Eastern US and Canada digs out of snowstorm

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Residents in the eastern United States and parts of Canada have driven on treacherously icy roads and dug out of the first major snow storm to hit the region this year.

The massive weather system started in the US southwest, then swept through the US midwest, said Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service. The storm then regained strength off the Virginia coast and lumbered up the US east coast, dumping snow along the way.

The low pressure center behind the storm was climbing up the eastern US seaboard and expected to reach Canada's maritime provinces late Thursday, Feltgen said.

"Things will get worse today before they get better," he said.

Blizzard warnings were out in the northeastern United States, the NWS said, amid warnings that with the wind chill factor temperatures on Thursday could drop below minus 20 Fahrenheit (-29 Celsius) in New York state and Vermont, with arctic winds sweeping in from the north.

The National Weather Service said that heavy ice combined with wind gusts of up to 40 miles (64 kilometers) an hour downed trees and power lines across the affected region.

According to CNN early Thursday, the storm killed 13 people in six states, while some 300,000 others were without power across seven states.

In Washington on Thursday, area school districts remained closed for a second day, and the US government announced its area employees could take an unscheduled day off if they could not make it to work.

The US capital awoke Wednesday to an icy mix of snow and sleet that closed airports and slowed the federal government. Bus routes were cancelled and residents urged not to drive, stalling commuters.

Temperatures in the region plunged overnight, freezing the snow slush and turning streets Thursday into dangerously slippery ice rinks.

Heavy snow and freezing rain forced flight cancellations and delays at major airports in Washington, New York and Boston, Massachusetts. Hundreds of flights were also cancelled at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, the country's busiest.

In New York City, meteorologists warned of freezing rain and sleet, with snow accumulating one to three inches (2.5-7.5 centimeters).

At New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, passengers aboard a Jet Blue flight bound for Cancun, Mexico, were trapped inside the plane for eight hours as the pilot awaited clearing to depart.

"There was very little food," a passenger told CNN, describing his ordeal among screaming infants and stressed-out adults inside the airplane. "It was just a nightmare."

The crew "had to open the actual plane doors to get some air," said another passenger.

The airline eventually cancelled the flight and issued a written apology that acknowledged they had "no excuse for why we allowed passengers to sit on the tarmac," according to CNN,

The weather also played havoc with the heating-up 2008 presidential race.

Republican Mitt Romney, who announced the bid for his party's presidential nomination Tuesday, was forced to cancel a campaign stop in the northeastern state of New Hampshire.

In Canada, the worst snowstorm of the season blanketed southern Ontario, forcing several flight cancellations and school closures, and tormenting drivers as it swept eastward.

In Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa, dozens of flights, mostly to large US cities, were cancelled, according to airport authorities.

"It's the first big storm of the year. It's not commonplace, but at the same time, it's not the end of the world," Denis Heroux, an Environment Canada meteorologist at Montreal airport, told AFP.

"It's almost as much snow in one day as has fallen since the beginning of winter," said Heroux, noting that Montreal received only 70 centimeters (27.5 inches) of snow this year, half the normal snowfall.