Snowy weather creates big disruptions
by Cheryl V. Jackson Staff Reporter
This board at Midway says it all Sunday. | Sun-times Media
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David Becker stared at the American Airlines flight status board at O’Hare International Airport Sunday afternoon, watching much of it change from white to yellow, mostly to indicate canceled flights.
“They’re dropping like flies,” he said of the flights.
The Chicago man was waiting to pick up relatives traveling from the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. They’d had one flight canceled. Becker wanted to see if they would make another Sunday.
Sunday’s snow storm forced the cancellation of about 1,700 flights in Chicago, wreaked havoc with area roads and blew the roof off a Navy Pier entertainnment venue. Up to 4 inches hit the area.
About 1,375 flights at O’Hare had been canceled by early evening and more cancellations were anticipated, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.
The weather caused more than 300 flight cancellations and also delays of up to two hours at Midway Airport.
O’Hare averages about 2,000 flights daily; Midway, about 540.
At the request of airlines, O’Hare put out about 200 cots to accommodate stranded passengers. Concessions also were required to remain open longer.
Laura Riley and her beau Howard Yantis opted for the Hilton on Sunday after their 2:40 p.m. flight to Dallas was canceled, and three later flights were full.
They’d had a full weekend, checking out how Chicago did the holidays. They visited the Christkindlmarket at Daley, hit the Art Institute of Chicago, ate at an Italian restaurant and saw “Wicked.”
“It was terrific up until we had to travel back home,” Riley said.
“I’d mentioned the Caribbean about 15 times,” Yantis grumbled, as the couple killed time at the Hilton’s Andiamo Bar & Restaurant.
A winter weather advisory remained in effect until midnight Monday for Cook, DuPage, Lake and Will counties, according to the national Weather Service’s website. Snow was expected to continue through the night, then give way to bitter cold temperatures and strong winds.
Strong winds blew the entire roof off the Pepsi Skyline Stage at Navy Pier between 11 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., Navy Pier spokeswoman Delores Robinson said.
The stage was closed for the season, and no one was injured, she said.
The weather made for hazardous road conditions.
About 25 vehicles — nine of them semitrailer trucks — were involved in a Sunday morning traffic crash near Granville in north Central Illinois. The incident, which was apparently weather-related, closed Westbound Illinois 71 near the Route 89 exit.
About 174 Chicago Department of Streets & Sanitation trucks hit the city’s main roads and Lake Shore Drive Saturday night to salt and plow snow.
Still, Illinois State Police said roads were slick in Chicago and in the west and northwest suburbs.
That didn’t deter many Chicagoans, used to dicey December weather, from getting out.
Steven Hart was on his way from his Uptown neighborhood home Sunday afternoon to join friends to see Renee Fleming in concert at the Civic Opera House .
A buddy, with a four-wheel drive vehicle, offered to drive the gang to the subscriber appreciation concert they had been anticipating since September.
“This weather doesn’t affect anything,” Hart said. “Except maybe it slows down traffic.”
John Nash had already started working Sunday afternoon to make for a smoother commute on Monday.
He’d cleaned the snow off his car by 2 p.m., and would take another swipe in the next five hours, and then again before bed.
“I’ll shovel ahead of time if I need to tonight, to make sure I don’t mess up my good shoes in the morning,” he said.
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