Colorado, Wyoming slowly return to normal after huge blizzard

DENVER -- Travelers who spent two nights on couches and floors began flying out of Denver's airport Thursday as Colorado dug out of its worst blizzard in 90 years.

"I was willing to go anywhere," said Terri Weger of Sumner, Ind., who waited in line for 4 1/2 hours at Denver International Airport before getting a ticket. Flights were limited because only two of the airport's five runways were open.

The storm that began Tuesday dropped up to 7 feet of snow over a swath of nearly 500 miles, paralyzing the home of more than 3.5 million people. At least three people died.

Despite the clear skies and temperatures climbing into the 40s on Thursday, many Colorado and Wyoming residents remained snowbound because residential streets packed with 5- and 6-foot drifts made passage nearly impossible. Abandoned vehicles, some buried in snow, were still scattered across metropolitan Denver.

Brian Headley, 34, shoveled a path through an alley to wheel his outdoor coffee cart to a downtown Denver intersection.

"After being snowed in for two days, I was ready to dig this out with a teaspoon if I had to," he said.

Most schools remained closed, but mail delivery resumed, some businesses reopened and leaders of both states were back in their capitols.

Most interstates were reopened Thursday, but a 60-mile stretch of Interstate 70 west of Denver remained closed because of avalanche danger. Some area residents were asked to leave their homes as a precaution while transportation crews set off explosives to trigger slides and lessen the danger.

Officials warned that avalanche danger along the Front Range was extreme, including in Rocky Mountain National Park where 8 1/2 feet of snow fell.

About 300 skiers stranded since Tuesday at a ski area outside Boulder were rescued after crews cleared a road blocked by an avalanche.

Emergency officials predicted flooding problems once the snow started melting.

"That's a major concern. The drains are snowpacked and overwhelmed now," said Stacy Stegman, a spokeswoman for the state's emergency management office.

The massive snowfall brought much-needed moisture to a region entering its fourth year of drought.

The snowpack in the Rockies, which provides the bulk of the water supply to Colorado's population center, went from inadequate to near or above 100 percent of average. The snow also will make a big difference for farmers to the east who had faced the prospect of fallow fields.

"That's a billion-dollar storm," said Bill Ullmann, senior agriculturist for the Western Sugar Cooperative in Fort Morgan.

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, who spent two snow days catching up on paperwork, also appreciated the water.

"This is a wonderful storm, it was a delight to have it and if we can have a few more the inconvenience of schedule is a small price to pay," Freudenthal said.