The weather outside was frightful

It wasn't what anyone who needed to do some last-minute shopping -- or, worse yet, travel a good ways -- wanted to see. And, just two days before Christmas, that included most everyone.

But a nasty winter storm blew through Chicago and much of the upper Midwest Sunday that made highways dangerous and caused many to think twice about leaving home at all.

The storm, which also left thousands of homes and businesses without power, has been blamed for at least 11 deaths across the country's midsection.

Winds were recorded blowing as fast as 88 mph over Lake Michigan with gusts of 50 to 68 mph across the Chicago region, according to the National Weather Service.

At 8 p.m. Sunday about 15,000 of ComEd's 3.8 million customers were without power. About 2,700 of those homes were in parts of the Northwest suburbs, said Joe Trost, a ComEd spokesman.

Most of the outages were caused by downed lines and broken power poles and were largely reported in Chicago and the south suburbs.

In all, more than 200,000 homes were affected by the storm, Trost said.

The company had roughly 165 crews out working in the frigid winds to restore service and repairs are expected to continue today.

"What makes this (storm) challenging is that the wind has been nonstop since 1 a.m.," Trost said.

Northwest suburban police had several reports of vehicles sliding off the roads as a result of the windy weather. In McHenry County, the state police said blowing snow was covering parts of Routes 31 and 176.

The wind also snarled travelers at O'Hare and Midway airports. At O'Hare, about 300 flights were canceled and others delayed up to three hours. Midway did not experience major flight cancellations but reported delays up to an hour, said Gregg Cunningham, a Chicago Department of Aviation spokesman.

Winter storm warnings were posted for parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan on Sunday as the core of the storm headed north across the Great Lakes. Parts of Wisconsin already had a foot of snow, and up to a foot was forecast Sunday in northeastern Minnesota, the National Weather Service said.

Radar showed snow falling across much of Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota on Sunday and moving into parts of Michigan and Indiana.

"Everything is just an ice rink out there," said Sgt. Steve Selby with the sheriff's department in Rock County, Wis.

The weather system also spread locally heavy rain on Sunday from the Southeast to the lower Great Lakes.

The storm rolled through Colorado and Wyoming on Friday, then spread snow and ice on Saturday from the Texas Panhandle to Minnesota. Multi-car pileups closed parts of several major highways Saturday in the Plains states.

The area of Madison, Wis., got three to four hours of freezing rain early Sunday, said weather service meteorologist intern Bill Borghoff at Sullivan. The combination of icy pavement and gusty wind made driving treacherous, he said.

"It's quite a mess out there," Borghoff said.

Wind gusting to more than 50 mph uprooted trees in parts of Michigan. "I can see the snow moving basically sideways," meteorologist Wayne Hoepner said in Grand Rapids.

At least three people in Minnesota, three in Wyoming, three in Wisconsin and one person each in Texas and Kansas were killed in traffic accidents that authorities said stemmed from the storm.

The fatality in Texas came in a chain-reaction pileup involving more than 50 vehicles, including several tractor-trailer rigs, on Interstate 40, police said. At least 16 people were taken to hospitals, Sgt. Michael Poston said.

"We're not really sure how many cars, probably in excess of 40 cars and in excess of 20 semitrailers," Amarillo police Sgt. Greg Fisher said Sunday.

Many were holiday travelers, including families with small children not dressed for the weather, Sgt. Shawn McLeland said. Other drivers opened their own Christmas presents to provide warmer clothing for the children.

Authorities believe the pileup, which shut down the highway for most of the day, was caused by near zero visibility in blowing snow and slippery pavement. Multi-vehicle wrecks on Saturday also temporarily blocked sections of I-70 in Kansas and I-29 in Missouri.