Swathed in heavy layers and wielding windshield scrapers, snow blowers and shovels, Chicago-area residents faced a wet, heavy, in-your-face snowstorm Wednesday with legendary Midwestern fortitude.
And a little advance planning.
“If you’re Midwestern, you accept it,” said Charles Suchay, 74, a retired police lieutenant, as he used a snow blower to clear his driveway in Lombard. “If you don’t like the snow, move to Florida.”
The storm developed a little slower than anticipated, said Andrew Krein, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Romeoville. Snowfall was expected to end with light snow during the Thursday morning rush hour.
The storm snarled travel at the two Chicago airports, with O’Hare hit the hardest. With about 900 flights canceled, at least two airlines requested cots for stranded passengers who were spending the night at the airport, said Kristen Cabanban, a Chicago Department of Aviation spokeswoman. It was considerably better at Midway Airport, where 100 flights were canceled and delays were half that of O’Hare’s, she said.
Air passengers on Thursday could expect “a lot of plane catchup” and should check with their airlines before going to the airport, Cabanban said.
Even as legions of plows and salt trucks wended through the area, slushy roads kept homebound traffic to a crawl and contributed to spinouts, especially on the expressways. Snow shoveling was tied to at least one death: an apparent heart attack suffered by a shoveler.
The likes of the winter blast hadn’t been seen here since late January 2002, when a foot of snow blanketed O’Hare. But for the most part, commuters, road workers and fun-seekers proved they haven’t forgotten how to deal with a wintertime whopper.
Abby Sup, 18, a senior at Carmel High School in Mundelein, was so hopeful for a snow day that she checked her school’s Web site at 6:30 a.m. When she learned she had the day free, she celebrated by meeting three friends for breakfast and then took off for a Libertyville sledding hill.
Snowmobile trails opened Wednesday afternoon in Lake County. Trails remained closed in Cook County forest preserves, a district spokesman said, but could open Thursday if the predicted 6 to 10 inches of snow falls. Snowmobile trails also were closed Wednesday in McHenry County.
Because temperatures hovered near 32 degrees, much of the snow that fell on Chicago roadways quickly melted, said Matt Smith, chief spokesman for the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation, which sent out its fleet of 262 snow trucks.
“We kind of like snow. When people see it, they slow down and drive more carefully,” Smith said. “It’s the icy, slick condition which people tend to ignore until there’s a skid.
High temperatures on Thursday are expected to hover in the lower 20s and the upper 20s by Friday. Temperatures should rise by the weekend, with highs well above freezing by Sunday, Krein said.
Traffic reporters slow Ryan traffic
Rubber-necking drivers staring at TV crews reporting on traffic nearly doubled the Wednesday morning inbound rush-hour drive time on the Dan Ryan Expressway, one professional observer said.
“The Dan Ryan was a mess,” said Bart Shore, WBBM-AM’s morning traffic reporter. The delay slowed the 28-minute drive from 95th Street to downtown at 6:30 a.m. to 50 minutes.
–Tribune
