  Motorists whose car 
 ended up in the ditch on Interstate 80 west of Omaha, Neb., evacuate their 
 car, Feb. 25, 2007. A blizzard in western Nebraska Saturday threatened 
 roads and power, as cars slid off roads and whiteout conditions prompted 
 officials to temporarily close more than 270 miles of westbound I-80, 
 across more than half the state.[AP]
   | 
Detroit - The remnants of a huge winter storm plowed toward the US East 
Coast on Sunday after dumping as much as 2 feet of snow in the upper Midwest, 
grounding hundreds of airline flights and closing major highways on the Plains. 
Eight traffic deaths were blamed on the storm, seven in 
Wisconsin and one in Kansas.
 Utility crews labored Sunday to restore power after the storm 
blacked out hundreds of thousands of homes and business in Iowa, 
Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska and Ohio. Street and highway crews, nearly 300 snow removal trucks 
and plows in Chicago, worked to clear pavement of snow and ice.
Moist air the storm system pulled from the Gulf of Mexico fueled violent 
thunderstorms in the South, sweeping cars off roads, crumpling businesses and 
sending mobile homes flying. Tornadoes were reported in Arkansas, Mississippi 
and Louisiana.
By midday Sunday, snow was dwindling but still falling from the eastern 
Dakotas across the Great Lakes to the Washington area.
As the system stretched eastward, a dwindling band of snow extended from the 
eastern Dakotas across the Great Lakes to the East Coast. Three inches of snow 
had fallen by midday Sunday at Cumberland, Md., and the District of Columbia 
declared a snow emergency, banning parking on major routes to make room for snow 
plows.
Three to 4 inches of snow was expected in the Washington area and motorists 
in the region were warned the snow could turn to ice overnight.
In New York, sanitation workers were preparing for 4 to 6 inches of snow 
expected to begin Sunday evening. Some 2,000 plows and the sanitation 
department's 365 salt spreaders were ready to clear streets and roads citywide, 
authorities said.
Roads were treacherous Sunday across parts of Michigan, causing accidents and 
snarling traffic. "It's extremely icy," said state Trooper Bronse Gavin in the 
Detroit suburb of Oak Park.
The storm's snow, sleet and freezing rain led airlines to cancel hundreds of 
flights Sunday at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and dozens more at 
Midway Airport, said Wendy Abrams, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Department of 
Aviation. That was on top of more cancellations on Saturday, and Abrams 
estimated that about 1,000 stranded passengers spent the night at O'Hare.
Utilities in Iowa reported more than 162,000 customers without electricity 
Sunday, most because heavy ice had brought down miles of power lines and utility 
poles.
 "It could be at least three days if not more than one week before we get 
all the customers back on," Alliant Energy spokesman Ryan Stensland said 
of conditions in Iowa. "We've got close to 2,500 poles down, over 500 miles of 
line down."
More than 83,000 customers were without power Sunday morning in Illinois, 
utilities said. Crews for Mid American Energy reported ice 2 inches thick 
coating power lines in Illinois' Mercer County, said spokesman Allan Urlis.
On the Plains, Colorado and Kansas on Sunday reopened Interstate 70, a major 
cross-country route. The highway had been closed for about 400 miles in both 
directions since Saturday from just east of Denver to Salina, Kan., because of 
blowing snow and slippery pavement.
The National Weather Service reported 7-foot snowdrifts in western Kansas.
As much as 2 feet of snow fell around Winona, Minn., and some local hotels 
were so full of stalled travelers they had to turn people away. The Holiday Inn 
let people sleep on couches, cots and even the floor, exhausting its supply of 
extra blankets and pillows.
"We just tried to fit people in as much as we could," 
hotel employee Chrissy Rybarczyk told the Winona Daily News.