BLIZZARD SHUTS DOWN DENVER AIRPORT Highways also closed

Posted on 03/24/2016 | About Denver, Colorado

A powerful spring blizzard has shut down Denver's airport, knocked out power and shut down hundreds of miles of highway in Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska as it spread into the Midwest on Wednesday.

Continued snow and blowing wind reduced visibility at Denver International Airport so much by midday Wednesday that officials said it was not safe for aircraft to take off or land. The road to the airport is impassable. Passengers already at the airport were told to stay there until the road was safe to drive again.

The closure came hours after long flight delays caused by power outages at the airport's fuel depot and deicing supply and the cancellation of about a third of the airport's daily flights.The wind and the heavy, wet snow typical for a spring storm also caused lights to flicker and knocked out power to many homes and businesses in the Denver area without power Wednesday.

The storm was hitting the eastern, flat halves of Colorado and Wyoming, shutting down Interstate 70 from near the Denver airport to the Kansas border, closing a 500-mile stretch of Interstate 80 in Wyoming into Nebraska as well as Interstate 25 in northern Colorado and Wyoming.“It's pretty much kicking our hineys,” Tim McGary of the Wyoming Department of Transportation said. “It's bad enough we can't keep up with it. 

That's why everything is closed.”Highway officials issued a rare order for drivers to stay off interstates in the Denver area unless they have chains, snow tires or four-wheel drive vehicles to avoid causing accidents. Normally, that's a warning issued for drivers in the mountains.In Wyoming, the Cheyenne Veterans Affairs Medical Center, which serves veterans who live up to 150 miles away, opened its doors late because of the storm.

Even politics has to take a snow day in Wyoming as Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and former President Bill Clinton both cancelled planned campaign events in the state.Wyoming Democratic Party Executive Director Aimee Van Cleave said it's disappointing that the events had to be cancelled but she was hopeful that both campaigns could reschedule visits before the April 9 party caucuses.

The system is moving to the northeast across the Plains and into Michigan.The worst effects of the storm were expected later in the day in South Dakota, but strong winds were in the forecast all day. 

Snow has been accumulating on roads in western Minnesota, but the storm is expected to track mostly south of the Twin Cities.