Snowstorm causes flight cancellations, power outages

MINNEAPOLIS (AP):

Snow and bitter cold snarled traffic and prompted another 1,650 American flight cancellations on Monday, and tens of thousands of people were still without power after January-like weather barged in a month early.

The storm covered parts of North Texas in ice on the weekend and then moved East. Below-zero Fahrenheit temperatures crowned the top of the United States (US) from Idaho to Minnesota, where many roads still had an inch (2.5-centimetre)-thick plate of ice, polished smooth by traffic and impervious to ice-melting chemicals, making intersections an adventure.

Many travellers wished they were home, and people in homes without power wished they were somewhere else.

Some of the most difficult conditions were in North Texas. More than 22,000 Dallas-area homes and businesses were still without power on Monday, according to electric utility Oncor. That was down from 270,000 last Friday. Dallas students got the day off from school.

More than half of the American flight cancellations on Monday were at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, dominated by American Airlines. About 650 travellers were stranded there Sunday night.

Nationally, there have been more than 6,100 flight cancellations since Saturday, according to FlightStats.com, including more than 2,800 by American or its American Eagle regional airline. American emerged from bankruptcy protection and merged with US Airways on Monday.