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Storm hits Northeast after leaving Plains shivering

''Stay home,'' advises Connecticut's governor, who got stuck in traffic.

COLUMBIA, Conn. - A winter storm responsible for deaths in the Midwest blasted the Northeast on Thursday, dumping snow and sleet and clogging some of the nation's most heavily traveled highways.

Some parts of the Northeast could receive up to a foot of snow. Schools, businesses and government agencies in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Connecticut closed early.

The resulting exodus choked highways and streets. Authorities reported hundreds of mostly minor accidents throughout the region. Some vehicles were stranded along roadways, preventing plows from getting through.

Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell found herself stuck, crawling along the highway at 5-10 mph for two hours from Suffield to Hartford in what should have been a 30-minute drive. "Stay home," she advised. "Go home, prop your feet up, watch the news."

While the traffic crawled along Interstates 95, 84 and 91, it also slowed at Northeast airports.

There were delays up to three hours for arriving flights at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, where more than 200 flights had been canceled by late afternoon, officials said.

Elsewhere, Boston's Logan International reported more than 100 flights canceled. No major problems were reported at New York's airports.

The storm was blamed for 35 deaths, mostly in traffic accidents, since it developed last weekend.

In Oklahoma, about 342,000 homes and businesses still were without power Thursday, officials said. In Missouri, about 31,900 customers remained in the dark, said Al Butkus, spokesman for utility Aquila Inc.

[Last modified December 14, 2007, 01:15:53]