Blizzard wallops Colorado

Snowstorm dumps 20 inches, snarling roads, closing DIA

John C. Ensslin, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 21, 2006 at midnight

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A paralyzing blizzard swept across the Front Range on Wednesday, dumping 20 inches of snow, grinding traffic to a near halt, shuttering Denver International Airport and prompting Gov. Bill Owens to declare a state of emergency.

With as much as 3 feet of total snow forecast by the time the storm dies down late this morning - a blizzard warning is in effect until noon - travel may not be much better today.

On the eve of the first day of winter, blowing snow whipped across the Colorado Plains and along the Front Range at speeds of more than 35 mph, creating whiteout conditions and havoc along major highways:

• Interstate 70 was closed from Airport Road in Denver all the way east to Kansas.

• After numerous crashes along its length, Interstate 25 eventually shut down from Wyoming to New Mexico.

• So many accidents choked U.S. 36 near Sheridan Boulevard that Broomfield police closed the highway.

• RTD bus commuters reported being stranded for hours on various routes, with the transit agency finally canceling all bus service at 7 p.m.

At DIA, meanwhile, authorities closed the airfield for the first time since the Blizzard of 2003.

Owens' disaster declaration activated the National Guard to help the Colorado State Patrol rescue and assist stranded drivers.

About 100 soldiers were assigned blizzard duty, said Maj. Gen. Mason Whitney, adjutant general for the Colorado National Guard.

"The biggest thing we can provide is rescue operations for those stranded on the road and transport supplies. We have a mission at DIA taking food and water for those stranded," he said. "We'll be on duty for as long as it requires."

He said Guard members in Humvees were taking Red Cross cots and blankets to a shelter in Westminster for stranded motorists.

"There's a lot of motorists stranded along some of those highways," he said. "I'm sure we'll receive missions throughout the night."

Hundreds of cars abandoned

Just about every agency from the National Weather Service to RTD delivered the same message: Unless travel was absolutely necessary, don't even think about it. Most people paid heed.

In Broomfield, the food court at the FlatIron Crossing and the city recreation center were converted into shelters for stranded motorists.

The Mile High Chapter of the American Red Cross opened seven emergency shelters, as well as providing aid to travelers at DIA and the Greyhound bus station in downtown Denver.

By midafternoon, the situation on the roads became so dire that the State Patrol issued a temporary order to tow and remove any stranded vehicles from all state or interstate highways. The order remains in effect through 2 p.m. today.

The situation was particularly bad on Colorado's eastern Plains, where wind-driven snow was blinding.

Huerfano County sheriff's deputies spent several hours rescuing more than 250 people trapped on Interstate 25, said spokesman Pete Ortega.

Ortega estimated that 300 to 350 vehicles were abandoned on the 35-mile stretch of I-25 in the county. The people who were rescued had to leave their cars behind, Ortega said.

There was a noontime chain-reaction crash involving about 20 cars on I-25 near the Academy Boulevard exit in northern Colorado Springs, the State Patrol reported. Five people were injured, but authorities had no word on their condition.

The state Department of Transportation shifted into triage mode, with 880 pieces of snow removal equipment working key arteries. Crews were put on 12-hours shifts.

"At this time, there is not a dry road in Colorado," CDOT spokeswoman Stacy Stegman reported at 1:30 p.m.

DIA brought to standstill

Hundreds of holiday passengers were stuck at DIA, where officials closed all runways as well as Peña Boulevard at 2:45 p.m. By then, more than 800 flights had been canceled. The airport said it expected to resume flights this evening.

Among the stranded were 117 passengers who spent eight hours stuck on the tarmac aboard an American Airlines 737 bound for Miami. The pilot ultimately decided to cancel the flight.

One passenger, Bob Kihm, was furious that the pilot had even attempted to depart.

"I can't believe that this cowboy even attempted to take off," he said. Kihm said he would have liked to have had the opportunity to take his family off the plane.

A spokesman for American Airlines defended the pilot's action as well as the ultimate decision to turn back.

"We feel like we made the right decision," spokesman Tim Wagner said. "It's a tough decision, but it's not a difficult decision for us to cancel a flight with the safety of the passengers in mind."

The passengers finally got back to the airport by 3:30 p.m., only to find themselves stranded there as well.

The multiple closures brought most of the Denver metro area to a dead halt. Only RTD light-rail operations were running into the evening, and even that on a limited schedule.

"We will operate trains as often as possible, but we will be running fewer trains," RTD spokesman Scott Reed said.

He said trains usually run until 2 a.m., but would continue to run through to the morning to keep them operational in the freezing temperatures.

The RTD station at Broadway and Colfax was practically empty with an hour to go until buses stopped running. Most riders had heeded warnings to head out early, an RTD employee said.

Sue Pass was one of them. But things didn't go quite the way she'd hoped.

"I've been trying to get to Brighton since 2:30," Pass said as the digital clock hanging above her ticked toward 6 p.m.

When Pass found out that her regular bus wouldn't be running until 5 p.m., she took another bus to Wagon Road, where she and other passengers waited for another bus.

Pass finally decided to take the last bus back to Denver, where she caught the last "R" bus at 6 p.m. back to the Adams County Justice Center in Brighton.

Sporting events canceled

Several post offices were closed and events ranging from the Denver Nuggets-Phoenix Suns basketball game to the Colorado Ballet's performance of the Nutcracker were scratched.

Most major metro-area schools also closed for the day and several government offices packed it in early. The holiday lights at the Denver City and County Building were on, but activity there had ceased by mid-day.

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper said at an evening news briefing at the city's Office of Emergency Management: "Nature threw a full left hook in your chin."

With temperatures expected to hover near freezing through the weekend, the outlook for a white Christmas in Colorado seemed a sure bet.

The snow created a small windfall for some of Denver's homeless. Udi Baron, owner of Udi's Breads, found himself stuck with about 100 sandwiches, 50 loaves of bread and several dessert trays after customers canceled their holiday parties because of the snow.

"We brought it to a couple of the shelters," Baron said. "We kind of spread it around downtown."

The blizzard lumbered northeast from New Mexico, quickly intensifying as the day wore on. Some areas reported snow falling at the rate of about an inch per hour.

The storm dropped off an early Christmas present for skiers in Durango, in the form of 19 inches of fresh powder.

"We've been waiting for a big storm to hit, so this was the best early Christmas present," Durango Mountain Resort spokeswoman Loryn Kasten said.

The blizzard warning is expected to lift at noon today, when the forecast calls for cloudy skies, snow showers and areas with blowing snow. The sun should peek out by afternoon.

But dress warmly. Temperatures are not expected to get any higher than the low 30s, with winds from the north at 15 to 25 mph.

Rosa Ramirez, Bianca Prieto, Dick Foster, Fernando Quintero, Lynn Bartels, Sara Burnett, Tillie Fong, Gary Gerhardt, Dick Foster, Mark Wolf and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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