Misty Johnson wasn't dressed for the cold when she arrived at Grand Forks International Airport on Saturday afternoon.
"I came with my flip-flops," said the Las Vegas woman who was flying from Orlando, where she was visiting her daughter when her Delta 757-300, carrying 191 passengers, was diverted from Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport to Grand Forks.
Flight cancellations, delays and diversions filled terminal message boards Saturday as a powerful snowstorm cut a wide swath across the Midwest. The blizzard, which started in the Rocky Mountains, spread Saturday to Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Johnson spent the night in the Grand Forks terminal.
Johnson was one of 450 to 480 people on four Delta flights to Minneapolis that were diverted to Grand Forks on Saturday afternoon.
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"We learned around noon that we were being diverted," she said. "We were circling Minneapolis for a while, but they couldn't get it cleared out."
The diverted flights were traveling to Minneapolis from Detroit, Memphis, San Francisco and Orlando, said Josh Evans, a Delta customer service agent in Grand Forks.
Grand Forks cancelled regularly scheduled commercial flights in and out of the city, too.
Between 3 and 4 p.m. Saturday, several school buses took most passengers into Grand Forks, where they were distributed to several hotels.
No flights were expected to leave Grand Forks until this morning. Evans said the four diverted flights will leave for Minneapolis between 7 and 9 a.m.
Johnson was supposed to be back home in Las Vegas by 4 p.m. Saturday.
"This definitely wasn't part of my itinerary," she said.
Wind chill advisory
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While the northern Red River Valley missed the bulk of the snowstorm, high winds and low temperatures sent wind chills plummeting.
The National Weather Service in Grand Forks issued a wind chill advisory between 9 p.m. Saturday and noon today for much of eastern North Dakota, northwestern and west central Minnesota. Wind chills were expected to range from 25 to 40 below zero overnight Saturday.
The arctic air was expected to spread east behind the storm, dropping temperatures below zero throughout the Dakotas and in parts of Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin by Sunday night.
The Minnesota State Patrol reported 76 crashes statewide by early Saturday evening, but none with fatalities or serious injuries, and 319 reports of vehicles sliding off roads.
"The areas that were hardest hit are virtually impassable," said Minnesota State Patrol Lt. Eric Roeske. "So we don't expect those numbers to go up a whole lot."
With the snow and winds combining to make visibility difficult for drivers, Minnesota transportation officials closed westbound Interstate 90 from Albert Lea to the South Dakota border, pulled plows off roads in the southern part of the state and told drivers to stay home.
The Twin Cities east metro area received 15 to 20 inches of snow by Saturday afternoon and was expected to see another 1 to 3 inches before the storm tapered off there.
Heavy snow was falling in northern Iowa, where up to 10 inches was expected, and eastern South Dakota, where 5 to 8 inches was forecast. Portions of Interstates 29 and 76 were closed in Iowa and South Dakota because of blowing snow and related crashes.
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Reach Bonham at (701) 780-1110; (800) 477-6572, ext. 110; or send e-mail to kbonham@gfherald.com . The Associated Press contributed to this report.
