WASHINGTON, Dec 24: A heavy snow storm pelted the American Midwest, causing deadly road accidents, power outages and grounded flights for Christmas holiday travellers, US media reported on Monday.

The storm left at least 11 dead in car crashes across the central United States over the weekend, local papers said, with icy roads and poor visibility causing hundreds of accidents.

Snow, ice, fog and powerful winds created havoc for those trying to head home for the Christmas holiday on treacherous highways or via airports plagued by delays and cancelled flights, local newspapers said. In parts of Michigan, four to eight inches of snow was expected to fall by Christmas morning on Tuesday, the forecasters said.

And in Wisconsin, forecasters said “heavy snow” would be accompanied by windy weather, blowing snow and reducing visibility to a quarter to a half mile.

“Travel will be very hazardous or impossible today (Sunday) or tonight” in the state, the weather service said.

While the weather was expected to clear up on Monday and Tuesday in the Midwest, big snowfalls were forecast for the western states of Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and parts of Washington.Driving wind toppled trees and knocked out power in several states, with 215,000 homes in the Chicago area losing electricity at some point on Sunday, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The winter weather forced the cancellation of about 300 flights at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and in Minnesota, nearly 100 flights were grounded and others delayed for hours at the Twin Cities airport in Minneapolis-St Paul.

heathrow: Dozens of flights were cancelled on Monday as the weekend fog continued to cause travel chaos for hundreds of passengers.

Heathrow Airport said 30 departures were grounded as a knock-on effect of the weekend disruption, while a handful of flights were hit at Gatwick.

The bulk of the affected journeys are British Airways short-haul flights. Stranded passengers said their holiday plans had been thrown into disarray.

“Maybe next year I’ll tell my family we’ll have a white Christmas in Canada because this Christmas is looking grey,” one North American passenger told the BBC at a cloudy Heathrow.

On Saturday and Sunday, thick fog forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights during the Christmas getaway.

Up to 1,000 stranded passengers were forced to spend the night at Heathrow on Sunday waiting for alternative flights, while others slept in nearby hotels.

Airports in Scotland were returning to normal after 25 planes were grounded during the weekend, with only a few flights cancelled on Monday at Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Airport authorities urged travellers to check the BAA or airline websites before their journey.

More than 200 rail passengers were stranded in Scotland after their sleeper train hit debris on the track south of Carstairs, 25 miles southeast of Glasgow.—AFP/Reuters