DES MOINES, Iowa — Snow and ice plastered a wide area of the Midwest on Saturday, canceling campaign stops by presidential hopefuls, disrupting airport and highway traffic, and causing at least three deaths, including one in Colorado.
The National Weather Service posted winter storm and ice warnings across parts of Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, the eastern Dakotas, Illinois and northern Michigan, although some warnings were lifted by midday. Six to 16 inches of snow was forecast in parts of Minnesota.
Much of Iowa was hit by snow, sleet and freezing rain.
Hundreds of flights were canceled at airports in Des Moines, Chicago and Milwaukee. Officials decided to close Des Moines International Airport for several hours after a United Airlines plane slid off a taxiway, said airport spokesman Roy Criss. He said none of the 44 passengers was injured. The airport reopened by midafternoon.
At Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, Wis., an incoming Mesa Airlines regional jet flying for United Express slid off the pavement after failing to make a turn onto a taxiway, but no injuries were reported among the 25 passengers, said United Airlines spokesman Jeff Vick.
Madison was expecting 3 inches of snow and overnight wind gusts of up to 30 mph, an outlook so bleak that even meteorologists were postponing events. The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences postponed its annual Solstice Party, set for Saturday, until February.
The storm also complicated plans for some presidential hopefuls drumming up support for the Jan. 3 caucuses that kick off the nomination process.
Republican Mitt Romney canceled three campaign stops planned Saturday in southern Iowa, and former President Clinton canceled a rally for his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, scheduled Saturday afternoon outside Des Moines.
In Indiana, a van carrying Purdue University’s ice hockey team rolled over on an ice-slickened highway, killing one team member and injuring seven others, school officials said.
A man died when his Jeep hit a semi north of Madison, Wis., authorities said. Vehicles had been slowing after another semi tipped on its side as the driver tried to exit the highway.
On icy Interstate 25 near Wellington, a van slid off the road, rolled and struck a fence. One passenger was thrown from the vehicle and died, while the driver and two other passengers were hurt, police said.
In Colorado The state sees bizarre weather, from 70 degrees and sunny on the plains to 4 feet of snow in the San Juan Mountains. Page 1C
In Iowa Presidential candidates slog through the storm so they can slug it out with each other. Page 21A
