Lansing, Mich., the Bagel Fragel deli became a coffee-and-pastry refuge for people in search of “anything warm,” said employee Phil Robison, who walked a mile to work because his car was buried in the snow.

About nine inches of snow also fell in Ohio, and parts of Indiana received six inches.

Winds up to 30 m.p.h. blew snow and created whiteouts, reducing visibility to zero in Boon and Madison counties north of Indianapolis and in Seneca County, Ohio, about 50 miles southeast of Toledo.

In Toledo, street parking was banned for the day while 37 snowplows cleared roads.

Elsewhere, five inches of snow fell on Springfield, Mo., and four inches fell in St. Louis. Central and southern Illinois received three inches of snow. Officials in northwestern Arkansas reported at least two inches of snow, and up to an inch fell over a large portion of Kentucky.

Power was interrupted Tuesday for thousands of residents in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Vermont. Schools canceled classes in parts of Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas.