Powerful snowstorm barrels east
DENVER — A powerful spring snowstorm that closed Denver’s airport and stranded numerous passengers barreled east today, threatening the Plains and the Midwest with heavy snow and winds.
Denver International Airport was closed around midday Wednesday because wind-whipped snow made it unsafe for planes. The airport reopened about seven hours later, but more than 1,300 of Wednesday’s 1,500 scheduled flights were canceled.
Hundreds of people with suitcases and duffel bags stood or lay around the terminals, and airport employees handed out blankets and sleeping mats to people who were still stranded Wednesday night.
Alicia Bailey was headed back to Atlanta after a business trip in Colorado Springs. She had a treacherous, white-knuckle, four-hour drive to the airport only to learn her flight was delayed several times and then finally canceled.
“I had a nice little cocktail, and that calmed the nerves down because I was frazzled,” she said. “The way I look at it is, it’s all God’s work. You have to look at the glass half full. I can’t change it so I’m just going to tell my boss, ‘I’ll see you on Friday.”’
Airport spokesman Heath Montgomery said the airport will be fully operational by this morning.
The storm, which is moving to the northeast across the Plains and into Michigan, was bringing strong wind gusts to southeast South Dakota, creating hazardous driving conditions and reducing visibility to a quarter of a mile.
Forecasters with the National Weather Service said snow accumulations in South Dakota ranged from fewer than 2 inches in Sioux Falls to up to 7 inches north of Humboldt, while gusts reached between 40 mph to 45 mph.
