Heavy Snows Bring Colorado to a Standstill

A spring snowstorm roared into Colorado on Wednesday, dumping more than a foot of snow and forcing the closure of major highways, schools and Denver International Airport before plowing into the Plains states late in the day.

High winds created blizzard conditions and triggered outages that left 50,000 customers without power. Slushy snow made road conditions hazardous, especially during an often-futile morning commute. Even as the snow abated by midmorning, state transportation officials reported problems with stranded or abandoned vehicles.

Despite the storm’s suddenness and intensity, no weather-related injuries were reported in the state.

Wyoming was likewise struck hard. Most businesses were closed in Cheyenne, and those that opened waited for employees to walk to work through snowdrifts.

The storm’s trajectory sent it careening northeast, dumping more snow in its wake and creating tornadoes ahead of it. The storm will threaten the upper Midwest, where flood waters and severe thunderstorms already plague the eastern Plains. Tornadoes, high winds and hail were reported in a chilly swath from Texas to Nebraska. A twister near Colgate, Okla., killed a man and seriously injured his son.

“It’s the worst storm of the season, there’s no question about it,” said Dan Hopkins of the Colorado Department of Transportation.

In Colorado, the brunt of the snow and wind came overnight, and the storm departed as suddenly as it had arrived. By midafternoon, the sun had made a brief appearance, and in downtown Denver, streets were clear and nearly dry.

Travelers had the worst of it. Spotty power, snow and gusts of more than 70 mph closed the Denver airport, the region’s crucial travel hub, until noon Wednesday. Power outages affected some computer operations and winds tore across runways, an airport spokesman said. The road leading to the airport was closed and clogged with stranded motorists.

Overnight Easter holiday travelers were stranded. Connie Rose, who spent the night in the terminal, passed the time working on needlepoint. “It hasn’t been good,” she said.

Two major highways remained closed for much of the day. Hundreds of miles of freeways throughout the region were closed, including parts of Interstate 25 between Denver and Colorado Springs, Interstate 70 east from Denver to Kansas and Interstate 80 from Wyoming into the Nebraska Panhandle.

Driving was treacherous throughout the region. Towns in the Rocky Mountains reported whiteouts caused by blowing snow. As the snow melted, vehicles began hydroplaning on the wet roads.

The timing of the freak storm was inopportune for Denver officials, who had wanted to put their best foot forward for visiting Boeing Co. executives. The Seattle-based company is considering moving its headquarters here, and one of Denver’s selling points has been its modern, efficient airport and its temperate weather. Sheepish civic leaders nevertheless squired the aerospace officials around the paralyzed metro area.

Denver public school students were treated to their first snow day in seven years. With no announcement of closures, teachers struggled to get to the schools, only to find locked doors.

“I’m going home to clean my house,” said Cathy Loya Abarca, a first-grade teacher at Newton Elementary School.

Students fanned out across the region, heading for malls or the nearby ski slopes. Two teenagers romping in the midmorning snow in Washington Park would not give their names but marveled that more of their classmates from the Denver School of the Arts had not joined them. “Probably skiing,” one young man said.

In the northeast part of the state, thick with ranchland, cattlemen worried that newborn calves and their mothers were vulnerable to drifting snow. Craig Farms, a cattle rancher in Byers, Colo., told a Denver television station that impassable roads made it difficult for ranchers to get to their herds.

“We can’t reach all of our cattle,” Farms said. “It’s tough to get them hay and water and check on the calves. The little ones will have a hard time in bad weather.”