Snow strands thousands in Northwest, rain in sight

Thousands of travelers remained stranded by snow Monday across the Pacific Northwest, but help in Western Washington should arrive in the form of rain by Christmas, the National Weather Service said.

Before then more freezing cold and snow could bedevil residents and travelers.

With schools and many government and private offices closed, Monday's commute was slow but light in Seattle, as a storm that dumped 8 to 12 inches on the city during the weekend tapered off by midmorning.

One man died when a car went out of control on icy State Route 105 and slid into an oncoming pickup truck Sunday near Westport on the Pacific coast. Aron Damaranville, a passenger in the car, died and both drivers and three other passengers were injured, the Washington State Patrol said.

In Arlington, about 40 miles north of Seattle, the roof of Whitley Evergreen collapsed and part of the large modular building assembly plant also came down Monday, triggering sprinklers and causing a natural gas leak, Fire Department spokeswoman Kristen Thorstenson said. No injuries were reported.

Alaska and Horizon airlines, the West Coast's principal carriers, resumed limited service Monday after thousands spent the night at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where hundreds of flights have been canceled since Friday.

Seattle remained largely snowbound. Metro transit bus service was limited to about half the regular routes, and many of the hilly city's secondary streets were blocked off.

Across the state in Spokane, snow was forecast for the rest of the week, with another 3 inches due Monday. But the National Weather Service dropped or downgraded most warnings for the state, leaving only a hazardous weather outlook for the Cascades and parts of Eastern Washington after midday Monday.

Jerry Osborn, an architect who usually commutes by bus from Capitol Hill to West Seattle within the city, said he had been driving because of the unreliability of transit service since the middle of last week.

"It's actually kind of fun to drive around because nobody's on the road," he said Monday, nursing an early coffee during a stop at Seattle's Best Coffee in the Pike Place Market.

"It happens about once every 10 years," Osborn said. "It does seem that the city ought to find a way to function for its citizens."

A bane for some was a boon for others.

Ralph Goldman, toting a snow shovel as he stopped for coffee at Starbucks store in a QFC grocery early Monday, said he and two fellow handymen were going from business to business offering to shovel snow and finding no end of takers.

"It's good. I can't complain," Goldman said. "I wanted the snow so much. It keeps me happy."

At Sea-Tac airport, spokesman Perry Cooper said stranded passengers were given water and blankets, concessionaires had adequate food for sale and there were no reports of temper flare-ups. The airport normally handles about 900 flights and about 90,000 passengers a day just before Christmas, with Alaska and Horizon accounting for about half the flights.

Many stranded passengers will spend another night in the terminal, Cooper said.

"We're preparing for that. Yesterday we distributed over 130 cases of water," he said. "We had over 2,000 blankets we distributed to our more vulnerable passengers. We're working with the Red Cross to get some more sleeping cots."

Flight cancelations also were reported at Portland, Ore., and Spokane international airports.

Bus passengers bound for Washington and Oregon were stuck for as long as three days in Salt Lake City because of road closures and hazardous conditions, Greyhound Lines Inc. spokeswoman Abby Wambaugh said. Greyhound terminals in Portland and Seattle were closed Sunday.

Amtrak's Cascades passenger train service remained shut down Monday between Eugene, Ore., and Vancouver, British Columbia. Gus Melonas, a spokesman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, which operates the tracks, said partial service might be restored Tuesday.

Amtrak operates four Cascades trains daily between Eugene and Seattle and three daily between Seattle and Bellingham, including one in each direction extending northward to Vancouver. Officials had hoped to restore that service Monday.

Amtrak's long-haul Empire Builder and Coast Starlight trains were still running, but Melonas said long delays were possible.

Slightly rising temperatures were expected to produce snow turning to rain with highs in the upper 30s Wednesday in the Seattle area, but little melting is expected initially, said Andy Haner, a weather service meteorologist.

More rain and melting, interspersed in many areas with nighttime freezing, are likely Thursday and Friday before temperatures rise into the 40s and the rain increases over the weekend, Haner said.

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Associated Press Writer Doug Esser in Seattle contributed to this report.