Feb 24, 2007 10:23 pm US/Central
Here We Go...More Snow
Blizzard Warning Issued For Parts Of Chicago Area; Hundreds Of Flights Canceled
CBS 2's Jeff Taylor and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
The more comfortable temperatures the Chicago area had been experiencing over the past week gave way to another messy winter storm.
Yes, winter is far from over and as CBS 2's Rafael Romo reports, many travelers are finding that out this weekend.
What do you do if you're stuck at the airport all night?
This group of students en route from Paris to Seattle was trying to make the best of it.
"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."
Airlines canceled flights at both O'Hare and Midway international airports. At O'Hare, 230 flights had been canceled as of 8:15 p.m., although remaining flights were reportedly on time. United Airlines canceled all their flights to and from O'Hare after 7 p.m., Chicago Department of Aviation spokeswoman Wendy Abrams said. Midway cancelled about 70 flights. United Airlines cancelled all of its flights scheduled to depart after 7 p.m. The number of stranded passengers is in the thousands. Many slept at the airport, but others were scrambling to find a hotel for the night.
"They gave us a little sheet to call the hotel for a discount," said traveler Jeremy Dorris. "That's been busy, so that's not going to help us much."
Fellow traveler Meng He is facing a similar situation. With no connection to the Internet, his wife is searching for hotels, many of which are full. On the roads, the icy and slushy conditions made for a challenging night for drivers.
"I think they're pretty bad," said driver Josh Baltzer. "It's hard to drive and you can't really see much."
Driver Rex Arceo said the last cold snap made him sick and now he's sick again due to the weather.
The precipitation started late Saturday afternoon with the city's Streets and Sanitation department deploying 272 snow-fighting trucks at 3:30 p.m.
The weather has already caused about 9,500 ComEd customers to lose service. The greatest number of outages is in the Western suburbs where about 5,000 customers are without power. 2,000 people in the city are affected as well as 2,000 people in the Northern suburbs. In the southern suburbs about 500 customers are in the dark.
100 crews are in the field working on the outages. Downed tress have affected some power lines.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for most of the Chicago area, including Chicago and suburban Cook County, and all of the south, west, and southwest suburbs, from 4 p.m. Saturday to noon Sunday.
But in Lake and McHenry counties, a blizzard warning is in effect.
A blizzard is defined by winds at 35 m.p.h. or more, or frequent gusts to 35 m.p.h., as well as visibility of 1/4 mile or less because of falling or blowing snow.
A flood watch is in effect for parts of central Illinois, where heavy rains could mix with melting snow to push some rivers above flood stage.
For updates on the weather throughout the weekend, click here for the
CBS 2 WeatherTrak forecast, and tune in to the CBS 2 News.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
SLIDESHOW: See The Week's News In Photos
Get breaking news alerts
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Comments