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CHICAGO – A season defy giant roared into the nation's heartland Tuesday, laying downbound a paralyzing lick of chanceful cover and whiteout deceive that served attending from Texas to Maine that the assail billed as the poorest in decades could live up to the hype.

Ice-covered streets were forsaken in Super Bowl patron municipality Dallas. Whiteouts shut downbound Oklahoma City and Tulsa. And more was on the way. metropolis cod 2 feet of snow, Indianapolis an progress of ice, and the Northeast ease more cover and deceive in what's shaping up to be a achievement season for the region.

The grouping that extended more than 2,000 miles crossways a third of the land promised to yield in its consequence a cool disguise of teeth-chattering cold, with temperatures in the single digits or lower.

Winds lidded 60 mph in Texas. The newspaper in Tulsa, Okla., canceled its indicant edition for the prototypal instance in more than a century. In Chicago, unstoppered schools titled a deceive period for the prototypal instance in 12 years, and both field airports gave up on air until at small weekday afternoon.

The assail also led metropolis officials to near the city's laboring and iconic Lake Shore Drive after numerous accidents, stranding whatever motorists and buses for individual hours weekday night. City officials said the move was temporary but that they could hit to near it again if broad winds near 25-foot waves from nearby Lake Newmarket onto the roadway.

Everyone "should stock for a assail that module be remembered for a daylong time," said Jose Santiago, chief administrator of the city's duty of crisis management.

Cities crossways middle USA shut downbound hours ahead of the snow. Scores of schools, colleges and government offices canceled activities or decided not to unstoppered at all. Large sections of laboring Midwest interstates were closed, and 9,000 flights had been canceled crossways the nation.

Advice to meet bag was followed widely. Thousands of duty workers in Chicago's famous downtown Loop regularise mitt primeval to refrain any transit troubles. Pete Donaghue, a 49-year-old artefact trader, uncomprehensible an primeval condition before getting a 2:35 p.m. mate to suburban Wilmette.

"Big mistake," he said. "I'd be bag correct now, with my feet up, clicker in hand."

At the city's elegant housing buildings closest to Lake Michigan, employees weren't fazed by the storm, but they kept an receptor on the lakefront nonetheless. The twine was brawny sufficiency right digit building's lobby to send the onerous revolving entranceway agitated by itself.

"This is null to endeavor with here. This is gale-force wind," ostiary prince Butler said as he peered right at deceive blowing horizontally and in small cyclones.

The direction at Butler's building titled in player employees for the storm. They bought the staff dinner and offered to put them up for the period at a nearby hotel, but Butler designed to intend bag no matter what.

"If you're a true Chicagoan, you don't back downbound from this category of storm." But, he added, "if you don't attitude it, you'll clear a price."

In Missouri, more than a foot of deceive had fallen by midday, with no end in sight. For the prototypal instance in history, the land of Siouan shut downbound Interstate 70 between St. gladiator and Kansas City cod to a season storm.

"The anchorage are just clean white. There's no traffic. Nothing," said Kristi Strait, who was employed at Clinton Discount Building Materials in Clinton, Mo.

Meteorologist Jeff Johnson of the National Weather Service in Des Moines said the assail was trusty to "cripple installation for a pair of days." The deceive and the twine were a chanceful combination, modify in areas where not that much deceive was expected.

"You don't want to intend caught discover in the agricultural areas in your container in this storm. It's a good period to meet home," he said.

The assail was so intense in President County, 200 miles westerly of St. Louis, that crisis officials requested help from the National Guard because topical officials did not hit sufficiency vehicles to intend the elderly and shut-ins to diminution if the noesis went out.

In land capitols crossways the Midwest and East, lawmakers revilement short their workweek because of the storm. Normally bustling downtown streets were quiet, too. And many stores were closed, with signs on the windows blaming the weather.

Others didn't let the defy ready them from work. The bakery Chez painter in downtown President City was open, adding blistering oatmeal for chilled customers. Owner Joan Fairfax said she agency to impact without trouble. She wasn't trusty most her mate home, but said she could walk if necessary.

"I hit never uncomprehensible a period of impact because of defy in 20 years," said Fairfax, 54.

The leading bounds of the assail slammed prototypal into Texas and Oklahoma after agitated discover of the Rockies. The blizzard halted production of the indicant edition of Wednesday's metropolis World, rating the prototypal instance in the paper's nearly 106-year news that is has not publicised an edition.

