MILWAUKEE - Sunny skies helped road crews deal with the remnants of a blustery snowstorm that blacked out thousands of homes and businesses and was blamed for at least 22 traffic deaths in the upper U.S. Midwest.
The weekend-long blast of ice and windblown snow led to multi-car pileups that closed sections of several major highways on the Plains on a busy travel day before Tuesday's Christmas holiday.
Adding to the death toll, authorities say a woman died in Maple Valley Township, Mich., 100 kilometres north of Detroit, after she lost control of her truck and it rolled into a ditch filled with water. The woman was trapped in the overturned truck, said police who discovered the wreck Monday morning.
The storm rolled through Colorado and Wyoming on Friday, then spread snow and ice on Saturday from the Texas Panhandle to Wisconsin. On Sunday, snow fell across much of Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota and parts of Michigan and Indiana.
The storm system had blown out to sea Monday morning, but in its wake wind blowing at 40 kilometres an hour picked up moisture from Lake Erie to create lake-effect snow in Buffalo, N.Y.
In Chicago, some 250 travellers stayed overnight Sunday at O'Hare International Airport after 300 flights were cancelled because of high winds. Flights were running smoothly Monday, airport spokesman Gregg Cunningham said.
Michigan utilities reported some 15,700 customers were still without power Monday morning, and in Illinois about 3,900 ComEd customers remained without power Monday, down from a Sunday morning peak of more than 225,000.
In addition to the Michigan fatality, accidents on highways slippery with snow and ice killed at least eight people in Minnesota, three in Indiana, three in Wyoming, five in Wisconsin and one each in Texas and Kansas.
