Music: {allcanada} Severe weather strands Raps, postpones Avs-Blues game

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

{allcanada} Severe weather strands Raps, postpones Avs-Blues game

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A monster storm that's cut a frigid path across the U.S. left the Toronto Raptors stranded in Indianapolis for a second straight night.

The Raptors were scheduled to fly to Atlanta on Monday evening following their 104-93 loss to the Pacers, but that flight was cancelled sending the team back to the hotel.

The Raptors hoped to leave Tuesday, but that flight was also cancelled after the team sat for nearly five hours on the plane. Team spokesman Jim Labumbard said the Raptors checked back into the hotel, and hoped to fly out Wednesday morning for Atlanta where they're scheduled to play the Hawks on Wednesday night.

Meanwhile in St. Louis, the Blues saw plenty of snow and ice, but no Avalanche.

The Blues' game against the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday night was postponed because of the storm that threatened to leave about a third of the U.S. covered in ice and snow.

A makeup date has not been set for the game, which would have been the first since the all-star break for both teams.

Missouri has been hit by what could be its worst winter storm in decades, a dangerous mix of snow, freezing rain, wind and cold. Conditions in the area were so forbidding that The Humane Society of Missouri urged people to bring pets inside.

In Oklahoma, whiteouts paralysed Oklahoma City and the Tulsa area, and blowing snow created drifts of over a metre high. The men's Big 12 basketball game in Norman, Okla., on Tuesday night was called off and rescheduled for Wednesday afternoon when admission will be free.

Also postponed were the men's and women's Tuesday night games featuring Southeast Missouri at Southern Illinois-Edwardswille.

The airport in Dallas -- the destination for thousands trying to get to Sunday's Super Bowl -- was among those shut down. Walkways outside Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, were like sheets of ice.

The U.S. National Weather Service advised Wisconsin travellers bound for Texas to wait until Wednesday evening, with up to 50 centimetres of snow forecast for the Milwaukee area.

The Packers, no stranger to winter chill, might even practise indoors this week if the weather doesn't improve.

"It's a little too cold for me," linebacker Clay Matthews said. "Texas is supposed to be hot and humid. I was looking forward to that. I am a California guy."

The Nebraska women's basketball team plays at Missouri on Wednesday. Cornhuskers spokesman Jeff Griesch said the team bus was rolling through whiteout conditions on Interstate 70. He didn't know whether the team would fly or bus back to Lincoln after the game.

In the Big Ten, the Indiana men tentatively plan to play their Wednesday night game against Minnesota now that the Gophers have landed in Indianapolis.

The Air Force women's basketball team abandoned the skies Tuesday, deciding to bus rather than fly to New Mexico for Wednesday night's game.