Chicago Area Local News

CHICAGO (CBS) ― The fierce winter storm blew out of the area Friday night and Chicagoans were able to go outside to clean up, but it took until late Saturday morning for the sun finally to come out again. 

As CBS 2's Rafael Romo reports, it feels as if an Easter Polar Bear might have to stand in Easter Bunny.

"Enough already!" one woman said. "It's very pretty, but I've had enough winter '08."

"It keeps coming, and coming, and coming, and I'm just glad I'm not driving in it," another man said.

Rain marked the end of a very snowy day Friday in Chicago and beyond, and many people were hoping this will be the last winter blast. But it was not over.

The Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation sent home most of its trucks at 11 p.m. Friday, and planned to have all its trucks back at base by midnight, with just a skeleton crew watching the streets for problems with snow and ice.

But before dawn Saturday, snow began falling at a rapid clip again. At 3:30 a.m., 181 snow fighting trucks, or about half of the city's fleet, hit the streets again. They were sent to clear the city's main roads and Lake Shore Drive.

The weather system that had been moving east turned south, and started dumping snow again in the early morning hours. By 11:30 a.m., the sun was finally out in downtown Chicago, but the scene looked much more appropriate for Christmas than Easter.

By the late morning, Streets and Sanitation had sent the snow fighting trucks to side streets, along with 24 smaller plows used for narrower streets.

The department expected to send most of the plows home by 12:30 p.m., since the sun was melting some of the snow.

The snowstorm dumped 11 inches in Gurnee, 10.2 inches in Beach Bark, 6.2 inches in Crystal Lake, 6.5 inches in Northbrook, 5.8 inches in Evanston, and 5.3 inches in Schaumburg. Chicago's North Side got about 5. But LaGrange only got half an inch, and some south and southwest suburban areas, and Northwest Indiana, only got trace amounts.

Southeastern Wisconsin had it much worse, with more than a foot of snow in many areas. Waukesha County got 15 inches of snow, Milwaukee County got 14 and Ozaukee County got 12 1/2.

Delays and cancellations were seen at both Chicago airports.

On Friday, delays averaged 90 minutes to 2 hours for all arrivals and departures at O'Hare, and more than 450 flights were canceled. At Midway International Airport, many flights were delayed by 90 minutes, but only 12 flights were canceled.

On Saturday morning, O'Hare was extremely busy and many flights were still delayed.

As of 10:30 a.m. Saturday, O'Hare was experiencing minor delays averaging about 20 minutes and reported about two dozen flight cancellations, some of which might be residual from Friday's cancellations, according to the city's Department of Aviation spokeswoman Karen Pride. She said there were no delays or cancellations at Midway Airport.

Nancy Dehmlow was supposed to fly out Friday morning and was hoping to catch a flight back home on Saturday. She was competing a seat with hundreds of thousands of other people.

"Our plane got canceled. They told us they couldn't get us out until Wednesday," Dehmlow said. "So at that time, we decided to try to change airlines, and so then American (Airlines) worked furiously." She said her young son had tears running down his cheeks.

But as far as air travel, Chicago had it easy compared with Milwaukee.

The snowstorm was so severe that the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office decided to close Mitchell International Airport overnight, CBS station WDJT-TV, Milwaukee, reported. Crews struggled to keep runways clear, and even when they succeeded, the snowfall was so heavy that aircraft could not fly out, WDJT reported.

Mitchell was expected to reopen at 9 a.m.

As CBS 2's Rafael Romo reports, at a time of year when people look forward to the rain washing away the dregs of winter, crews instead spent Friday pouring more road salt – and they have already poured so much this year that some areas have little left.

Last year, the Department of Streets and Sanitation used 277,000 tons of salt. This year, they have already used 450,000 tons, and they are not done yet.

Streets and Sanitation and the Illinois Department of Transportation both dispatched their full fleets to clear main roads and expressways.

During the season, 53 inches of snow has fallen in the Chicago area, and it dipped below zero several times – making this one of the worst winters in decades and one of the five snowiest ever.

It is still putting on hold people's plans to get ready for spring.

"Obviously, we are all ready for the spring – we have the hoes out, the fertilizer and the seed out, the mowers are out," said Scott Evans, manager of LeMoi Ace Hardware in Lake Forest. "We're optimistic, but you get a day like this and we're not as optimistic."

The snowstorm came just as many college students were getting ready to travel to much warmer climates for spring break. For some people, one way of dealing with this long and frigid season is going ahead with their plans of getting ready for the warmer weather.

Rob Kleinert of Lake Forest was walking the street in shorts.

"We are just playing tennis, you know, getting ready for the warm weather, Kleinert said. "We are going on spring break in a day, so we figured we would get the tennis rackets out."

In Waukegan Friday, two area Roman Catholic Churches had to call off a three-mile procession in which the Stations of the Cross were to be reenacted for Good Friday. The plans to walk three miles from Immaculate Conception Church to Holy Family Parish in Waukegan were scrapped in concern for the 500 people who showed up. The event was instead held inside Immaculate Conception Church.

Not too far to the north in Wisconsin, some churches had to cancel Good Friday services altogether. The Rev. Jonathan Jacobs of Ascension Lutheran Church in Milwaukee said the main concern is safety, especially for elderly churchgoers.

But Chicagoans know the month of March is unpredictable, and often unpleasant.

On Tuesday morning, Kris Habermehl described the present month by quoting Garrison Keillor, "God designed the month of March to show people who don't drink what a hangover feels like."

And for what it's worth, snow this late in the year is far from out of the ordinary. One of Chicago's heaviest snowstorms ever happened on March 25 and 26, 1930, when 19.2 inches of snow fell. The latest spring date that snow ever fell was June 2, 1910.

The snow is expected to taper off as the morning goes on, but it will be supplanted by chilly winds from the north at 10 to 20 mph. High temperatures will not crack the 30s for most of the Chicago area.

There is a secondary chance of snow on Sunday, but only minor amounts are expected with no new accumulation.


CBS 2's Steve Baskerville, Dana Kozlov, Kristyn Hartman, Mary Kay Kleist and Rafael Romo, the Lake County News-Sun, the STNG Wire and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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