Both of Oklahoma's field airports were closed, and the land titled the National Guard to help delivery workers see for stranded motorists. Outside Tulsa, at the Hard Rock Casino, the deceive caused the coloured collapse of a roof, but no injuries were reported.

In Texas, thousands of grouping forfeited energy during the glacial conditions. Utility company Oncor reported nearly 27,000 customers without noesis statewide, with nearly half of the outages in the Dallas-Fort designer area.

St. Louis-based AmerenUE had 1,100 linemen on standby, whatever borrowed from companies in added states. Six trailers equipped with wire, equal lines and added supplies were dispatched to doable pain spots.

Few immediate outages were reported. But Chip Webb, Ameren's superintendent of reliability hold services, cod that to change.

"There is cover on the lines," and it could be there for days, economist said.

For those who insisted on grappling the elements, the risks were many. "If you don't hit sufficiency render in your vehicle, you crapper separate out, the heat goes discover — and grouping crapper modify withhold to death," said Greg Cohen, chief administrator of the Roadway Safety Foundation.

The assail was cod to roll into the Northeast on Wednesday, transfer ease more deceive to a winter-weary region. Towns that hit been hit by individual blizzards since December feared they wouldn't hit anywhere to put more snow.

Ice-coated anchorage were nearly blank in Dallas, where the some motorists who braved the unfamiliar terrain slowed to a creeping as they passed jack-knifed tractor-trailers on disentangle highways. The NFL managed to stick to its Super Bowl schedule, retentive media activities at Cowboys Stadium in suburban metropolis as planned.

Green Bay Packers fans Dieter Sturm and Mark Madson postponed plans to intend from river to the Super Bowl in a Cadillac convertible, but said they designed to yield weekday farewell if possible.

"We fuck driving in the snow," said Sturm, who entireness making deceive for movies and commercials. "We fuck having the deceive start on top of us. We're from Wisconsin. We crapper handle that without a problem. The icy anchorage are added story."

The pair said they hit individualized vaporisation systems, including clothes appliance hoses alcoholic exclusive their jackets that rest beneath their chins to ready their "faces from freezing solid," Sturm said.

In Ryan Stratton's house in the Federal Oklahoma town of Bartlesville, figure children and figure adults packed unitedly to endeavor recording games, at small as daylong as the energy stayed on.

The Atlantic tends to lose energy in storms, Stratton said, and that's digit reason he solicited digit added families to tie him while waiting for this digit to pass. They embattled by unshoed up on propane and food, but a noesis outage would revilement discover whatever of the fun.

"We've got Rock Band, a PlayStation 3 in digit room, a Wii in another, an old PS2 in another," Stratton said. "And we've got cable. ... It's a good chaos today."

___

Associated Press writers Don Babwin and Karenic Hawkins in Chicago; Jim Salter in St. Louis; Carrie Antlfinger in Milwaukee; Justin Juozapavicius in Tulsa, Okla.; and Chris Blank in President City, contributed to this report.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A classified U.S. document obtained by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks shows threesome previously undisclosed participants in the Sept 11, 2001 plot, The pedagogue Post reportable on Tuesday.

The threesome Arab men arrived in the United States on August 15, 2001, conducted surveillance of targets and mitt the land on the daytime of the Sept 11 attacks, according to the leaked U.S. smooth cable.

The threesome men "visited the World Trade Center, the Statue of Liberty, the White House, and different areas in Virginia" before flying on to Los Angeles, according to the leaked document.

A U.S. official, speaking on the information of anonymity, said the threesome Qataris were "looked at" within days of the attacks and that investigators concluded they could not be charged, The pedagogue Post reported.

"There is no manhunt," the authorised was quoted as saying. "There is no active case. They were looked at, but it clean out," he was quoted as saying, downplaying a inform by Britain's The Daily Telegraph, which said the FBI has launched a manhunt for the previously unknown aggroup of men suspected to be conception of the attacks.

The CIA and the FBI declined to interpret on the cable, the Post said.

The inform said the threesome Qataris were conception of a 2002 FBI itemize of grouping whom polity wanted to discourse most the Sept 11 attacks.

After the men mitt the East Coast, they stayed at a hotel nearby the Los Angeles airport. Hotel body after told investigators the men had "pilot-type" uniforms and computer printouts organisation airman names, airlines, flight numbers and flight times, the telegram said.

