Snow and ice hit US and Canada, at least four dead

CHICAGO: The US Midwest is in the grip of heavy snow and freezing rain, leaving at least four dead in car accidents and disrupting air travel, officials and media reported.

The winter weather forced the cancellation of numerous flights in Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois and some campaign events in Iowa, where presidential candidates will face their first test in a month for the 2008 White House race.

At Des Moines airport in Iowa, a United regional jet bound for Chicago slid off an icy taxiway on Saturday morning, closing the airport for more than six hours, airport and airline officials said. No one was seriously injured.

In Wisconsin a 37-year-old man died when a jeep hit a truck near DeForest as other cars ahead were slowing down for another truck that had tipped over on a highway, the Wisconsin State Journal reported on Sunday.

Two people died in separate crashes in the same Juneau County area on Interstate 90-94, the paper said.

In Indiana, a member of the Purdue University ice hockey club team was killed and seven teammates were injured when their van crashed Saturday in freezing rain, the Indianapolis Star reported.

The crash occurred 17 miles south of West Lafayette, home to the university, when one of the team's vans swerved out of control on a two-lane highway and rolled over.

Purdue said 20 hockey players, two coaches and a manager were headed to Danville, Illinois for a late-afternoon game.

In Madison, Wisconsin, city officials declared a snow emergency through at least 7:00 am on Monday.