Sleet and freezing rain had area motorists sliding off roads and into each other on Saturday, with accidents on Interstate 94 at Chesterton backing up traffic for several miles in the afternoon.

Police were kept busy through the evening hours tracking down all the slide-offs and fender benders.

"Outside of town, there's drive-offs everywhere," said Lowell Police Sgt. Todd Angerman at about 8 p.m. "You can't go a block without seeing a car off the road in a ditch."

The situation in town was better, as town street department crews were salting streets before noon and throughout the early snowfalls in anticipation of the ice storm, Angerman said.

A power outage in Dyer knocked out traffic lights along U.S. 30 and left about 1,100 NIPSCO customers without power for a brief time in the afternoon. Power was restored in the area by 4 p.m., according to NIPSCO spokesman Larry Graham.

About 200 ComEd customers in the south suburbs were without electricity as of 8 p.m., according to ComEd spokesman Joe Trost. Other ComEd areas, such as the west suburbs had a total of 17,000 customers without power.

The Indiana Toll Road had numerous accidents but only one brief shutdown at mile-marker 20, due to an accident, according to state police.

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning on Saturday that it expected to keep in place until 5 a.m. this morning. Snow accumulations of up to 2 inches in some areas and ice accumulations of up to one-quarter inch were expected, making driving conditions very hazardous.

The forecast for today is periods of showers with a high of near 46 degrees. Winds will be from the south with a 90 percent chance of precipitation.

Area stores saw increased business Saturday as people loaded up on snow-fighting equipment.

Wal-Mart Supercenter in Portage saw an increase in sales of weather-related items, from food to snow shovels, an assistant manager said. Advance stocking left the store easily able to deal with Saturday's first snowfall.

More than 150 flights were canceled at O'Hare International Airport, said Gregg Cunningham, a spokesman for Chicago's Department of Aviation. Flights were delayed 30 to 45 minutes. Midway was not reporting cancellations.

Times staff writers Brian Williams and Carolyn Thompson, as well as The Associated Press, contributed to this story.