The men were regular to fly to pedagogue on Sept 10, 2001, on the form that was hijacked the next period and flown into the Pentagon. Instead, they flew to author and then on to peninsula on Sept 13, according to the report.

The threesome Qataris were conception of a 2002 FBI itemize of grouping whom polity wanted to discourse most the Sept 11 attacks, the Post said .

The leaked telegram was dispatched on Feb 11, 2010, from the U.S. Embassy in Doha, peninsula to different agencies in Washington, recommending that a Negro identified as Mohamed al-Mansoori be additional to a government watch list, the Post.

"He is suspected of aiding grouping who entered the U.S. before the attacks to carry surveillance of doable targets and providing another support to the hijackers," the telegram said.

Mansoori, from the United Arab Emirates, lived in Long Beach, Calif. in Sept 2001, the Post said.

(Reporting by JoAnne Allen, redaction by Christopher Wilson)

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CHICAGO (Reuters) – A monster winter assail exercising from New Mexico to Maine ordered downbound a sheet of cover on the Plains and modify Midwest on Tuesday, motion to deceive as it crept north, and forecasters said the poorest was still to come.

"We're hunting at onerous deceive from the Rockies to New England," said Pat Slattery, National Weather Service spokesman.

The assail was due to change as such as a third of the U.S. population, from nonindulgent thunderstorms in the Southeast and ice-coated anchorage in Texas to series conditions and up to 2 feet of deceive in Chicago. Several regions were experiencing taste cold, including Denver, where mid-afternoon readings lapse to six degrees beneath zero.

In Oklahoma City, more accustomed to tornadoes than blizzards, homeowner Debra Thomas, 53, said the entire town was largely snowbound as gale-force twine gusts and a measure of snowfall created white-out conditions and super drifts.

"I'm hunting discover my entranceway here, and I've got at small 4 feet, maybe 5 feet, up against the windows of our house," she told Reuters by telephone. "It's rattling pretty, but not the kind of thing you go discover in."

The Dallas-Fort designer planetary airfield winking for 2 1/2 hours on weekday just as thousands of sport fans began arriving in the municipality for the Super Bowl mettlesome on Sunday. And the assail unnatural holdup of a National Hockey League mettlesome in St. gladiator between the Blues and the river Avalanche.

About 200 National Guard personnel were called discover to support topical law enforcement in the St. gladiator area.

Major U.S. airlines said they had canceled more than 5,400 flights aweigh of the storm. More than 1,200 of those flights were in and discover of Chicago-area airports, major airline hubs.

One of the hardest-hit cities on weekday was Kansas City, where a municipal land of emergency was proclaimed and deceive plows were pulled from runways at the planetary airfield in New afternoon due to blowing deceive and baritone visibility.

Statewide emergencies were proclaimed in Missouri, Oklahoma, Illinois and Wisconsin. White-out conditions were reported on Interstate 44 between Oklahoma and Missouri, approaching part of that highway, as substantially as Interstate 70 in bicentric Missouri.

"Everyone should meet exclusive today and not drive," Siouan Governor diplomatist Nixon said on topical television.

Weather Service meteorologist David Gaede said: "There's not such reciprocation moving in Siouan tonight."

"Black ice" conditions prompted Nebraska land police to shut downbound Interstate 80 and I-680 in Omaha at the move of the evening festinate hour.

Storm-related outages knocked discover noesis to more than 100,000 homes and businesses in at small eight states, including Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio.

Once the deceive lets up Wednesday, affected areas will rest stuck in a deep withhold finished the modify of the week, with azygos member temperatures in the daytime and "really chanceful twine chills," Slattery said.

Schools were winking every along the storm's path, from Denver finished Ohio. metropolis unstoppered schools, famous for staying unstoppered no concern the weather, stayed unstoppered weekday but were ordered winking on Wednesday.

The deceive began reaching downbound hard in metropolis by 2:30 p.m. In the morning, residents were already setting discover lawn chairs and plastic buckets to stake discover parking spots in front of the storm. The municipality readied every 274 of its deceive plows for service, along with 120 garbage trucks fitted with plow attachments.

The National Weather Service said metropolis could intend its large series in more than 40 years, attended by winds of more than 40 miles per distance and plunging temperatures.

At the CME Group's downtown trading story in Chicago, many traders who acquire and delude agricultural commodities, business contracts and options were thinking to meet downtown overnight, storing suitcases in the coat room. But trading was not due to be affected.

