IOWA CITY, Iowa — The candidates themselves are enjoying the West Coast today, but the spouses of Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama were forced to cancel a round of Iowa stump speeches due to a massive ice storm.

Bill Clinton's three campaign events in eastern Iowa were called off at 7:19 a.m., just before the power in my hotel went out. Michelle Obama's four stops were postponed late last night as Iowa braced for freezing rain and disastrous roads.

Former Sen. John Edwards had to scrap one event this morning but as of right now will go on as planned with the rest of his Main Street Express tour late this afternoon.

Candidate Clinton is in San Francisco and Obama is in Los Angeles and Seattle.

I thought Iowans were tough about the weather, but everyone is telling me I'd be better off to hunker down and avoid the roads today. This same storm left nearly half a million people without power and killed at least 14 people.

The impending weather didn't prevent hundreds from turning out out to Bill Clinton's two events last night in Grinnell and Iowa City, but you have to wonder how the campaigns will handle getting their supporters out to a 6:30 p.m. caucus should such a storm blow through the Hawkeye State on Jan. 3.

Edwards aide Jonathan Prince told reporters recently his camp is prepared for the worst Iowa weather, and noted that a recent storm that forced event cancellations didn't affect Edwards. "Our folks trooped through the snow, freezing rain and sleet," he said.

— Christina Bellantoni, national political reporter, The Washington Times

UPDATE: The power came back on for a minute, long enough to catch a KWWL 7 report predicting dangerous roads, snow in northeastern Iowa and more freezing rain and sleet for this region.

The station also reported there are at least 560,000 homes without power.

The Edwards camp will be announcing shortly that its two remaining events are off, but they may hold an event in Iowa City this afternoon, and they plan to get the bus rolling again in the morning.

— CB