KANSAS CITY (MISSOURI): About 270 flights in and out of Chicago’s two airports were cancelled on Friday morning as a major winter storm headed northeast into the US Great Lakes and threatened New England after blanketing states from Minnesota to Ohio with blinding snow, sleet and freezing rain.
All flights at Kansas City International Airport were cancelled on Thursday night, and officials said they’d prepare to reopen on Friday morning. On the other side of the state in St Louis, more than 320 flights at Lambert Airport were cancelled. Numerous accidents and two deaths were being blamed on the icy, slushy roadways. A medical helicopter crashed early on Friday in Oklahoma City, killing two people on board and injuring a third. It wasn’t immediately clear if the weather was a factor. The National Weather Service said conditions were clear at the time.
The storm dumped more than 30.5 cm of snow in Kansas on Thursday, forcing airports to cancel hundreds of flights and stranding motorists on highways. Kansas City, Missouri, mayor Sly James said that about 60 buses were stuck on snowbound streets on Thursday, and even tow trucks were left immobile by the storm. “It’s still an ongoing process to get people off the roads,” he tol. The storm is expected to reach the American east coast this weekend, delivering heavy snow to parts of New England for a third straight weekend, from northern Connecticut to southern Maine. (Agencies)