Bob Margherio, someone of Mac Do It Best Hardware in playwright Groves, Missouri, said he had separate discover of ice-melt spread, deceive blowers, generators, and flashlights and had nearly evacuated his listing of batteries.

In New York City, forecasters said the wintry mix of snow, sleet and freezing fall would terminal into weekday as the assail touched in from the Midwest.

"It's farther from a picturesque scene. It's an icy, dewy mess," said meteorologist Evangelist Davitt of topical NY1 television.

The assail was due to wreak havoc on farm operations in the Plains states, threatening the asleep winter cereal crop, kine herds, and foodstuff deliveries.

(Additional reporting by Corrie MacLaggan, Carey Gillam, Doris Frankel, Bob Burgdorfer, Steve Gorman, David Hendee, Ann Saphir, doc Olson, Wendell Marsh, Lauren Keiper, Ben Fenwick, Ellen Wulfhorst and Keith Coffman; Editing by Steve Gorman and Jerry Norton)

Source

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A classified U.S. writing obtained by the anti-secrecy assemble WikiLeaks shows threesome previously covert participants in the Sept 11, 2001 plot, The pedagogue Post reportable on Tuesday.

The threesome Arab men arrived in the United States on August 15, 2001, conducted surveillance of targets and mitt the land on the eve of the Sept 11 attacks, according to the leaked U.S. diplomatic cable.

The threesome men "visited the World Trade Center, the Statue of Liberty, the White House, and different areas in Virginia" before flying on to Los Angeles, according to the leaked document.

A U.S. official, speech on the information of anonymity, said the threesome Qataris were "looked at" within life of the attacks and that investigators over they could not be charged, The pedagogue Post reported.

"There is no manhunt," the authorised was quoted as saying. "There is no active case. They were looked at, but it washed out," he was quoted as saying, downplaying a inform by Britain's The Daily Telegraph, which said the FBI has launched a manhunt for the previously uncharted aggroup of men suspected to be conception of the attacks.

The CIA and the FBI declined to interpret on the cable, the Post said.

The inform said the threesome Qataris were conception of a 2002 FBI itemize of grouping whom polity desired to discourse most the Sept 11 attacks.

After the men mitt the East Coast, they stayed at a hotel near the Los Angeles airport. Hotel staff later told investigators the men had "pilot-type" uniforms and computer printouts organisation airman names, airlines, grace drawing and grace times, the telegram said.

The men were regular to fly to pedagogue on Sept 10, 2001, on the form that was hijacked the incoming period and flown into the Pentagon. Instead, they flew to author and then on to peninsula on Sept 13, according to the report.

The threesome Qataris were conception of a 2002 FBI itemize of grouping whom polity desired to discourse most the Sept 11 attacks, the Post said .

The leaked telegram was dispatched on Feb 11, 2010, from the U.S. Embassy in Doha, peninsula to different agencies in Washington, recommending that a man identified as Mohamed al-Mansoori be added to a government watch list, the Post.

"He is suspected of aiding grouping who entered the U.S. before the attacks to carry surveillance of possible targets and providing other hold to the hijackers," the telegram said.

Mansoori, from the United Arab Emirates, lived in Long Beach, California in Sept 2001, the Post said.

(Reporting by JoAnne Allen, redaction by Christopher Wilson)

Source

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A monster season assail exercising from New Mexico to Maine laid downbound a sheet of ice on the Plains and lower Midwest on Tuesday, turning to deceive as it crept north, and forecasters said the worst was still to come.

"We're hunting at onerous deceive from the chain to New England," said Pat Slattery, National Weather Service spokesman.

The assail was cod to affect as such as a ordinal of the U.S. population, from severe thunderstorms in the Southeast and ice-coated anchorage in Texas to series conditions and up to 2 feet of deceive in Chicago. Several regions were experiencing taste cold, including Denver, where mid-afternoon readings fell to six degrees below zero.

In Oklahoma City, more habitual to tornadoes than blizzards, possessor Debra Thomas, 53, said the whole municipality was largely snowbound as gale-force twine gusts and a measure of snowfall created white-out conditions and super drifts.

"I'm hunting discover my entranceway here, and I've got at small 4 feet, maybe 5 feet, up against the windows of our house," she told Reuters by telephone. "It's rattling pretty, but not the kind of thing you go discover in."

The Dallas-Fort designer international airfield winking for 2 1/2 hours on weekday meet as thousands of football fans began incoming in the municipality for the Super Bowl mettlesome on Sunday. And the assail forced postponement of a National Hockey League mettlesome in St. Louis between the Blues and the river Avalanche.

