Snow, ice blanket Midwest as storm heads toward New England

DETROIT — People throughout the Midwest woke Saturday to a heavy and steady snowfall that forced the cancellation of hundreds of airline flights and made driving dangerous.

More than 460 flights were canceled Saturday morning at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport in Chicago and about 50 flights at Chicago’s Midway International Airport. A United Airlines plane skidded off a runway at O’Hare on Saturday morning. No injuries were reported.

In the Detroit area, many motorists were moving well below posted speed limits along freeways due to slushy conditions. The snow was part of a wall of hazardous weather that trekked from the Dakotas and across the Great Lakes states, headed toward New England. The storm brought snow, ice, strong winds and deep cold.

After dumping up to 10 inches of snow on the Midwest, the storm was expected to wallop the Northeast. Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine could see up to 18 inches.

Amtrak canceled some trains from Chicago to Washington and New York and between New York and Boston and Pennsylvania.

In Nebraska, authorities closed Omaha’s Eppley Airfield Friday after a Southwest Airlines plane slid off an ice-slicked runway. No one was injured. But some Midwesterners weren’t going to let a little winter weather keep them from going outside. In downtown Detroit, Celeste Tremmel was out training for a marathon amid heavy and steady snowfall.

“When you run a marathon, you run no matter the weather,” said Tremmel.