McCain or Obama? AOL Elections 2008. Get all your up to the minute results.

News Video

News Video
Find, view and share videos about news and entertainment from around the Web.
See Videos »

Blog Chatter

What are tags?
List

User-Submitted News

Top stories submitted and voted on from Propeller.

Most Popular Stories

Most Commented On

Most Recent Comments

NEWS ALERTS

Get the latest updates sent straight to your inbox.

Sign up to receive AOL News alerts by e-mail.

Deadly Winter Storm Pummels Northeast

By DAVID N. GOODMAN,
AP
Posted: 2007-12-17 11:24:33
Filed Under: Nation News
DETROIT (Dec. 17) - A pre-winter blend of snow, sleet and freezing rain cut visibility and iced over highways from the Great Lakes to New England, dumping up to a foot-and-a-half of snow, stranding air and road travelers and causing an airliner to skid off a runway.

School districts across the region — including Michigan's largest, in Detroit — canceled Monday classes. A winter storm warning remained in effect Monday in northern Maine, where visibility was cut by snow blown by wind gusting to 35 mph.

Slippery roads caused by the big storm were blamed for four weekend deaths in Indiana, two in Michigan and one each in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and the Canadian Maritime province of Nova Scotia.

The northern New York state community of Peru had 18 inches of snow, and high wind Monday morning whipped up fallen snow across the state, the National Weather Service said. In Michigan, Ann Arbor measured 10.5 inches and parts of Indiana had 14 inches.

"It's winter," said Ann Arbor resident Linda Thelen, 53, as she and her husband dug out their home. "I expect a couple of these each year."

In Rhode Island, a U.S. Airways Express Flight from Philadelphia carrying 31 passengers and three crew members slid off the runway when it landed at T.F. Green Airport, which got nearly 8 inches of snow. No injuries were reported, but the airport had to close its runways for about 2½ hours. Barb Jones, a spokeswoman for Air Wisconsin, which operates the jet, said the incident was under investigation.

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 — though plenty of delays — were reported at airports in Philadelphia and the New York area, which had braced for plenty of snow but got mostly sleet and rain.

The storm knocked out power to thousands of homes and businesses Sunday, including 137,000 in Pennsylvania, at least 10,000 in northern New England and 20,000 in eastern Canada, authorities reported.

Braving the elements Sunday in New York were fans of teen singer Hannah Montana, whose concert in Rochester drew Jolene Horton and her 8-year-old daughter, Paxtyn Brown.

They spent five hours on the road from Schuyler County in the Finger Lakes. "Normally it would have taken 2 1/2 hours, but we wouldn't have missed it for the world," Horton said.

The four storm-related deaths in Indiana occurred when a van carrying a woman and her three daughters skidded into a pond in Carmel, Ind. The driver, Batul Abbas, 47, was able to 911 from the van and give the location, but the vehicle was underwater when emergency crews Saturday night, authorities said.

Many churches canceled Sunday morning services as police encouraged people to stay off the roads.

University of Michigan's winter commencement in nearby Ann Arbor was held as scheduled on Sunday afternoon. Rasheed Mathis, 27, drove from Detroit to see his cousin graduate.

"It was nasty," he said of the drive. "Just nasty, but he came to see me graduate and I wanted to be there for him."

The storm also didn't keep fans away from the New England Patriots-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.

The ice and wind in northeast Pennsylvania toppled two 800-foot television towers on Penobscot Mountain in Luzerne County, knocking several stations off the air.

The storm came less than a week after an ice storm in the Midwest and Northeast that was blamed for at least 38 deaths, mostly in traffic accidents. Up to a million homes and businesses lost power in parts of Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri.

On Monday, Oklahoma utilities said just more than 126,000 customers were still waiting for electricity, most in the Oklahoma City and Tulsa areas.

Among those waiting for service to be restored, Choctaw resident Beverly Smith said her trailer had been without power for seven straight days as of Sunday.

"We don't have anywhere to go," said Smith, who lives with her 15-year-old son. "We're out of money. Christmas is nine days away, and I have no hope of giving my family a Christmas at all."

Associated Press writers Carolyn Thompson in Buffalo, N.Y., and Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2007-12-09 21:10:32
Bookmark

Recent Comments

Post Your Own  
1 - 10 of 6296
6296 comments

gostro498 11:26:45 PM Dec 17 2007

Report This!

the world ends 2012 live it up people. earth axis shifts see ya .

queenslander926 09:59:13 PM Dec 17 2007

Report This!

When will some people get the right fix on global warming? Global WARMING produces ice storms, snow storms, floods, intense heat. The lot! It is inexcusable ignorance to misinterpret the term "warming." Enough has been said on the subject for at least the dumbest to understand what global WARMING means. Do some reading for heaven's sake.

shannonr1179 08:08:00 PM Dec 17 2007

Report This!

Christmas with out snow !!! its called ALABAMA welcome to the south where school closes if some weather man says the word flurry

shannonr1179 08:08:00 PM Dec 17 2007

Report This!

Christmas with out snow !!! its called ALABAMA welcome to the south where school closes if some weather man says the word flurry

shannonr1179 08:08:00 PM Dec 17 2007

Report This!

Christmas with out snow !!! its called ALABAMA welcome to the south where school closes if some weather man says the word flurry

kellydays13 07:39:16 PM Dec 17 2007

Report This!

This is sad, so many idiots still clutching to the Global Warming "THEORY." And, I emphasize the word THEORY. That's all Gore calls in in his book is a theory. The planet has warmed and cooled a thousand times throughout the ages. Can man contribute to his enviroment? Sure he can both in negative and positice ways.

jkanon 05:14:00 PM Dec 17 2007

Report This!

michael6179 02:55:19 PM Dec 17 2007

Report This! This is all because of "global warming" just as the expanding Antartic Ice cap is due to global warming......just ask Al Gore or Michael Moore....I believe the hot air exiting their large mouths is the real cause of global warming.

This defines the above:
Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid
> people that stops bright ideas from penetrating.
> The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign
> of breaking down in the near future.

jkanon 05:12:00 PM Dec 17 2007

Report This!

lawrencelum3 04:03:04 PM Dec 17 2007

Report This! This is still MORE evidence that global warming is a political ploy and does NOT exist !!!!

Do you mean that a storm shows that global warming is not happening? Do you know the difference between gradual and immediate? Do you know the difference between weather and climate? Are you stupid or ignorant? It's your choice.

arrellviolins 04:45:00 PM Dec 17 2007

Report This!

liligrenn01 04:16:31 PM Dec 17 2007

Report This! I really hate these people keep talking the celebrits joined the online sugar daddy service seekingsugar.com. Could you people have a break??
--------------------
You've been reported. You come into every blog with the same phony commercial. You are worse than a telemarketeer. Be gone already....

arrellviolins 04:45:00 PM Dec 17 2007

Report This!

liligrenn01 04:16:31 PM Dec 17 2007

Report This! I really hate these people keep talking the celebrits joined the online sugar daddy service seekingsugar.com. Could you people have a break??
--------------------
You've been reported. You come into every blog with the same phony commercial. You are worse than a telemarketeer. Be gone already....

1 - 10 of 6296
6296 comments

Add your own Comments

Clear
Add
* Want the latest Hot Seat polls delivered to your Vista desktop? Hot Seat Vista Gadget »

CNN.com

More Stories

Technology

More Stories

Top Videos

News Bloggers