Snow and ice storms leave 44 dead

A NEW round of freezing rain coated highways and power lines with ice along the east coast of the United States yesterday, leaving at least 44 people dead.

Hundreds of thousands of schools closed as the Midwest was blitzed by heavy snow from Kansas to the Carolinas.

Up to 21 inches of snow was recorded in northern Michigan, and Duluth, Minnesota measured 24.8 inches on Monday. Ten inches or more of snow fell throughout the Northeast as the stormy weather converged there late on Monday night.

Freezing rain and drizzle fell from northern Georgia into Maryland yesterday, creating a coating of ice up to three-quarters of an inch thick in parts of South Carolina.

Farther north, many New Jersey school districts also cancelled classes or planned early dismissals because of a threat of rain, freezing rain, sleet and up to 10 inches of snow.

The National Weather Service posted a winter storm warning for parts of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. Snow had already started falling in wide areas of Pennsylvania and New York state.

The weather was blamed for six deaths each in North Carolina and South Carolina; five each in Iowa and Missouri; four in Ohio; three each in Nebraska and Minnesota; two each in Indiana, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma; and one each in Kansas and West Virginia. Most of the deaths were in traffic accidents.

Delta Air Lines delayed or cancelled some 300 flights Monday out of Atlanta because of the weather in the Midwest and East. Northwest Airlines cancelled 26 flights at its hub, Detroit Metropolitan Airport.