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	SEATTLE (AP) —  A monster Pacific Northwest storm coated the Seattle area in a thick layer of ice Thursday and brought much of the state to a standstill, sending hundreds of cars spinning out of control, temporarily shutting down the airport and knocking down so many trees that members of the Washington State Patrol brought chain saws to work.

	Oregon experienced torrential rain that swept away a car from a grocery store parking lot, killing a 1-year-old boy and leaving his mother missing and feared dead. East of a Seattle, a man was killed by a falling tree.


	The snow, ice and heavy rains continued wreak havoc in the region a day after the system brought a huge snowfall to parts of Washington state. The storm also raised worries that flooding could become a broader concern for days to come.


	"It's like a storm in slow motion that keeps happening again and again," said Puget Sound Energy spokesman Roger Thompson.


	Amtrak suspended train service Thursday between Seattle and Portland, Ore. Officials in Spokane declared a snow emergency, banning parking along arterials and bus routes beginning Thursday evening. Freezing rain and ice pellets caused numerous accidents in the Seattle area, where drivers are mostly inexperienced with driving in snow or ice. The State Patrol said it had responded to about 2,300 accidents in a 24-hour period ending 9 a.m. Thursday, roughly quadruple the average number.


	The last widespread freezing rain in Seattle was in December 1996, said National Weather Service meteorologist Jeff Michalski.


	The weather service used the Emergency Alert System to break into Thursday morning broadcasts with an ice storm warning until noon for the Seattle area and southwest Washington, a warning that was extended into the early afternoon. Among the concerns were widespread power outages and the threat that structures could collapse under the weight of ice.


	The state Transportation Department closed one highway because of falling trees that also took out power lines, and about 200,000 were without power in the greater Seattle area Thursday, while Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire declared a state of emergency, authorizing the use of National Guard troops if necessary.


	Ice closed Sea-Tac Airport completely in the early morning before one runway was reopened. Lines hundreds of people long snaked around nearly every ticket counter at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, with many passengers on their cellphones as they tried furiously to rebook their flights. Reader boards showed the vast majority of flights canceled or delayed.


	Cabbies struggled to get people from the airport and safely to their homes or hotels. Chris Van Dyk of Yellow Cab said "it's like servicing Dante's part of hell. It's an ice cube, it's just unreal."


	Van Dyk said drivers tried to get people as close as they could to their destinations, but when they entered the side streets, they kept getting stuck.


	Braving the icy Queen Anne hill in Seattle, commercial truck driver Darrin Sjostrand was loading his Toyota Prius to drive his wife to the airport.


	"It was supposed to warm up," he said. "Ice is kind of the great equalizer. It doesn't matter if you have a four-wheel drive, you're going to slide."


	Authorities also worried about flooding in the coming days as temperatures warm up. Rain was forecast throughout the weekend.


	"It's a very dangerous situation," said Brad Colman, the meteorologist in charge of the weather service office in Seattle.


	Oregon didn't receive the snowfall that Washington did but got plenty of rain. Rising water from heavy rains swept a car carrying four people into an overflowing creek in Albany. Two people escaped, but one child's body was recovered, and authorities said the boy's mother was missing in the creek in the Willamette Valley community of Albany and feared dead.


	"The water just got high so fast," said fire department spokeswoman Wanda Omdahl. "It's a big tragedy."


	Another Willamette Valley town, Turner, was also being threatened by floodwaters. The Marion County sheriff's office said five rescue boats have been sent to help. To the west of Oregon's Coast Range, residents were being mnoved out of Mapleton, with a population of about 900. East of Albany, Thomas Creek had flooded into the town of Scio, which has a population of about 870, and residents were being evacuated. City Manager Ginger Griffith said water is pouring down Main Street and "we need to get people out."


	Near Issaquah, Wash., a man in his 60s backing an all-terrain vehicle out of a shed was killed by a falling tree, King County sheriff's Sgt. Cindi West said.


	Washington State University in Pullman was closed. The University of Washington also canceled Thursday classes at three campuses, including Seattle.


	The storm caused hundreds of roadway accidents, but no fatalities. On the interstate north of Seattle, a Transportation Department worker responding to an accident was injured in crash. The 36-year-old man was taken to a Seattle hospital and listed in satisfactory condition. The Transportation Department closed state Route 18 near Issaquah because of falling trees.


	"We want to make sure all the limbs that are going to come down, come down," said DOT spokeswoman Alice Fiman in Olympia.


	Karina Shagren, a spokeswoman for Gregoire, said even though an emergency declaration has been issued, the National Guard has not been called up. Shagren said what sparked the proclamation was concern over truck drivers carrying dairy products not being able to drive more than 12 hours a day due to federal regulations.


	Cleanup work at the Hanford nuclear reservation was called off for the day, and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory closed as well.


	At a bus stop near the Seattle neighborhood of Ballard, Canadian transplant Jennifer Hastings waited for the downtown bus.


	"I didn't buy snow tires. This is Seattle. We were like, `It doesn't snow here,"' said Hastings, who moved here last year.


	— — — 
	Cooper reported from Albany, Ore. Associated Press writers Doug Esser, Ted Warren, Shannon Dininny, Rachel La Corte, Nigel Duara and Nicholas K. Geranios contributed to this report. 
	
 (Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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Weather and Climate News

A monster Pacific Northwest storm coated the Seattle area in a thick layer of ice Thursday and brought much of the state to a standstill, sending hundreds of cars spinning out of control, temporarily shutting down the airport and knocking down so many trees that members of the Washington State Patrol brought chain saws to work.

Deadly storm grips Northwest in ice, snow

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