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BOSTON - A snowstorm that blanketed parts of the Midwestern United States barrelled into New England on Sunday, bringing snow, freezing rain and high winds that grounded flights and made driving treacherous.
Roads were slick with snow and ice, and local airports reported hundreds of flights cancelled across New England.
Upstate New York received as much as a foot of snow, while the storm spared New York City, leaving only a coating of icy slush. Thousands of people were without power in New Jersey, Long Island and parts of Connecticut, authorities said.
In New England, about 8 inches of snow fell around Boston, though the precipitation changed to rain across coastal areas by afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.
The wintry blast came a week after a Midwest ice storm was blamed for 13 deaths and cut power to hundreds of thousands.
It stopped snowing on Sunday in Chicago, but O'Hare and Midway airports cancelled more than 150 flights and delayed dozens more, according to city aviation spokeswoman Karen Pride.
In New England, the weekend storm did not bring the disruption of Friday's snowfall, which dumped about 10 inches of snow across the region as millions of commuters were trying to head home.
All three major New York airports remained open, but reported significant flight delays. Hundreds of cancellations left passengers scrambling to find alternate means of reaching their destinations.
Boston's Logan International Airport halted all flights briefly to allow officials to plow its runways and cancelled about 300 flights, said airport spokeswoman Lisa Langone.
"We're now at one runway and we hope to open up the second," Langone said. She said the airport's terminals were quiet, with many passengers apparently having contacted the airport to check on flight status before heading out.
The Boston area typically gets about 7.8 inches of snow through the entire month of December.
"At this point, fortunately, because there's been such limited travel out there - folks are listening - there really haven't been any major accidents of significance," said Peter Judge, state emergency services spokesman. "But the attraction of the Patriots game is going to bring a lot of traffic."
The New England Patriots football team played the New York Jets through the storm in Foxborough, Massachusetts. The Patriots' bid to be the first team in 35 years to go unbeaten in the regular season has whipped up fans' frenzy.
-REUTERS
