Hundreds of flights from Chicago to Maine are canceled as a biting winter storm winds its way into New England.

The bright spots are in Philadelphia, Boston and New York, where there have been few major airport problems reported, although some flights were delayed.

The National Weather Service is posting winter storm warnings from Indiana into Maine. Parts of Chicago are blanketed with a foot of snow. Vermont has up to 10 inches of snow. And meteorologists are predicting up to a foot an a half of snow in northern New England.

The freezing rain, sleet and snow are making for slick roadways, which are blamed for three traffic deaths.

A Pennsylvania utility says the storm has blacked out about 160,000 customers and there are scattered power failures in Vermont. Nearly 15,000 Missouri homes and business remain without power and it could be the end of the week before power is restored.