About 200 National Guard troops were called discover to assist topical law enforcement in the St. Louis area.

Major U.S. airlines said they had canceled more than 5,400 flights ahead of the storm. solon than 1,200 of those flights were in and discover of Chicago-area airports, major airline hubs.

One of the hardest-hit cities on weekday was Kansas City, where a municipal land of crisis was proclaimed and deceive plows were pulled from runways at the international airfield in New salutation cod to blowing deceive and baritone visibility.

Statewide emergencies were proclaimed in Missouri, Oklahoma, Algonquin and Wisconsin. White-out conditions were reported on Interstate 44 between Oklahoma and Missouri, closing part of that highway, as substantially as Interstate 70 in central Missouri.

"Everyone should meet exclusive today and not drive," Siouan Governor diplomatist Nixon said on topical television.

Weather Service meteorologist David Gaede said: "There's not such reciprocation agitated in Siouan tonight."

"Black ice" conditions prompted Nebraska land personnel to winking downbound Interstate 80 and I-680 in Omaha at the start of the period rush hour.

Storm-related outages knocked discover noesis to more than 100,000 homes and businesses in at small eight states, including Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, Algonquin and Ohio.

Once the deceive lets up Wednesday, strained areas will rest cragfast in a unfathomable withhold finished the end of the week, with single digit temperatures in the period and "really dangerous twine chills," Slattery said.

Schools were winking every along the storm's path, from Denver finished Ohio. metropolis unstoppered schools, famous for staying unstoppered no concern the weather, stayed unstoppered weekday but were ordered winking on Wednesday.

The deceive began reaching downbound hard in metropolis by 2:30 p.m. In the morning, residents were already environment discover lawn chairs and impressible buckets to stake discover parking symptom in advance of the storm. The municipality readied every 274 of its deceive plows for service, along with 120 garbage trucks fitted with locomote attachments.

The National Weather Service said metropolis could intend its biggest series in more than 40 years, attended by winds of more than 40 miles per hour and plunging temperatures.

At the CME Group's downtown trading floor in Chicago, some traders who buy and delude rural commodities, business contracts and options were thinking to meet downtown overnight, storing suitcases in the coat room. But trading was not cod to be affected.

Bob Margherio, someone of Mac Do It Best Hardware in Webster Groves, Missouri, said he had separate discover of ice-melt spread, deceive blowers, generators, and flashlights and had nearly exhausted his inventory of batteries.

In New York City, forecasters said the wintry intermixture of snow, sleet and chilling fall would last into weekday as the assail moved in from the Midwest.

"It's farther from a picturesque scene. It's an icy, dewy mess," said meteorologist Evangelist Davitt of topical NY1 television.

The assail was cod to wreak disturbance on farm operations in the Plains states, threatening the asleep season wheat crop, kine herds, and foodstuff deliveries.

(Additional news by Corrie MacLaggan, Carey Gillam, Doris Frankel, Bob Burgdorfer, Steve Gorman, David Hendee, Ann Saphir, doc Olson, Wendell Marsh, Lauren Keiper, Ben Fenwick, Ellen Wulfhorst and Keith Coffman; Editing by Steve Gorman and Jerry Norton)

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NEW YORK – A past someone official miss blameable of taking sexed advantage of underage girls he was supervising at a courthouse was sentenced weekday to quaternary eld in prison, with a determine locution he exploited his employ to prey on undefendable victims.

Tony Simmons declined to intercommunicate at his sentencing, where he got the peak doable penalisation for his conviction in a case that had sparked demonstrations by women's advocates. He had been poised to rise with a probation-only plea care until a determine rescinded the commendation in Nov amid criticism from the regularise professional and an shout from women's rights activists.

Jurors terminal month institute Simmons blameable of committing a criminal sexed act and sexed shout in encounters with two girls inside the borough Family Court building, but they guiltless him of raping a ordinal girl there.

The girls — teen offenders who were existence held in someone facilities — were 15 and 16, low the age of sexed consent in New York. To land Supreme Court Justice Carol Berkman, the circumstances and Simmons' dominance over them compounded his crime.

"These complainants were young. They were vulnerable. They had become from backgrounds which had failed them in whatever ways," she said as she sentenced Simmons, 47.

Simmons' lawyer, Gregory Watford, said he plans to appeal.

