2 people dead, 1600 flights grounded as snowstorm sweeps US Midwest, heads to New York

Chicago: A winter storm swept across the northern US Midwest on Friday, dumping up to nine inches (23 cm) of snow on Chicago, killing at least two people and snarling hundreds of flights as it rolled east to threaten New York state and New England.

Chicago's metropolitan area was blanketed with its heaviest snowfall since at least late 2016 as the storm put an icy grip on much of Wisconsin, northern Illinois and Michigan.

A man in his 60s died of a heart attack on Friday after he shovelled snow, Keith Hartenberger, spokesman for Edward Hospital in Naperville, Illinois, said in a



phone interview.

A 33-year-old woman also died after a multi-vehicle crash on Friday near Fenton, Michigan, located south of Flint, Fenton police said.

The snow caused dozens of crashes on icy Chicago expressways as residents of the third-biggest US city struggled to get to work and to dig out from a storm system that had stretched from Montana to Michigan.