The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Washington

A massive winter storm blanketed the US West Coast with snow, sleet and ice early Monday while blizzards and snow squalls struck the Northeast and Midwest, killing at least three people and making travel dangerous. The storm snarled holiday air traffic across the country, with delays of more than an hour at major airports in San Francisco, California; Houston, Texas; Boston, Massachusetts; New Jersey and New York, officials said. It is blamed for the death of two people in a single-vehicle crash on Interstate Highway 80 east of Des Moines, Iowa.

Another weather-related fatality was reported in northwest Iowa, near the town of Remsen, when a farm tractor being used for snow removal slipped off the driveway and overturned, killing the driver, the Des Moines Register newspaper reported.

Travel was treacherous in the northwestern states of Oregon and Washington, with heavy rain, sleet and snow expected until 10:00 am (1800 GMT) Monday, the National Weather Service said in its winter storm warning for the region.

"This is probably one of the worst storms since 1990," weather service meteorologist Dana Felton told AFP by phone from Seattle, adding that the last big storm of this scale was on December 25, 1996.

"This is definitely a once-in-a-decade type of storm."