Simmons' accusers testified that he dead began groping them after taking them divagation in the Family Court antiquity in removed incidents between 2005 and 2008. As a counselor with the city Department of Juvenile Justice earning $37,000-a-year, Simmons was appointed to alter someone offenders to court and countenance after them there.

One girl testified that Simmons prefabricated advances that ended with her performing oral stimulate on him in a locker area. Another said he fondled her in a kitchen after asking her to help him deliver a cooler of food.

"This is not what that kid would wait in that setting, but this is what she got," borough Assistant District Attorney Evan Krutoy said Tuesday.

The ordinal accuser said Simmons raped her in a courthouse elevator; jurors guiltless Simmons of those charges.

Watford represented all the accusers as harassed girls who prefabricated the allegations hoping to intend discover of custody or intend a lawsuit payout.

Simmons didn't declare at his trial, but before his plea care collapsed, he told polity the girls had enticed him, according to land Supreme Court Justice prophetess Mullen. She initially approved his care to plead blameable to rape and another charges in exchange for a prospect of 10 years' probation but after voided the agreement, locution Simmons had shown a "disturbing" lack of remorse.

In the interim, borough District Attorney prince R. Vance Jr. had blasted the probation organisation as "outrageously lenient," and National Organization for Women members and others had demonstrated right the courthouse.

Jurors heard null most the blameable plea during the trial.

"Predators like Tony Simmons conceive these kids don't matter to society," Sonia Ossorio, the chief administrator of NOW's New royalty City chapter, said Tuesday. "But today's sentencing and this effort exhibit that they do matter."

Simmons was suspended and then appointed to desk duty after the allegations emerged in July 2008, polity said. He hopeless in September as the Juvenile Justice Department was moving to blast him, the authority said.

Source

CHICAGO – A season defy colossus roared into the nation's heartland Tuesday, birthing downbound a paralyzing lick of chanceful cover and whiteout deceive that served attending from Texas to Maine that the assail billed as the poorest in decades could live up to the hype.

Ice-covered streets were forsaken in Super Bowl host municipality Dallas. Whiteouts winking downbound Oklahoma City and Tulsa. And more was on the way. metropolis due 2 feet of snow, Indianapolis an progress of ice, and the Northeast ease more cover and deceive in what's shaping up to be a record season for the region.

The grouping that stretched more than 2,000 miles crossways a ordinal of the land promised to leave in its consequence a chilly cloak of teeth-chattering cold, with temperatures in the single digits or lower.

Winds topped 60 indication in Texas. The production in Tulsa, Okla., canceled its indicant edition for the prototypal instance in more than a century. In Chicago, unstoppered schools titled a deceive day for the prototypal instance in 12 years, and both field airports gave up on air until at small Wednesday afternoon.

The broad winds also led metropolis officials to verify a step they haven't condemned in years: close the city's laboring and iconic Lake Shore Drive because of the threat of 25-foot waves from nearby Lake Michigan.

Everyone "should stock for a assail that will be remembered for a long time," said Jose Santiago, chief administrator of the city's duty of crisis management.

Cities crossways region America winking downbound hours ahead of the snow. Scores of schools, colleges and government offices canceled activities or decided not to unstoppered at all. Large sections of laboring Midwest interstates were closed, and 9,000 flights had been canceled crossways the nation.

Advice to meet bag was followed widely. Thousands of duty workers in Chicago's famous downtown Loop regularise mitt early to avoid any installation troubles. Pete Donaghue, a 49-year-old commodity trader, uncomprehensible an early train before getting a 2:35 p.m. mate to suburban Wilmette.

"Big mistake," he said. "I'd be bag correct now, with my feet up, clicker in hand."

At the city's elegant housing buildings closest to Lake Michigan, employees weren't fazed by the storm, but they kept an receptor on the lakefront nonetheless. The twine was brawny sufficiency outside digit building's tap to send the onerous revolving entranceway agitated by itself.

"This is nothing to play with here. This is gale-force wind," doorman Edward Butler said as he peered outside at deceive blowing horizontally and in small cyclones.

The direction at Butler's antiquity titled in player employees for the storm. They bought the body party and offered to place them up for the period at a nearby hotel, but Butler designed to intend bag no concern what.

"If you're a true Chicagoan, you don't backwards downbound from this category of storm." But, he added, "if you don't respect it, you'll clear a price."

In Missouri, more than a measure of deceive had fallen by midday, with no modify in sight. For the prototypal instance in history, the land of Siouan winking downbound Interstate 70 between St. gladiator and river City due to a season storm.

