TUESDAY UPDATE FROM DENVERPOST.COM:
The Colorado Department of Transportation was able to reopen I-70 east of Denver early this morning. Only two roads remain closed: SH 86 between Kiowa and I-70 and SH 94 between Colorado Springs and Punkin Center. CDOT was unable to estimate when they would reopen. On State Highway 86, crews are still plowing major snow drifts.
The season’s first wintry punch delivered a deadly blow to Colorado on Monday, claiming three lives and dumping nearly 3 feet of snow in some places in the mountains.
Parts of Denver were spared any snow, and most major city streets and freeways remained merely wet throughout the day. But the storm’s dangers came in many forms.
Monday morning, two people died when a 10-passenger Ford van loaded to capacity slipped off Interstate 76 near Lochbuie and rolled over at about 8:45. The eight other people were injured. Minutes later, Ginny McKibben, a former Denver Post reporter, was killed outside her southeast Denver home when a 10-inch- thick cottonwood branch fell 40 feet and struck her.
At Denver International Airport, where the wait for planes to get de-iced reached two hours at midday, Frontier, United and other carriers canceled dozens of flights.
The Colorado Department of Transportation closed most major roads heading east from Denver onto the plains, as the storm’s might slowly crawled east throughout the day. The American Red Cross opened emergency shelters in Byers, Bennett and Strasburg to house stranded travelers.
More than 50,000 people lost electrical power at some point during the storm, said Xcel Energy spokesman Mark Stutz.
About 15,000 customers were still without power at 8 p.m. Monday, but about 50 energy company crews were working to restore service to them, he said.
Those still without power were primarily in the southern and eastern metro area and included about 400 small outages ranging from 100 to 200 customers down to single dwellings, Stutz said. He said Xcel hoped to have all power restored by the middle of today.
The early heavy snow – the average date for the city’s first snowfall is still more than a week away – was only worsened by the leaves remaining on the trees, many still green.
“The biggest problem is that we haven’t had the fall yet, so the trees are acting as big snow catchers,” Stutz said. “This is a phenomenon we see this time of year. It’s Colorado weather at its finest.”
How much snow you got depended on where you were. Temperatures for most of the storm hovered right around freezing, so a slightly warmer spot here or a colder patch there influenced whether the precipitation fell as snow or frigid rain.
In places such as Parker, Elizabeth, eastern Aurora, Genesee and Castle Rock, upwards of a foot fell. Greenwood Village and Centennial saw 6 to 10 inches. But in Boulder and other parts of the northwestern metro area, a slight downsloping wind raised temperatures enough that mostly rain fell – about an inch and a half of it, National Weather Service meteorologist Dave Barjenbruch said.
Breckenridge saw the highest snowfall total with 30 inches.
Denver officially saw about 3 1/2 inches of snow.
The storm, though forecast well in advance, still seemed to catch some people in disbelief.
Winter? Already?
Tommy Knox used a plastic spatula to chip away at ice that crusted over the windshield of his Dodge Neon in his driveway in Lakewood Estates on Monday morning on his way out to work.
“I threw out my ice scraper this summer to get a new one,” he said between huffing into his bare hands to warm them. “I didn’t think I’d need one this soon.”
Trees and bushes lush with fall leaves hosted heavy accumulations that snapped weaker branches and left broken carnage along city streets and lawns carpeted with the early snow. Plows stayed ahead of the steady sleet and snow most of the afternoon – but just barely ahead of slick accumulations on many side streets in Littleton and Centennial. Fender-benders and spinouts were common, and tire stores had two-hour waits for those who realized their need for all-season radials.
“No sense in doing it until you have to,” joked Anna Beth Miller as she waited with her husband for a new set of tires at the Firestone Tire & Service Center on Arapahoe Road.
Many weren’t so cheery about the storm at DIA.
As of 4:30 p.m., Northwest Airlines passenger Joseph Cutshall- King, of Middletown, N.Y., said he had been sitting on his plane for about 5 1/2 hours, waiting to depart for Detroit. The plane sat at the gate for hours, then hours more in line for de-icing, he said.
“I love Denver, but when you deal with ice as part of your regular weather, you should be prepared,” he said.
Evacuees from hurricanes Katrina and Rita caught off-guard by the wintry blast began trickling into the Operation Safe Haven warehouse Monday afternoon looking for winter gear. The organization manages the distribution of donated items from a 45,000-square-foot warehouse in Aurora.
“I’ve never seen so much snow in my life,” said Pamela Walker, 43, a Katrina evacuee from New Orleans who now lives with her sister in Denver. “It snowed once last December, but it wasn’t a blanket of white like this.”
Ski areas rejoiced in the storm, and Loveland and Arapahoe Basin ski areas announced planned openings in just a matter of days. Down the road, crews at Keystone had a “wow moment” when they found 17 inches of snow at the ski area, said spokeswoman Amy Kemp.
“It’s a powder day!” she gushed.
Staff writers Jeffrey Leib, Steve Lipsher, Amy Brouillette, Ann Schrader, Manny Gonzales, Monte Whaley, Allison Sherry, Kelly Yamanouchi and Jeremy Meyer contributed to this report.
Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com.
