BOSTON — Motorists slid off roads Sunday as a wind-blown brew of snow, sleet and freezing rain cut visibility and iced over highways from the Great Lakes to New England.
At least three traffic deaths have been blamed on the storm.
The National Weather Service posted winter-storm warnings from Michigan and Indiana all the way to Maine. About a foot of snow had fallen on parts of the Chicago area and Ann Arbor, Mich., with 10 inches in Vermont. Meteorologists said 18 inches was possible in northern New England and that there was a chance of 14 inches in parts of Michigan.
“Our biggest advice right now is, stay home,” said Maine State Police Sgt. Andrew Donovan.
In Rhode Island, a U.S. Airways Express flight from Philadelphia carrying 31 passengers and three crew members slid off the runway as it tried to land at T.F. Green Airport, which got nearly 8 inches of snow, the Providence Journal reported. No injuries were reported.
By late afternoon Sunday, AAA Michigan had helped more than 3,000 motorists, most of whom had spun out, gotten stuck in a ditch or couldn’t start their vehicles, spokeswoman Nancy Cain said.
Every available plow truck was at work in Vermont, said Reggie Brown, highway-department dispatcher in Montpelier.
Snow depths in some places were uncertain.
“They can’t tell how much because it’s blowing so hard,” Brown said.
The Hancock County Sheriff’s Office in northwestern Ohio declared roads off limits to nonemergency vehicles, declaring that anyone else traveling through was subject to arrest.
“I don’t mind an inch or two, but this is too much,” said Larry Thelen in Ann Arbor, Mich., which got 10.5 inches of snow.
The storm canceled hundreds of flights at airports in Chicago and about 300 flights at Boston’s busy Logan International Airport.
Flights were also canceled at airports in Portland, Maine; Buffalo, N.Y.; and Manchester, N.H. Few major problems were reported at airports in Philadelphia and New York.
Many churches called off Sunday services because of the hazardous conditions.
“I don’t want folks to venture out because we’re having church and they feel obligated,” the Rev. Glenn Mortimer said after calling off services at Wakefield-Lynnfield United Methodist Church in Wakefield, Mass. He noted that some people still hadn’t completely dug out from a storm Thursday that dumped more than a foot of snow on parts of Massachusetts.
The storm didn’t keep fans away from the New England Patriots vs. New York Jets game at Foxborough, Mass., but they had to shovel off their seats in the stadium. A video of a fire roaring in a fireplace was shown on the scoreboards at both ends of the field.
The storm also didn’t stand in the way of dedicated Christmas shoppers.
Betty Gould and Rocky Castellano drove about 20 miles from Pittsfield, N.H., to Steeplegate Mall in Concord, N.H.
“We like the snow,” Gould said. “He thinks he’s invincible. He has four-wheel drive, studded tires, the whole bit.”
Slippery roads were blamed for two traffic deaths in Michigan and one in Wisconsin.
