It's baaaack! New Midwest storm spreads more havoc

The Twin Cities woke up grateful it's Presidents Day. If a snowstorm has to linger into a weekday, at least many of us do not have to slog through morning rush hour on this federal holiday.
Snow began falling midmorning Sunday and by late afternoon people in some parts of the Twin Cities couldn't see across the street. Up to 10 inches had accumulated in some southern suburbs by evening, according to weather reports. The winter storm warning that began Sunday morning is in effect until noon today.
Officials everywhere were encouraging residents to stay off the roads Sunday and early today, traveling only if absolutely necessary. Pavement quickly disappeared Sunday beneath a white blanket, and portions of Interstate 94 resembled a wind tunnel as veils of buffeting snow reduced visibility to a string of blurry, red tail-lights. The Minnesota Department of Transportation pulled plows off the roads in southwestern Minnesota because of the blowing snow but kept plows running in the metro area.
"We have about 200 plows out, and they'll be out all night," Transportation Department spokesman Kevin Gutknecht said Sunday night. "They're going to work to keep the roadways as clear as possible. Fortunately, it's a holiday, and there won't be as much traffic, and that's going to make it easier to remove the snow."
Minnesota State Patrol Lt. Eric Roeske said 211 crashes had been reported in the metro area by the dinner hour Sunday. More than two dozen resulted in injuries, though none was fatal. Minnesota Valley Transit Authority stopped bus service at 5:30 Sunday night in the south metro, where accumulations were higher, because buses could no longer navigate deep snow and move around the vehicles stuck along Cedar Avenue.
"I'm a little concerned about people trying to get home from work," said customer service manager Robin Selvig. "But we have to keep everybody safe. We assume we'll be up and running (today) for rush-hour trips."
The city of St. Paul declared a snow emergency Sunday night that remains in effect today. Day plow routes are being dug out, along with all nonposted residential streets running east-west and the nonposted side of north-south residential streets (details at stpaul.gov). The city issued a special plea for people to move their vehicles so operators can plow to the curb.
"It's harder and harder as the season goes on to keep these streets wide," said Shannon Tyree, speaking for St. Paul public works. "And it's important so our emergency vehicles can get through." Minneapolis had not declared an emergency as of Sunday evening, according to the city's Facebook page (which with 17,000 "friends" may be the most popular government entity in Minnesota).
Flights still were taking off and landing Sunday at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, but only two of four runways were in use, according to a spokesman.
Delta thinned the ranks of fliers as early as Friday by offering people booked on flights Sunday or today the chance to change their reservations without the usual fees. The airline canceled 275 departures on Sunday as of 7:30 p.m. — about two-thirds the regular schedule. Another 60 departures today had been canceled Sunday evening, said Delta spokesman Anthony Black. People flying today should check their flight status.
"We expect to see a slow startup," he said. "But we also expect to see improvement throughout the day."
The weather Sunday resulted in a mixed bag of cancellations. The University of Minnesota delayed opening its Twin Cities campus until noon Monday.
Many preschools and day cares and the few private schools that were in session today had canceled Sunday night. The St. Paul Area Council of Churches' canceled an evening benefit concert for its family homeless shelter, and even the Minnesota Youth Ski Club at Como Park decided not to meet and ski on the fresh snow Sunday afternoon.
Rock the Cradle, Minnesota Public Radio's popular program for children and families, went on as scheduled. And, one region that showed some signs of life Sunday afternoon was downtown St. Paul where men in kilts ducked into the Scottish Ramble with snow swirling around their bare legs.
Nearby Minnesota Wild fans scurried into Xcel Energy Center. "It takes more than this to keep us away," one called over his shoulder as he headed inside for the game.
At the Rainbow Foods in St. Paul's Midway neighborhood, manager Steve Indykiewicz said customers seem to have prepared and purchased all their necessities before the storm.
"Today's pretty normal," he said. "But yesterday was good. It was better than a normal Saturday."
Still, good luck finding road salt or other snowstorm supplies at the nearby Target — a manager there said it had been difficult the past few days to keep those necessities in stock.