Buried in the blizzard: It fell, and fell -- and kept falling

The biggest snowstorm to hit the Twin Cities since the Halloween storm a generation ago whited out -- and pretty much paralyzed -- the metro area and much of the rest of Minnesota Saturday.

By BOB VON STERNBERG

It certainly lived up to the hype -- and is on its way to being historic.

Variously described as Snowmaggedon and Snowmygawd, the biggest snowstorm to hit the Twin Cities since the Halloween storm a generation ago whited out -- and pretty much paralyzed -- the metro area and much of the rest of central and southern Minnesota on Saturday.

One of the casualties was the roof of the Metrodome, which collapsed overnight.

The dome collapsed after 5 a.m., Roy Terwilliger, head of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, told WCCO-AM.

Terwilliger said that a rip in a panel in the middle of the roof caused it to deflate.

As predicted, more than a foot of snow had fallen across a wide swath of the state by Saturday evening, shutting down highways, bedeviling snowplow drivers and shuttering stores and pre-holiday events.

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