Northeast adds sleet

A mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain iced over roads, driveways and sidewalks from Delaware up into New England on Tuesday, making for a slippery and messy morning commute.

Patricia Ricciardi, 49, used a tissue to wipe sludge off the cuffs of her slacks in a south Philadelphia subway station as she headed downtown to work at her city job.

"I don't want to go to work looking like I came from a garage instead," she said. "It's disgusting."

New York City streets and sidewalks were a slushy mess Tuesday morning, with pedestrians forced to cross large watery accumulations at street corners, and icy stretches of sidewalks were like Slip n' Slides. Cars passing by intersections threw up gobs of slush onto anyone standing too close to the street.

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm advisory until 1 p.m. in New York City. The area got 1 to 2 inches of snow and sleet by early morning. It was to be followed by an inch of ice before turning to all rain by late morning.

Hundreds of schools up and down the East Coast were closed or having delayed starts, including the Washington, D.C. area, eastern New York and southern Vermont.

In New Jersey, Newark Liberty International Airport was open but the airport's largest airline, Continental, said it halted its flights there because of freezing rain and snow.

Speed limits were lowered on highways from Delaware to New Jersey.

Dozens of collisions were reported in Connecticut, including a crash between a southbound Amtrak train and a FedEx truck that became stuck at a Wallingford crossing.

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