Feb 25, 2007 10:28 pm US/Central
City Still Trying to Clear Remains of Storm
Ice And Snow Left Hundreds Without Power
CBS 2's Mai Martinez, STNGWire and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Chicago snow plows clear local roads of snow and ice during a winter storm on Saturday and Sunday.
CBS
Chicago's fleet of 272 snow plows spent roughly six hours on the city's main and side streets to counter Sunday's snow flurries.
Since 3:30 p.m.Saturday, the fleet has been working on city streets and Streets and Sanitation's Electricians and Foresters have been fighting the elements this weekend, addressing storm damage on an emergency basis. These include 106 emergencies related to ice laden tree limbs, 64 traffic signal outages, 19 damaged light poles and 56 downed wires to street lights.
ComEd reports about 57 outages in the Chicago metro area and 300 without power in the Dixon area in western Illinois as of 9 p.m. Sunday. The high point of outages was at midnight when about 38,000 customers were without power.
ComEd's western region was the hardest hit area during the height of the storm, with nearly 18,000 customers losing power. Most of the outages in the western region were the result of ice on power lines, while those closer to the city were the result of wind damage and fallen tree limbs.
The Illinois Department of Transportation reminded drivers to be careful because, although streets may appear dry and safe, they can still be very slick under these conditions.
Accumulation of up to an inch or two of new snow is possible Sunday night. The storm is expected to taper off by Monday morning.
Near the Wisconsin state line, the system may bring 3 to 5 inches of snow, and in much of Wisconsin, totals could amount to a foot.
The winter weather forced O'Hare Airport to cancel about 550 flights for the day and caused delays of 30 to 60 minutes. Midway canceled 40 flights and had delays averaging 60 minutes as of 9 p.m.
Wendy Abrams, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Department of Aviation, estimated that some 1,000 stranded passengers spent Saturday night at O'Hare.
A group of students en route from Paris to Seattle was trying to make the best of it Saturday night.
"We're on stand-by, I think it's 'till Monday," said traveler Megan Hess. "They'll actually have definite flights to Seattle, but tomorrow we'll have to wait around."
Authorities in Chicago were also blaming the weather for a 14-car pileup on the Dan Ryan Expressway.
Nine people were hurt when an Illinois Department of Transportation snow plow clearing the northbound lanes late Saturday night inadvertently tossed snow and ice into the southbound lanes. A total of 11 cars, some with shattered windshields, were towed from the scene.
The pileup was cleared within two hours.
For updates on the weather throughout the weekend, click here for the
CBS 2 WeatherTrak forecast, and tune in to the CBS 2 News.
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