Metrodome Collapses; NFL Reschedules Vikings - Giants Game

Dec. 13, 2010— -- Harsh weather has caused massive road closures across the Midwest, caused the cancellation of all inbound and outbound flights in a number of Midwestern airports and has collapsed the Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minn.

The roof panels of the 28-year-old Metrodome started giving way around 5 a.m. yesterday morning and deflated after the storm, which dumped more than 17 inches of snow on the city, Chairman of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission Roy Terwilliger told ABC News affiliate KSTP in Minneapolis - St. Paul.

Video of the collapse from inside the stadium showed the inflatable roof ripping open with large amounts of snow falling on the field.

Terwilliger says this has only happened three other times in the Metrodome history, the last being on April 14, 1983.

A Sunday NFL football game between the New York Giants and the Minnesota Vikings had already been delayed, as the Giants were stranded in Kansas City, unable to reach Minneapolis after the Twin Cities' airport was closed.

NFL Spokesperson Greg Aiello says the league has been informed by stadium officials that the Metrodome will not be available Monday or Tuesday. The game has been rescheduled for Monday at Ford Field in Detroit, Mich.

Bill Lester, executive director of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, told KSTP that a crew that had been working to clear snow off the Metrodome's roof was pulled off late Saturday night due to safety concerns.

Workers were being kept out of the Metrodome for safety reasons Sunday morning, but crews were back on top of it late Sunday morning clearing snow.

A blizzard warning was in effect Sunday for Chicago and much of northern Illinois, all of Iowa, large sections of southern Minnesota and Wisconsin, and smaller areas in North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri and Michigan, according to the National Weather Service.