Weather Woes Continue to Blanket Northwest
Highways close as snow and ice batters the Northwest and Midwest.
Dec. 26, 2008— -- Talk about a white Christmas week.
Airline traffic cleared out Friday after a week of delays and cancellations, but on Christmas, the Pacific Northwest got battered with another round of powerful snow and ice storms for the 11th day in a row, and there was no break for residents in the Midwest as an icy rain passed through the Chicago area.
More highways were closed in the western part of the country as snow piled up and officials told residents in some parts of the Midwest to hunker down as concerns about flooding grew.
The effect of the severe weather was illustrated across Washington state, where some structures collapsed under the weight of frozen ice and massive snow.
In Spokane, Wash., where residents have experienced the snowiest December on record, Sue Shaw, the owner of a gardening store, got an unwelcome Christmas surprise when the nursery's roof caved in, damaging its merchandise.
But Shaw said it could have been much worse.
"We were so lucky because tomorrow is our huge day-after-Christmas sale. People line up at five and six in the morning, and there would've been like hundreds of people on that one side that collapsed, and I'm sure people would have died," Shaw said.
Just five hours west, in Olympia, Wash., more than 2,500 feet of a high school roof caved in, causing massive damage. Again, no one was injured.
The snowy mess made for difficult driving conditions across much of the West. Officials closed an 80-mile stretch of Interstate 80 for several hours Thursday because of treacherous road conditions. The highway is the main link between Northern California and Nevada.
Many Oregon residents spent Christmas in the dark, as severe weather had knocked out power.
Nearly 10 feet of snow fell in the Tahoe region in the last two weeks -- a boon for ski resorts but a hassle for drivers.
"There's probably a little more on the way from what I understand, but we're anticipating a lot of skiers up here this weekend," said John Monson of Sugar Bowl Ski Resort in Norden, Calif.
