DETROIT (AP) – A huge winter storm barreled toward the East Coast on Sunday after dumping more than a foot of snow on the Upper Midwest, grounding hundreds of airline flights and closing major highways on the Plains.

Seven traffic deaths in Wisconsin were blamed on the storm.

Parts of Wisconsin could get up to 24 inches of snow, said Tom Zajdel, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sullivan, Wis.

The storm knocked out power to thousands of homes and business, including more than 100,000 in Iowa, plus parts of Illinois, Nebraska and Ohio.

Moist air the storm system pulled from the Gulf of Mexico fueled violent thunderstorms in the South, sweeping cars off roads, crumpling businesses and sending mobile homes flying. Tornadoes were reported in Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana.

The storm’s snow, sleet and freezing rain led airlines to cancel 200 flights Sunday at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and about 35 at Midway Airport, said Wendy Abrams, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Department of Aviation. That was on top of more cancellations on Saturday, and Abrams estimated that about 1,000 stranded passengers spent the night at O’Hare.

“Further cancellations are a definite possibility,” Ms. Abrams said early Sunday, noting that the storm would affect other airports farther east.

Flights also were canceled or delayed Saturday at Minneapolis and Milwaukee.

More than 83,000 customers were without power Sunday morning in Illinois because of wind damage, fallen tree limbs and ice collecting on wires, utilities said.

Crews for Mid American Energy reported ice 2 inches thick coating power lines in Illinois’ Mercer County, said spokesman Allan Urlis.

On the Plains, Interstate 70, a major cross-country route, was closed for about 400 miles in both directions Saturday from just east of Denver to Salina, Kan., because of blowing snow and slippery pavement. Ice and poor visibility in blowing snow were blamed for one 35-car pileup just outside Denver; no major injuries were reported.

The weather service reported wind gusts of 68 mph in the Denver area, with 7-foot snowdrifts in western Kansas.

A number of other highways also were closed Saturday in Wyoming and Nebraska.

A 14-vehicle pileup on a Chicago expressway Saturday evening sent nine people to hospitals, police said.

By late Sunday morning, snow was falling from the eastern Dakotas across the Great Lakes to the Washington area. The weather service posted blizzard and winter storm warnings Sunday for eastern South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, western Maryland, West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle, the District of Columbia and northern Virginia.

Fifteen to 18 inches of snow had fallen around Winona, Minn., and La Crosse, Wis., by Saturday evening, according to the weather service.
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Associated Press writers Chase Squires in Denver, Oskar Garcia in Omaha, Neb., Steve Brisendine in Kansas City, Mo., Mike Wilson in Des Moines, Iowa, Karen Hawkins in Chicago and Jon Gambrell in Dumas, Ark., contributed to this report.