Colorado Snowed In Again

More than 2 feet of snow blanketed the foothills west of Denver in the area's second major storm in a week, hampering holiday travel and slowing business for merchants throughout the state, as forecasters Friday called for more snow through the weekend.

As he did during last week's blizzard, Gov. Bill Owens declared a statewide disaster emergency and state officials urged residents to remain home. At least seven counties and seven municipalities also declared disaster emergencies. Many government agencies and businesses were closed.

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper said the economic impact on the city could easily total several million dollars.

The Colorado State Patrol reported one storm-related traffic fatality, and part of a dairy barn roof in La Salle collapsed under the weight of an estimated 3 to 4 feet of snow. Two head were reported killed at the dairy, said Debbie Shelton, wife of dairy operator Ron Shelton.

"I'm getting too old for this," 49-year-old Doug Clements of Westminster joked as he shoveled snow outside Denver apartments where he works. "Last week was kind of fun," Clements said of the snow. "This one, I'm sick of it!"

At Denver International Airport, the major airlines canceled 20 percent of their flights Friday. But officials were optimistic they would avoid a rerun of the pre-Christmas blizzard that shut down the airport, stranding 4,700 passengers and snarling holiday travel around the country.

The current storm was expected to space snowfall over two or three days, making it easier for armies of snowplows at the airport and in cities all over the state to keep up.

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

Snow falling at up to 4 inches an hour covered Evergreen west of Denver with 28 inches of snow. State officials closed numerous highways, including Interstate 70 from just east of Denver to the Kansas state line, because of slick, icy conditions or accidents that took hours to clear. Interstate 25 southbound was closed at the New Mexico border.

The storm blew in Thursday and was expected to lumber off east into the Plains on Sunday. It piled 7 inches of snow on downtown Denver by Friday morning, 14 inches on Boulder and more than two feet farther west into the Rocky Mountain foothills. Up to another foot was expected in Denver by Saturday morning, up to 16 in the foothills and up to 10 inches on the Eastern Plains, where high winds were whipping the snow into high drifts.

"We have blizzard conditions," said Yuma County rancher Dean Wingfield.

In cities along the Front Range, crews were scraping sidewalks early Friday and private contractors were plowing parking lots after 16 inches of snow fell in the Denver metro area by morning in the second major storm in a week to blast the area.

Near Burlington, about 150 miles southeast of Denver, tow truck driver Joe C. Tatenhorst, 60, was killed after a car slid out of control and hit him and his parked truck Thursday night on Interstate 70, the Colorado State Patrol said. None of the four people in the car, all Denver residents, was injured.

South of there, Colorado National Guard troops were working to rescue an unknown number of stranded motorists in Baca and Prowers counties, the state Division of Emergency Management said. Among the vehicles stranded near Springfield were two tour buses, said division Director George Epp. He said passengers had been taken from the buses to shelters in the area.

"We're warm right now, so that's good," said David Watkins, a parent accompanying a youth group from Trietsch Memorial Methodist Church in Flower Mound, Texas, en route to Crested Butte for an annual ski trip.

He said the bus made an unscheduled stop in Springfield on Thursday night because of the weather and the bus slid off the road about 12 miles out of town Friday morning despite having chains on the tires. The group of 46 planned to spend the night at First United Methodist Church in town before deciding Saturday morning whether to try to make it to the ski resort.

Owens said conditions in southeastern Colorado, where the National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning, were dangerous. He said the state emergency operations center in Centennial would continue operating through at least noon Saturday depending on weather forecasts and conditions.

About 38,000 customers of Xcel Energy lost power at some point since the storm began Thursday, the utility said. Power had been restored to most customers by early Friday, spokesman Mark Stutz said.

While more snow was expected across wide swaths of the state, some agencies expected to avoid the problems that came with last week's blizzard, which dumped nearly 2 feet of snow in about 36 hours, virtually paralyzing the region and shutting down Denver's airport for 45 hours.

"Compared to the last snow, this is very, very different," said Scott Reed, spokesman for the Regional Transportation District that operates public transit for the six-county Denver metro area.

Last week's blizzard shut down bus service for more than a day and reduced light-rail service, but Reed said buses and trains were on a regular schedule Friday.

About 600 people spent the night at Denver's airport, not because they were stranded but because they wanted to get an early start, said airport spokesman Steve Snyder.

United and Frontier Airlines, which account for about 80 percent of traffic at the airport, canceled about 275 of their nearly 1,200 scheduled flights Friday.

Grocery stores around the Denver area were running short on eggs, bread and other staples, and many gas stations were out of some grades of gasoline as supply trucks were slowed by snowpacked and icy highways.

"You can see by the shelves, they're empty," said Ray Kwak, 70, who was shopping at a King Sooper's grocery store in Lakewood. "But they've got enough for us."

King Soopers brought in extra trucks to stock its stores, some of which were still feeling the effects of the last storm, company spokesman Trail Daugherty said.

Greyhound canceled all trips out of Denver on Friday and more cancelations could follow this weekend depending on the weather. The Red Cross said about 250 people were stranded at the bus service's station in downtown Denver, but Greyhound said only 50 stayed at the station. About 90 chose to go to shelters opened by the Red Cross, which housed about 600 people in 26 shelters statewide Thursday night.

Denver authorities, who'd warned they would tow cars parked on the city's snow emergency routes, ended up towing only three or four cars, said mayoral spokeswoman Sue Cobb.

Crews towed only when it was absolutely necessary to get a clear lane, she said.

"Our goal is not really to punish people but to get the streets open," Cobb said.

About 170 public and private vehicles — from plows to trucks fitted with blades — were clearing snow, but Manager of Public Works Bill Vidal said up to 45 percent of neighborhood streets were still waiting for heavy equipment to break through thick ice beneath the snow.