Storm blows east, leaving thousands without power

CHICAGO – Utility crews worked overtime Saturday to restore electrical service to thousands of customers still blacked out by the Midwest’s first big snowstorm of the season.

As temperatures plummeted below freezing, officials said some people could be without power for days. Missouri National Guard teams went door to door in the St. Louis area to make sure residents were surviving the cold.

The storm was blamed for at least 13 deaths as it spread ice and deep snow from Texas to Michigan and then blew through the Northeast late Friday and early Saturday. Schools and businesses were shuttered, and hundreds of travelers had been stranded by canceled flights.

Nearly 600 Amtrak passengers in Illinois and Missouri were delayed up to 10 hours Friday and Saturday morning, Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said. With many tracks still strewn with downed trees and power lines, passengers were eventually taken by bus to their destinations.

Trees were blown onto homes and cars, and a big Christmas tree in front of the New Hampshire Statehouse was toppled.

Red Cross volunteers in Decatur, Ill., had helped some of the stranded I-80 travelers by ordering 100 McDonald’s hamburgers, which were airlifted by the National Guard.

“We had 35 minutes from the time we got the call to the airlift,” Deb Helm said. McDonald’s “was what was available.”

Many areas of Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri got more than a foot of snow, including 16 inches in parts of central Missouri and 17 at Manistee, Mich. Fifteen inches fell as far south as Bartlesville, Okla.

Airlines were recovering from the widespread cancellations caused by the storm; delays at Lambert Airport in St. Louis were generally 15 minutes or less Saturday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. There were no measurable delays Saturday at Chicago’s two major airports, said Wendy Abrams, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Department of Aviation.

About 427,000 Ameren Corp. customers were without power in Missouri and Illinois on Saturday night. Crews had restored power to the nearly 29,500 ComEd customers in the greater Chicago area who had lost it.

“It could be days before it’s fully restored because it’s really treacherous out there,” Ameren spokeswoman Susan Gallagher said.