(AP) -- A bone-chilling Arctic cold wave with temperatures as low as 38 below zero shut down schools for thousands of youngsters Monday, halted some Amtrak service and put car batteries on the disabled list from the northern Plains across the Great Lakes.
The cold was accompanied by snow that was measured in feet in parts of upstate New York.
With temperatures near zero and a wind chill of 25 below, school districts across Ohio canceled classes. "We have a lot of kids that walk to school. We didn't think it was worth the risk," Sandusky City Schools Superintendent Bill Pahl said.
Wisconsin's largest school district, Milwaukee Public Schools, also shut down, idling some 90,000 children, and in upstate New York 34,000 kids got the day off in Rochester because of near-zero temperatures. Schools also closed in parts of Michigan.
Even in Minnesota, where February cold is the norm and people are accustomed to coping, some charter schools closed.
The temperature plunged to 38 below zero Monday morning at Hallock in northwestern Minnesota, and to 30 below at International Falls, the weather service said.
Veterinarian Wade Himes wasn't too concerned as he ate breakfast at the Shorelunch Cafe in International Falls.
"We get up and go to work, and people come and see us. I don't think anything changes that much. [You] just dress warm," said Himes, 69.
Grand Forks, North Dakota, also registered 30 below.
"For this time of year, this isn't that unusual, as far as temperatures go," said weather service meteorologist Bill Abeling in Bismarck, North Dakota.
"To get record temperatures this time of year in North Dakota, you've got to delve down in the 40-below region, so we're not even close."
Rhinelander, Wisconsin, fell to 20 below, with a wind chill of minus 36.
Amtrak shut down passenger service in parts of western and northern New York state, where the cold was accompanied by as much as 2 feet of snow fed by moisture from the Great Lakes near Buffalo and Watertown.
South of Watertown, the weather service said 3 to 4 of snow was likely in the rural Tug Hill region, notorious for extremely heavy lake-effect snow accumulations.
Whiteout conditions and slippery pavement shut down a 38-mile stretch of the New York Thruway for several hours during the night.
At least 30 water main breaks were blamed on the cold in Detroit, city Water and Sewerage Department spokesman George Ellenwood told The Detroit News.
The cold also brought calls for help from car owners faced with dead batteries and frozen locks.
"During the weekend, 10,000 motorists called for assistance. And that's a record in recent years," Nancy Cain, spokeswoman for AAA Michigan, said Monday. "This morning we've already had 300 calls for help."
