Two dead as winter snowstorm sweeps across US Midwest

CHICAGO: A winter storm swept across the northern U.S. Midwest on Friday, dumping up to nine inches (23 cm) of snow on Chicago, killing at least two people and snarling hundreds of flights as it rolled east to threaten New York state and New England.

Chicago’s metropolitan area was blanketed with its heaviest snowfall since at least late 2016 as the storm put an icy grip on much of Wisconsin, northern Illinois and Michigan.

A man in his 60s died of a heart attack on Friday after he shoveled show, Keith Hartenberger, spokesman for Edward Hospital in Naperville, Illinois, said in a phone interview. A 33-year-old woman also died after a multi-vehicle crash on Friday near Fenton, Michigan, located south of Flint, Fenton police said.

The snow caused dozens of crashes on icy Chicago expressways as residents of the third-biggest U.S. city struggled to get to work and to dig out from a storm system that had stretched from Montana to Michigan.

“I hate you, Chicago!” Ieva Urbietyte, a 25-year-old customer service representative, said while cleaning snow off her car in the Windy City. “Thankfully we don’t have to do this all the time.”

Weather forecasters in Detroit warned that snowfall there could surpass one inch (2.5 cm) an hour as the system headed east.

At the Argus Farm Stop in nearby Ann Arbor, Michigan, several customers arrived on skis, and store manager Laura Barch said she was eager to get into her snowshoes.