9 Dead as Bitter Storm Moves Eastward : Weather: Record 2 feet of snow falls in Bismarck, N.D. Ice and sleet cause traffic accidents in Oklahoma and Texas.

A storm that killed at least nine people moved eastward Friday, dumping record snowfall on the northern Plains and inflicting bone-chilling cold as far south as Texas.

Snow fell for the fourth consecutive day in Bismarck, N.D., adding to the two feet of snow already on the ground, a record for a single snowstorm.

“It’s still snowing here, but there’s hardly any wind,” said Shirley Borg of the city coordinator’s office in Bismarck.

“The snowplows have been working 24 hours a day getting the arterial streets clear so people can get to the shopping centers. But side streets are all clogged up and parking is difficult,” she said.

As the Christmas selling season began, Midwest shoppers endured a cruel drizzle that gradually turned to sleet and then snow as the lumbering pre-winter storm headed east.

Ice storms that battered parts of Oklahoma and Texas on Thursday spawned numerous traffic accidents. Four women and two men died in Oklahoma crashes, state officials said.

In western Wisconsin, two brothers were killed when their car skidded off a slick road and into a lake. A central Wisconsin woman died when her car plunged off an icy bridge, state officials said.

Many people took off from work Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, and traffic around the nation was light, officials said.

The storms in Texas left a brittle sheet of ice over planes, runways, trucks and rescue vehicles at Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport early Friday, preventing any flights from arriving or departing, an American Airlines spokesman said. American Airlines canceled all outgoing flights from 6 p.m. Thursday to 10:30 a.m. Friday, spokeswoman Marion DeSisto said.

In Central Texas, freezing rain and drizzle coated bridges and overpasses in Austin during the night, contributing to dozens of accidents.

Peter Leavitt of Weather Services Corp., a private forecasting firm, said the storm won’t clear the Midwestern states until Sunday morning. More freezing weather was expected to return over the weekend to the South.