Jammed up
Hundreds of travelers spent WAY more time than they planned to in Gary, Ind., last week. They were stranded on the highway for hours last Monday after a snowstorm swept in and brought traffic to a halt. Travelers spent up to 30 hours stuck in their cars with no food, water, warmth or access to a bathroom. State officials blamed wind and snow for the huge jam on I-80/94, one of the country’s major east-west highways. (As soon as plows cleared the way, more snow hit.)
Lights out
Up to 500,000 northern Illinois residents lost power in the storm. Power was restored quickly in some areas, but other customers waited for days. Some people complained that power outages happen too often; utility officials said it wasn’t the utility’s fault that the wet, heavy snow downed trees and wires.
School’s in
The storm actually provided relief for some area kids – the ones who got snow days, that is. But it was a cold, cruel world for other kids. Take it from one reader we talked with, Gwen P., 12, of Glen Ellyn: “What a bummer! The blizzard on Monday (March 9) caused every school district in my town to close, except mine. (Since my school is under construction, they didn’t want to make up an extra day in the summer.) Even my two older brothers’ school was closed. I hated listening to my brothers teasing me, saying, `You have to go to school and we don’t.’ It made me mad to know while I was slaving away at school my brothers (and pretty much every kid in town) stayed home. How unfair!” We agree, Gwen. (We know it’s cold comfort, but we had to work…)
