Travel was snarled and schools were closed across the midwest as officials struggled to dig out from the storm which dumped up to two feet (66 centimeters) of snow and whipped up powerful winds and massive drifts.

Minnesota was among the hardest hit by the days-long storm, and the heavy snow even caused the roof of its famed Metrodome football stadium to collapse.

Nobody was hurt when the roof sank like a souffle, tore open and dumped a blanket of snow onto the green field Sunday morning. But the Minnesota Vikings were forced to reschedule Sunday's game against the New York Giants to Monday evening in Detroit.

Meanwhile, strong winds and thick, wet snow continued to cause white out conditions and coat highways with a sheen of ice and slush.

Roads were littered with abandoned cars and trucks that had careened into the ditch or gotten stuck in heavy drifts.

Conditions were particularly bad in northern Indiana where the relatively warm waters of Lake Michigan whipped up even more snow on Monday.

Even some of the plows were getting stuck, and those which could get through were often blocked by abandoned cars which had been covered in snow drifts, said Deputy Patrick Drangmeister of the LaPorte Indiana sheriff's department.

"We've got a backlog of getting people off the roads - I've got about 50 pending calls right now," Drangmeister told AFP around midday Monday.

"There are still people still stuck from overnight."

Gale force winds also forced the closure of part of Chicago's Lakeshore Drive after whipping up waves as high as 28 feet (8.5 meters) which coated the shorefront and poured onto the nearby roadway.

Winter weather advisories were issued from the Great Lakes to the Appalachian mountains and as far south as the Carolinas as the storm moved eastward.

A deep low pressure system following in the storm's wake funneled Arctic air all the way to Virginia and the national weather service warned of dangerously cold temperatures.

"It's been terrible all weekend," said Pat Slattery, a spokesman for the National Weather Service.

"The wind really compounds the temperatures and makes it really dangerous."

Wind gusts of up to 60 miles an hour have also formed massive snow drifts that are "packed hard as a rock" and cause extremely dangerous driving conditions, he told AFP.

"In one particular instance a guy was driving his car stayed on top of the snow, drove over a drift which was over a guard rail on a bridge and he ended up going over it."

While the driver survived, Slattery said these kinds of drifts can be extremely deceptive to drivers because people don't know they've driven off the road until the snow gives way.

earlier related report
Blizzard rocks US Midwest
Chicago (AFP) Dec 12, 2010 - A fierce early winter storm pounded several Midwestern US states Sunday, shutting busy airports and highways and dropping enough snow to cause the roof of Minnesota's famed Metrodome football stadium to collapse.

Icy temperatures, and brutal snow and winds punished the upper Midwest, snarling travel across about half the United States as the storm barreled eastward.

Highways around the region were coated with a layer of ice and snow, while stiff winds caused occasional white outs in some areas.

The Chicago Department of Aviation said that 1,400 flights were canceled and more were likely to be scuttled.

Airlines at the city's O'Hare International Airport reported delays of 45 minutes or more for arriving and departing flights.

At Chicago's Midway Airport meanwhile, delays were about half an hour, and some 300 flights were canceled.

The storm dumped 17 inches (43 centimeters) on Minneapolis, causing the roof of the Metrodome -- home of the Minnesota Vikings American football team to cave in and forcing a postponement and venue change for its scheduled game against the New York Giants.

The stadium's inflatable roof sagged like a collapsed souffle when the snow's weight damaged some of the covering's teflon panels.

Forecasters said the blizzard conditions were on their way to Chicago and northern Illinois, Iowa, and large tracts of Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota.

The storm -- 10 days before the onset of winter -- took its greatest toll in Minnesota, where as much as two feet (61 centimeters) of snow had fallen in some locations, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

The state's largest city Minneapolis was under a blanket of white 17 inches (43 cm) deep, the heaviest snowfall to hit the city in more than 19 years and the fifth-biggest on record.

As an indicator of the storm's severity, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport -- a transit hub with expertise in contending with foul weather -- shut down for the first time in years.

"Travel conditions will remain hazardous and potentially dangerous," the NWS said in a weather bulletin.

Blizzard warnings were issued for parts of Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin as snow socked the states in tandem with wind gusts topping 45 miles (72 kilometers) per hour.

Roads in much of Wisconsin and Iowa have been closed or virtually impassible, and while snowfall was expected to let up later Sunday, temperatures were predicted to nosedive with wind chill readings well below zero (minus 18 degrees Celsius).

"The Wisconsin Department of Transportation along with the State Patrol is advising motorists not to travel on any Wisconsin highway now through Sunday, unless absolutely necessary," the department alerted on its website.

Travel was as treacherous on the ground as in the air.

Snowfall was not due to be as deep in Chicago, but the Windy City was expected to live up to its nickname, with gusts stronger than 50 miles (80 km) per hour forecast.

Flight delays were averaging about an hour at Chicago's O'Hare International, the world's third busiest airport, with minor delays at nearby Midway Airport.

The storm was causing temperatures to plunge as far south as Atlanta and the system was expected to bring heavy rain or snow Sunday across the entire East Coast, from the northeast state of Maine clear down to southern Florida.

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