Blizzard paralyzes Denver travelers

The storm blanketed most of Colorado under 2 feet of snow, bringing businesses, government and holiday shopping to a standstill, shutting down the nation’s fifth-busiest airport and creating a ripple effect that disrupted air travel around the country just days before Christmas.

“We can’t go home; the highway’s closed. We can’t get to the car; it’s 10 miles away. And the hotels are not cheap,” said Jodie Hartfield of Colorado Springs, who spent a sleepless night squeezed between a signboard and a phone booth with her husband and three young children.

Denver International Airport ? once touted as storm-proof ? closed on Wednesday afternoon, and a spokesman said it would not reopen until noon Friday. By then, more than 2,000 flights in and out of Denver will have been canceled, officials said.