Snowstorm paralyzes Rockies

DENVER -- Denver's worst blizzard in at least two decades paralyzed parts of Colorado and Wyoming for a second day Wednesday, closing the city's biggest airport, stranding thousands of travelers and leaving as much as 6 feet of snow in the mountains.

National Guard troops were sent to rescue stranded motorists.

Almost 5 feet of wet, heavy flakes fell Wednesday at Denver International Airport, ripping its fabric roof and forcing officials to move nearly 4,000 people stranded by the storm out of the main terminal.

The storm, which lumbered into Colorado with rain turning to snow Monday and Tuesday, was heading slowly east and expected to taper off later Wednesday, one of the final days of winter. A blizzard warning remained in effect from the Colorado-Wyoming line to New Mexico.

The snow was blamed for at least one traffic death, recorded in Wyoming. Interstate 70 remained closed from the Rockies almost to the Kansas line. To the north in Wyoming, interstates 25 and 80 remained closed, isolating Cheyenne and other communities.

Around the region, gusts whipped snow into drifts that blocked streets and driveways, turning abandoned cars and trucks into marshmallowy mounds.

Laramie County Sheriff Danny Glick did not even try to get to work from his home on the prairie about 15 miles east of town.

"I can walk on top of my barn," he said. Stranded inside were chickens, geese -- and the heavy equipment he needed to use to dig through the 9-foot drifts.

Instead, he turned to an old-fashioned method. "It's called a shovel," he said.

The Colorado National Guard sent 21 Humvees to rescue stranded motorists. In some cities, police ticketed motorists who didn't have a good reason to be out.

Silver lining

Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., was stranded near the Denver airport but found the storm's silver lining: "We've had such a terrible drought, and this will help with our water situation."

Both states needed the moisture after months of drought conditions.

Travelers filled up motels along the closed interstates, and hundreds of truck drivers slept in their rigs.

In the mountains west of Denver, wind swept 6-foot snow accumulations into 8-foot drifts. The American Red Cross turned four public buildings into shelters for 350 motorists in Idaho Springs, 35 miles west of Denver.

Denver International remained closed Wednesday. About 3,700 travelers who spent the night sleeping on the floor, couches and cots were moved to a separate concourse as a precaution after a tear several hundred feet long was discovered in the Teflon-coated, Fiberglas roof of the main terminal.

Among the travelers stuck there was the University of Vermont men's basketball team, headed to Salt Lake City for its first-ever NCAA tournament. They were slated to play Arizona on Thursday.

The storm brought back memories of the December 1982 blizzard, which dropped two feet of snow on Denver in 24 hours.

, making major streets impassable for several days.

The Colorado Legislature canceled its session Wednesday, and most other government offices and businesses were also closed.

At least 200 people were stranded at the Greyhound bus station in downtown Denver. The roof collapsed on a downtown nightclub and a 25,000-square-foot warehouse in northeast Denver, the Fire Department said.

The 16 inches of snow that fell on the Cheyenne airport Tuesday broke a single-day record for that date; the previous record of 11.5 inches dated to 1979.

"What we're seeing now is the wind as far as keeping it messy," said Bill Parker, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Cheyenne.

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On the Net:

Weather warnings: http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin/nationalwarnings.html