A winter storm blamed for at least 20 deaths on Friday blew a double-barreled blast of snow and ice across the Northeast, leaving thousands without power and schools and businesses closed.

Freezing rain downed tree limbs and power lines, and as daytime temperatures rose, falling ice threatened pedestrians. High wind gusts worsened the mess and drivers were banned from some roads.

Punxsutawney Phil is held by handler Bill Deeley during a television interview Friday in Punxsutawney, Pa. Mr. Deeley and other members of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club today will make the 116th trek to Gobbler's Knob to hear Phil's prediction on a possible early end to winter and on the outcome of the Super Bowl.

“There’s ice all over,” Sheriff Gary Maha said in Genesee County, N.Y. “Driving’s a problem, but no one should be walking around because you never know what’s going to come down on top of you.”

Wind gusting to 55 mph forced the evacuation of the 29-story Xerox office tower in downtown Rochester, N.Y.. “When you’re in a tower of our size and surrounded by windows you want to take precautionary measures,” said Xerox spokeswoman Christa Carone.

In Maine, the storm was expected to dump up to a foot of snow in the mountains and 9 inches on the coast before subsiding. Schools were closed from one end of Vermont to the other. In most other areas, the precipitation had turned to rain or freezing rain.

“What struck me was the breadth of the school closings,” said Bill Reedy, of the Vermont Education Department, as he watched televised closing announcements Friday morning. “I kept looking for a school that was open.”

The storm struck the Plains on Wednesday before moving into the Great Lakes and the Northeast. Tens of thousands were still without power Friday in Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and New York.

Some 500 people in and around Kansas City, Mo., took refuge overnight in shelters, according to the Red Cross.

“This is the most devastating storm we’ve ever experienced in our 120-year history,” said Bill Dowling, executive vice president of Kansas City Power and Light.

Flights resumed Friday at Kansas City International after two days of disruptions, and service was back to normal at O’Hare and Midway airports in Chicago. Service at the airport in Portland, Maine, was disrupted Friday morning but restored during the afternoon.

The storm was blamed for four deaths in Michigan, three each in Nebraska, Oklahoma and Illinois, two each in Kansas, Iowa and New York and one in Missouri.

In southern Illinois, a 3-year-old girl was found dead after floodwaters swept her from her grandmother’s arms as the woman tried to cross a stream.

Also Friday, wind collapsed a nearly nine-story dome near Detroit that housed a driving range and miniature golf course, officials said. One minor injury was reported.