Storm Plays Havoc With Travelers

Frigid temperatures, blasting wind and more snow than some places see in a typical year paralyzed parts of the Midwest and South Thursday, and began wreaking havoc on holiday travellers both on land and in air.

CBS News Correspondent Jim Axelrod reports that most airport delays are due to a ripple effect. If storms clog up runways in Chicago, flights can be delayed all over the country.

"I was really surprised. I knew that Cincinnati, the flights were cancelled there," Delayed passenger Alisha Creel told Axelrod. "But i didn't expect Atlanta to be a problem."

The fierce weather transformed a section of highway in southern Indiana into what resembled a parking lot. Letter carriers didn't venture out into some snowpacked rural areas in western Kentucky, where a "kind of storm you might see two or three times in your adult life" stuck, according to one weather service meteorologist.

The winter storm dumped double-digit inches of snow from Ohio to Wyoming, and the Texas Panhandle to the Great Lakes, disrupting Holiday travel. Motorists in parts of Mississippi and Tennessee were warned Thursday to stay off highways iced up from freezing rain. Hundreds of thousands lost power in Ohio, which is covered in up to two feet of snow.

Southern Indiana barely had time to catch its frosty breath after a snowstorm Wednesday morning when a second, heavier storm pummeled the region, shutting down Interstate 64 eastbound from Evansville to the Illinois State line.

As CBS News Correspondent Cynthia Bowers reports, the Indiana road conditions made it a day newlywed Kristin Monack will never forget.

"The roads are impassable," Monack said. "Here we are. This is our honeymoon."

Some Ohioans without power broke out sleeping bags and extra clothes, relying on fireplaces and propane heaters. Others without power decided to stay with relatives, check in to hotel rooms or go to shelters.

While little additional snow was forecast, temperatures were expected to plummet to subzero by Christmas Day.

Ken Sabatini, of Leawood, Kan., was stranded with his wife and two children on I-64 near Evansville Wednesday night and was still there the next morning. The family was on its way to Cincinnati for Christmas. The highway was blocked by six overturned tractor trailers.

"We run the engine about once an hour for about ten minutes to keep some level of heat here in the car," Sabitini told CBS Radio News. "My car thermometer is staying around 15 or 16 degrees."

The Indiana National Guard was bringing stranded motorists from I-64 to hotels in Evansville or the Red Cross offices.

Gov. Joe Kernan declared a disaster emergency for portions of the state and urged a delay in Christmas travel to allow time for roads to be cleared.

The traffic snarl began when semis had trouble getting up hills and rolled back, blocking traffic, police said. A similar problem tied up traffic on a stretch of Interstate 71 in Kentucky.

The Wednesday snowfall at Evansville of 19.3 inches shattered the record for any single day, set Feb. 25, 1993, when 10.9 inches fell. It was also well over the normal yearly total of 14.2 inches.

"Without a doubt, traveling across the Ohio Valley will definitely be the toughest place to be," said CBS News Meteorologist George Cullen. "We have 8 inches of snow on the ground in Indianapolis, 15 inches in Dayton — that's an all-time record for them — and in Cleveland, there's 13 inches."

Electric companies serving most of Ohio said 310,000 homes and business were without power.

"It's very, very difficult to get crews to where the damage is. It's very treacherous," said Bryce Nickel, spokesman for Dayton Power & Light, which had 20,000 customers without power.

Heavy and snow and ice caused the roof on two sections of a warehouse in suburban Cincinnati to collapse overnight. No injuries were reported.

Even in areas without heavy snowfall, air travel is slowed by increased crowds and inclemate weather elsewhere. An American Airlines plane preparing for takeoff went off the runway and became stuck in mud at Richmond International Airport, shutting the two main runways and delaying nearly all incoming flights, an airport spokesman said.

In Illinois, where up to 20 inches of snow fell, forecasters warned that wind chills would reach as low as 25 below zero, and high snowdrifts created a hazardous morning commute, officials said.

Cincinnati was looking at about 20 inches before the system, with its high winds and freezing temperatures, moved on later Thursday.

Parts of Arkansas looked forward to only the ninth white Christmas in 120 years as the storm barreled across the state, closing businesses, shuttering restaurants and snarling traffic.

As arctic air surged southward into the lower Mississippi Valley, a combination of freezing rain and sleet made driving treacherous across northern Mississippi. The Highway Patrol urged motorists to suspend their travel "at least until midmorning," said agency spokesman Warren Strain. "We've had some eight hours of freezing rain," he said.

At least seven weather-related traffic deaths were reported — three in Ohio and one each in New Mexico, Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma. A 76-year-old woman in Ohio died of an apparent heart attack while shoveling snow.

Nine people received minor injuries in a series of accidents on a snowy interstate in Wyoming just north of the Colorado state line.

In Amarillo, Texas, 3.7 inches of snow fell Wednesday, more than triple the previous record for the date. Hundreds of flights were grounded and others delayed Wednesday at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Workers deiced about 200 planes an hour, airport spokesman Ken Capps said.

In Cincinnati, cancellations and delays were blamed mostly on planes arriving from other storm-battered locations.

Back on the ground, those leaving the driving to others couldn't do much but take it all in stride.

Susie Brown, 32, was stuck in the Cincinnati bus terminal, waiting for a Greyhound to take her north through western Ohio, where 10 to 16 inches of snow could blanket areas west of I-71 by Thursday afternoon.

"My brother always told me that I would grow up someday to regret wanting a white Christmas," said Brown, who lives in Cincinnati, "and this year he may be right."