Ice shuts Seattle airport, 100,000 lose power wsdot.wa.gov This traffic camera image from Thursday morning shows crews pulling a tractor-trailer from a ditch along Interstate 5 just north of downtown Seattle, Wash. SEATTLE -- A day after a major Pacific storm covered Washington state in snow, the Seattle area woke up to a new menace: an ice storm. The area's main airport had to be shut down for de-icing and at least 100,000 homes and businesses were without power. Some commuters gingerly tried to make it to work as a freezing rain iced over roads, but others stayed home. Several major roads were cut off by fallen trees weighed down by ice and snow. Gov. Christine Gregoire declared a state of emergency by late morning, a move that would allow her to deploy National Guard troops if needed. The National Weather Service used the Emergency Alert System to break into Thursday morning broadcasts with an ice storm warning until noon for the Seattle area and southwest Washington. That was later extended to 2 p.m. Forecasters expect up to 0.4 inch of ice before temperatures rise above freezing by afternoon. Time lapse video shows the snow falling Wednesday on Seattle. Downed trees also led to the outages, and many customers might not see power back until Saturday, NBC affiliate KING5.com reported. Sea-Tac Airport closed early Thursday so that its three runways could be de-iced. One runway later reopened, but several airlines reported flight cancellations. At Snoqualmie Pass just east of Seattle, Interstate 90 was closing Thursday morning for avalanche control. Freezing rain and ice pellets caused numerous accidents in the Seattle area, where drivers are mostly inexperienced with driving in snow or ice. The last widespread freezing rain in Seattle was in December 1996, said meteorologist Jeff Michalski at the Weather Service office in Seattle. On Wednesday, downtown Seattle saw two inches of snow but Olympia, the state capital, got 11 inches and other areas were also in double digits. The Washington State Patrol said it responded to more than 700 accidents on Wednesday. It may not have been the disaster some were predicting, but the winter storm shut down much of the region. Thursday's forecast was for a mix of snow and rain, and the Weather Service warned that urban and small stream flooding was possible Friday, when another, albeit milder, storm was expected to hit the state. Rain and temperatures in the 40s would start melting snow on the ground. STORY: Child drowns, others possibly missing in storm The National Weather Service also issued flood warnings for several Oregon rivers and several roads were closed because of flooding in Salem.