Snowdrifts Climb, Temperatures Drop Across Midwest, Northeast

Snow and freezing rain made for a white-knuckle Thursday across the Northeast and Midwest, and in Detroit’s snowbound neighborhoods people were told if they wanted their mail, they’d have to come out into the streets and get it. The Motor City also canceled school indefinitely.

In the Maine hamlet of Allagash, people stayed indoors to avoid the lowest temperature ever recorded in the state: 55 below zero, breaking the record of minus 48 set in Van Buren in 1925.

Hell, Mich., a village about 60 miles west of Detroit, froze over. “Right now, we’re at 1 degree,” said Jim Ley, owner of the Devil’s Den, a clothing and souvenir store.

The snow extended from Ohio through Pennsylvania and into New York.

Flights were canceled in Boston, Pittsburgh, Washington and the New York City area, where 180 flights were canceled at Newark (N.J.) International Airport.

In nearby Connecticut, where temperatures dipped as low as minus 40 degrees, schools were shut virtually across the state.

South of the snow, freezing rain and sleet fell from the Ohio Valley east into the mid-Atlantic states.

Roads were icy from Ohio to Virginia and New Jersey, with numerous traffic accidents.

In New Orleans, the problem was fog. A 90-car pileup injured dozens of people and blocked busy Interstate 10 for several hours on a divided bridge over Lake Ponchartrain, police said. Several people were hospitalized, but their injuries were not believed to be serious.

Towns that closed their schools included Brooke, W.Va., where students have had only two days of class since Christmas.

“I know my wife’s going crazy” handling their 14-year-old son, said John Schwertfeger of Brooke. “I think she’s about ready to drop him off at the superintendent’s house.”

In Detroit, snow accumulation has totaled more than 23 inches this year, more than at any time in nearly 100 years, and few neighborhood streets have been plowed.

Postmaster Lloyd Wesley Jr. said letter carriers will operate “like the Good Humor man,” driving their trucks to the front of an impassable street and honking their horns for 60 seconds so people can come and get their mail.

In Canada, the military moved in to dig out southern Ontario from the fifth snowstorm in less than two weeks, as bitterly cold temperatures added to residents’ woes.

Up to 14 inches of snow were expected for the region already reeling under more than 33 inches.

Sections of barns, churches and other buildings collapsed under the weight of more snow in Buffalo, N.Y., where 53 inches had fallen so far in January.