Slippery conditions persist after first snowfall slaps area
BY Stefano esposito Staff Reporter sesposito@suntimes.com January 12, 2012 10:52AM
Bogdan Pawlak clears snow from a walkway between two buildings on the 3000 block of N. Oakley Ave. last month. | John J. Kim~Sun-Times
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Updated: May 9, 2012 10:10AM
It was more of a slap than the winter “punch” some predicted, but the first major snowstorm of the season made for a crawling, slushy evening commute and promised icy, treacherous roads Friday morning.
“The issue for us will be blowing, drifting snow” Friday, said Guy Tridgell, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Transportation. “The public needs to be aware that even though it has stopped snowing, slippery conditions will persist.”
The department’s 365 trucks and plows were expected to be out rumbling along Chicago area’s expressways and highways early Friday morning, as they were Thursday, Tridgell said.
The peculiarly warm weather will likely return Monday — perhaps with some rain — forecasters say, but not before a chilly weekend, with temperatures not expected to climb much above 20 degrees.
Snow began to fall across the city in the late morning, making for challenging driving conditions by mid-afternoon, both on city side streets and out on the expressways.
“When there’s congestion, we are caught in it like everyone else,” Tridgell said during Thursday’s evening rush hour. “We have our full complement of trucks and plows out there but we can only move as fast as traffic permits.”
Friday morning, the headache for commuters likely will involve dealing with the wind-blown snow from the night before, he said.
There were numerous reports across the region of cars spinning out and fender benders, resulting in some minor injuries. Three people were hurt — at least one seriously — in a six-vehicle crash Thursday afternoon near Deerfield in the northbound lanes of I-94, according to the Illinois State Police, who said the weather was at least partly to blame for the crash.
Along with slippery roads and poor visibility, travelers also saw significant cancellations and some delays Thursday at both of the city’s airports.
Forecasters had said as many as eight inches could blanket the city and suburbs. By Thursday evening, 2.3 inches had fallen at O’Hare International Airport, 3.4 inches at Midway, according to the National Weather Service. Across Cook County, snowfall amounts ranged from 2.5 to 4.5 inches. Yorkville in Kendall County got hit harder than most, with 5.2 inches, the Weather Service said.
At O’Hare, 420 inbound and outbound flights had been cancelled as of 8:30 p.m., and delays were averaging about 45 minutes, according to the city’s Department of Aviation.
At Midway, 140 flights had been cancelled, many of which were Southwest Airlines flights.
The snow was more of an annoyance during the early morning hours Thursday, but drivers were taking it cautiously on area roads. The city also launched a new “Plow Tracker” application where you can watch the plows at work at chicagoshovels.org.
“Chicagoans can see how many plows are working at once, and watch as snow clearing efforts start with major arterial streets and then move to side streets,” Streets & San Commissioner Tom Byrne said.
Motorists should relax, avoid sudden braking, and drive with care, officials said.
ComEd has also conducted inspections and preventive maintenance work for more than 850 substations and thousands of miles of power lines as part of its ongoing effort to maintain its electric system and improve reliability, the utility said. In addition, ComEd instituted a two-way text messaging capability that allows customers to report outages to the utility by texting OUT to 26633 (COMED); and allows ComEd to text restoration information back to customers.
Contributing: Sun-Times Media Wire
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