Ice-covered streets were deserted in Super Bowl host city Dallas. Whiteouts shut down Oklahoma City and Tulsa. And more was on the way. Chicago expected 2 feet (60 centimeters) of snow, Indianapolis an inch (2 1/2 centimeters) of ice, and the Northeast still more ice and snow in what’s shaping up to be a record winter for the region.
The system that stretched more than 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) from Texas to Maine, across a third of the country, promised to leave in its aftermath a chilly cloak of teeth-chattering cold, with temperatures in the single digits or lower.
Winds topped 60 mph (100 kilometer) in Texas. In Chicago, public schools called a snow day for the first time in 12 years, and both major airports gave up on flying until at least Wednesday afternoon. Thousands of office workers in Chicago’s famous downtown Loop district left early to avoid any transit troubles.
The storm also led Chicago officials to close the city’s busy and iconic Lake Shore Drive while crews tried to plow snow Tuesday night. City officials said the move was temporary but that they could have to close it again if high winds push 25-foot (7 1/2-meter) waves from nearby Lake Michigan onto the roadway.
Everyone “should brace for a storm that will be remembered for a long time,” said Jose Santiago, executive director of Chicago’s office of emergency management.
Many cities across middle America began shutting down hours ahead of the snow. Scores of schools, colleges and government offices canceled activities or decided not to open at all.
Large sections of busy Midwest interstate highways were closed, and nearly 6,000 flights had been canceled across America.
Early accounts indicated many people already planned to heed advice to stay home.
In Missouri, more than a foot (30 centimeters) of snow had fallen by midday, with no end in sight. For the first time in history, the state of Missouri shut down Interstate 70 between St. Louis and Kansas City due to a winter storm.
“The roads are just pure white. There’s no traffic.
Nothing,” said Kristi Strait, who was working at Clinton Discount Building Materials in Clinton, Missouri.
In state capitols across the Midwest and East, lawmakers cut short their workweek because of the storm. Normally bustling downtown streets were quiet, too. And many stores were closed, with signs on the windows blaming the weather.
Meteorologist Jeff Johnson of the National Weather Service in Des Moines, Iowa, said the storm was sure to “cripple transportation for a couple of days.” The snow and the wind were a dangerous combination, even in areas where not that much snow was expected.
“You don’t want to get caught out in the rural areas in your vehicle in this storm. It’s a good night to stay home,” he said.
The leading edge of the storm slammed first into Texas and Oklahoma after moving out of the Rockies. The blizzard halted production of the print edition of Wednesday’s Tulsa World, marking the first time in the paper’s nearly 106-year history that is has not published an edition.
Both of Oklahoma’s major airports were closed, and the state called the National Guard to help rescue workers search for stranded motorists. Outside Tulsa, at the Hard Rock Casino, the snow caused the partial collapse of a roof, but no injuries were reported.
In Texas, thousands of people lost electricity during the frigid conditions. Utility company Oncor reported nearly 27,000 customers without power statewide, with nearly half of the outages in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The storm was expected to roll into the Northeast on Wednesday, bringing still more snow to a winter-weary region. Towns that have been hit by several blizzards since December feared they wouldn’t have anywhere to put more snow.
Ice-coated roads were nearly empty in Dallas, where the few motorists who braved the unfamiliar terrain slowed to a crawl as they passed jack-knifed tractor-trailers on slick highways. The National Football League managed to stick to its Super Bowl schedule, holding media activities at Cowboys Stadium in suburban Arlington as planned.