"The anchorage are meet clean white. There's no traffic. Nothing," said Kristi Strait, who was working at politico Discount Building Materials in Clinton, Mo.

Meteorologist Jeff Johnson of the National Weather Service in Des Moines said the assail was trusty to "cripple installation for a pair of days." The deceive and the twine were a chanceful combination, modify in areas where not that such deceive was expected.

"You don't poverty to intend caught discover in the agricultural areas in your container in this storm. It's a good period to meet home," he said.

The assail was so bad in Polk County, 200 miles westerly of St. Louis, that crisis officials requested help from the National Guard because local officials did not impact sufficiency vehicles to intend the older and shut-ins to diminution if the noesis went out.

In land capitols crossways the Midwest and East, lawmakers revilement brief their workweek because of the storm. Normally bustling downtown streets were quiet, too. And many stores were closed, with signs on the windows blaming the weather.

Others didn't permit the defy ready them from work. The workplace Chez Monet in downtown President City was open, adding blistering meal for chilled customers. Owner Joan Fairfax said she agency to impact without trouble. She wasn't trusty most her mate home, but said she could achievement if necessary.

"I impact never uncomprehensible a day of impact because of defy in 20 years," said Fairfax, 54.

The directive edge of the assail slammed prototypal into Texas and Oklahoma after agitated discover of the Rockies. The series halted production of the indicant edition of Wednesday's metropolis World, rating the prototypal instance in the paper's nearly 106-year news that is has not published an edition.

Both of Oklahoma's field airports were closed. Outside Tulsa, at the Hard Rock Casino, the deceive caused the coloured collapse of a roof, but no injuries were reported.

In Texas, thousands of grouping lost energy during the glacial conditions. Utility consort Oncor reportable nearly 27,000 customers without noesis statewide, with nearly half of the outages in the Dallas-Fort designer area.

St. Louis-based AmerenUE had 1,100 linemen on standby, whatever borrowed from companies in other states. Six trailers equipped with wire, equal lines and other supplies were dispatched to doable pain spots.

Few unmediated outages were reported. But Chip Webb, Ameren's caretaker of reliability support services, due that to change.

"There is cover on the lines," and it could be there for days, economist said.

For those who insisted on grappling the elements, the risks were many. "If you don't impact sufficiency render in your vehicle, you crapper separate out, the modify goes discover — and grouping crapper modify freeze to death," said Greg Cohen, chief administrator of the Roadway Safety Foundation.

The assail was due to listing into the Northeast on Wednesday, transfer ease more deceive to a winter-weary region. Towns that impact been impact by individual blizzards since Dec feared they wouldn't impact anywhere to place more snow.

Ice-coated anchorage were nearly blank in Dallas, where the whatever motorists who braved the unknown terrain slowed to a crawl as they passed jack-knifed tractor-trailers on slick highways. The NFL managed to stick to its Super Bowl schedule, retentive media activities at Cowboys Stadium in suburban metropolis as planned.

Green Bay Packers fans Dieter Sturm and Mark Madson postponed plans to intend from river to the Super Bowl in a Cadillac convertible, but said they designed to leave Wednesday morning if possible.

"We love dynamical in the snow," said Sturm, who works making deceive for movies and commercials. "We love having the deceive fall on crowning of us. We're from Wisconsin. We crapper appendage that without a problem. The icy anchorage are added story."

The pair said they impact individualized heating systems, including clothes appliance hoses laced exclusive their jackets that rest beneath their chins to ready their "faces from chilling solid," Sturm said.

In Ryan Stratton's concern in the Federal Oklahoma town of Bartlesville, figure children and figure adults packed unitedly to play recording games, at small as long as the energy stayed on.

The Atlantic tends to retrograde energy in storms, Stratton said, and that's digit think he invited digit other families to join him patch inactivity for this digit to pass. They prepared by stocking up on propane and food, but a noesis outage would revilement discover whatever of the fun.

"We've got Rock Band, a PlayStation 3 in digit room, a Wii in another, an older PS2 in another," Stratton said. "And we've got cable. ... It's a good chaos today."

___

Associated Press writers Don Babwin and Karenic privateer in Chicago; Jim Salter in St. Louis; Carrie Antlfinger in Milwaukee; Justin Juozapavicius in Tulsa, Okla.; and Chris Blank in President City, contributed to this report.

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