WASHINGTON, March 16 (UPI) -- Snow, sleet and freezing rain covered roadways and disrupted life Friday in much of the northeastern United States.
The National Weather Service posted a winter-storm warning from northern Virginia and West Virginia to Maine, with heavy snow warnings along Lake Erie and Lake Ontario in Pennsylvania and New York and for the upper Hudson River Valley and southern Vermont.
Hundreds of flights were delayed or canceled at major airports.
In South Jersey, an undetermined number of people were killed and several others were injured when a van crossed the center line on icy State Highway 55 in Glassboro and collided head-on with a truck. News reports said the passengers in the van may have been immigrant laborers.
The weather altered President George W. Bush's travel plans. Instead of using a helicopter to get to Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, the president went by motorcade. A sport utility vehicle in the motorcade was involved in a fender bender with another car, although the president's vehicle and the rest of the motorcade continued without stopping.
Amtrak announced there would be no train service Saturday across upstate New York west of Albany, with no substitute bus service. CSX Railroad, which owns the tracks in this area that Amtrak uses, has been struggling to repair track affected by a freight derailment early in the week.
Amtrak said the Maple Leaf from Albany to Toronto would operate Sunday as would the westbound Lake Shore Limited to Chicago, but other trains between Albany and Niagara Falls would not run.
On Long Island, some commuter rail service was disrupted when a car got stuck on the tracks at a grade crossing and was hit by a locomotive.
