Flights canceled at Denver as snowstorm sweeps over Rockies

~ Parts of the metro area were under more than a foot of snow by Friday morning.

DENVER -- The second big wintry storm of the holidays socked Colorado on Friday, disrupting air and highway travel, shutting down businesses and threatening to dump as much as 2 feet of snow on streets that never got plowed the last time.

At Denver International, the nation's fifth-busiest airport, the major airlines canceled 15 percent to 20 percent of their flights Friday morning -- more than 300 departures -- to ease congestion as the snow deepened.

But officials were optimistic they would avoid a rerun of the pre-Christmas blizzard that unloaded 2 feet of snow and shut down the vaunted "all-weather" airport for two days, stranding 4,700 passengers and snarling holiday travel around the country.

'Something we can handle'

The current storm is expected to be spread out over two or three days, making it easier for snowplows to keep up. Parts of the metropolitan area were under more than a foot by Friday morning, and up to a foot more was expected by Saturday.

"That's something we can handle," Frontier Airlines spokesman Joe Hodas said.

A weather slowdown at Denver has relatively little nationwide ripple effect on airlines other than United and Frontier, which account for 80 percent of Denver's traffic, said David Castelveter of the Air Transport Association, an industry group.

The New Year's weekend was extended by a day Friday as government offices and businesses closed in Denver and other Colorado cities.

A 200-mile stretch of Interstate 70, the main east-west highway through the state, was closed from Denver to Colby, Kan. Greyhound canceled all bus trips out of Denver.

Colorado Gov. Bill Owens again declared a state of emergency, putting the National Guard on standby. During the previous storm, troops rescued motorists and delivered diapers, blankets and baby formula to stranded travelers at the airport.

'It's been crazy'

At the airport, check-in counters that had been packed Thursday with travelers rushing to beat the storm had normal lines Friday morning.

Chris Malmay of San Diego hoped to spend a long holiday with family in Colorado, but because of the first storm, he could not reach Denver until Christmas Eve. On Thursday, his flight back to California was canceled because of the second storm.

"It's been crazy," Malmay said as he waited to board a plane Friday. "I'm saying, 'Please let me go back where it's sunny. You won't get snowed in, I promise.'"

The storm stretched across the Rocky Mountains into the western Plains, where forecasters warned that the gusts could whip up blinding whiteouts.

In New Mexico, Interstate 40 was closed from Albuquerque to Santa Rosa, and numerous crashes were reported, after a storm swept through.

More than an inch of snow per hour fell Friday morning in Kansas. Forecasters predicted 15 to 20 inches in some areas.

The 7 inches of snow that had fallen in Cheyenne, Wyo., by Friday morning gave the city 24 inches total in December, topping its nearly century-old record of 21.4 inches for the month.