A winter storm delivering a steady dose of snow continued to blanket the Chicago region Friday, snarling traffic, canceling flights and prompting countless sloppy trudges over slush-slickened sidewalks. Those who weathered tough commutes to work and school face the same heading home in the evening, officials say.
The storm contributed to the death of a man who had a heart attack while shoveling snow in Naperville, authorities there said. With most schools in the city and suburbs shuttered, parents scrambled to find child care or rearranged work schedules. Many Chicago-area government facilities and businesses were closed because of the weather. “Are you working from home?” quickly became one of the day’s most-asked questions.
But for plenty of others it was business as usual. Commuters slogged through snow-covered streets, icy expressways and wind-swept train platforms, enduring elevated travel times as they trekked through the storm to their jobs.
Six inches of snow had fallen throughout much of the region by midday, according to National Weather Service reports, with the storm still churning strong into the afternoon. Areas to the north and northwest of the city had recorded 8 to 9 inches of snow.
Snow was continuing to fall at a rate of about an inch per hour, the weather service said.
A winter storm warning remains in effect until 6 p.m., three hours earlier than when it was first issued Thursday. The weather service said 3 to 6 additional inches of snow is expected into the afternoon. That could mean a challenging evening commute. Weather service meteorologist Todd Kluber said a band of snow moving across Iowa was causing some “concerns” for the afternoon.
And the blast of winter weather will continue throughout the weekend once this storm system passes. The weather service is forecasting another round of snow Friday evening into Saturday morning that could deliver another 1 to 2 inches. Yet another system could arrive Sunday morning with 1 to 3 more inches of snow.
Edward Hospital spokesman Keith Hartenberger said a man in his 60s died after having a heart attack Friday morning while shoveling snow in Naperville. Hartenberger said the emergency room at the hospital, also in Naperville, saw several people come in with minor injuries related to car wrecks.
The storm that began Thursday night has caused dozens of crashes on area expressways and by mid-Friday morning had led to the cancellation of at least 1,000 flights at O’Hare and Midway airports.
As snow fell throughout the morning, the city of Chicago said it had deployed more than 300 salt spreading-plow trucks from the Department of Streets and Sanitation fleet to try to clear of snow and ice.
More than a dozen agencies have prepared a “unified, uniform and unyielding response,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said.
“There have been snow days prior to 2018,” Emanuel said. “And we have as a city handled them.”
The Loop’s sidewalks and streets were noticeably less crowded Friday morning, the business district thinned by shuttered offices and workers who stayed home with children. Office tower maintenance crews busily revved snowblowers, sweepers and salt spreaders to clear building entrances, trying to keep pace with the storm. The unofficial Chicago winter sport of curb jumping was in full effect as those unlucky enough to have to report into work leapt over piles of quickly browning slop at street corners.
One man, undeterred by the weather, churned his bicycle through an unplowed downtown bike lane, leaving behind a meandering tire track in the snow.
There are no classes Friday at Chicago Public Schools,but CPS buildings remain open and accepted students who arrived at schools. Chicago Public Library and Chicago Park District facilities are open during normal operating hours for families seeking alternative youth facilities and programs.
CPS schools are expected to be open Monday.
Jason Judy, of Hyde Park, said school was closed for his three children, so he and his wife decided she would stay home and he’d head into work. He wasn’t bothered by the “pretty” snow as he waited for a No. 6 Jackson Park Express bus to ferry him to his downtown Chicago architecture firm. He said he’s just happy the CTA buses were running.
“It’s been OK — I’ve got my boots on. And it’s pretty,” Judy told the Tribune early Friday as stood at the 53rd Street and Hyde Park Boulevard stop.
CTA service was experiencing only minor delays Friday morning, officials said. Trains have been equipped with slow-plowing and de-icing tools.
“We’re prepared for the long haul over the weekend,” Bonds said.
At the CTA’s Green Line stop on 47th Street, Regina Gibson, 36, said she was running late for work downtown because of slower trains. But she said she was grateful her husband drove her to the train station instead of her taking her usual mile-long walk from her home. She added that the snow was nothing like the blizzard of 2011.
“The snow hasn’t been bad. It’s not heavy where it’s backbreaking,” Gibson said.
At O’Hare and Midway, 280 heavy snow equipment operators have been on the airfields, attempting to clear snow.
In northwest suburban Arlington Heights, where about six inches of snow had fallen by midmorning, 32 public works employees are working 12-hour shifts to ensure streets are plowed and salted.
“We have a lot of tools in our toolbox to deal with snow, but Mother Nature can always undo our efforts,” Arlington Heights Public Works Director Scott Shirley said.
“This snowfall seems to have scooted south, and they keep changing the forecast, so there’s a lot of guesswork involved,” Shirley said. “But we’re feeling lucky today because all of the local schools are closed, which in our minds is a good thing, as it takes a lot of the traffic off the roads, and we don’t have kids on the sidewalks walking to school.”
In west suburban Naperville, Kim Monovich cleared a sidewalk near 104th Street with a snowblower Friday morning.
“I am happy not to see many cars out,” Monovich said. “The roads look really bad.”
With another 3 inches of snow expected by day’s end, it also seemed like a good excuse for many adults to work from home, city officials noted.
That was not an option for Mark Kaszowski, who was getting fuel for his company truck at a gas station on Route 59 early Friday morning.
“Work is work; customers are waiting,” said Kaszowski, an employee of Fox Valley Fire and Safety. “The roads are really bad. Route 59 is really bad. To be honest with you, I talked to my co-workers and some of the side streets are much better.”
To the north, the Glenview Police Department responded to at least three calls of cars in ditches since the snow began, but no major crashes have been reported, said Glenview Police Department Sgt. Robert Francois.
“I thought it would be a lot busier,” Francois said, “but it has actually been quiet.”
Among the travel warnings, cancellations and closings Friday:
- Metra issued a winter weather advisory asking riders to allow extra time for their commute and check service alerts for delays. Several lines reported delays, and the BNSF line operated on an alternate schedule.
- On the CTA, Red Line trains stood for half an hour at Howard because of mechanical problems, creating delays for southbound travel. Loop-bound Green and Orange line trains reported minor delays. Other CTA train and bus lines were running normally.
- Chicago Public Schools canceled classes for Friday, along with hundreds of suburban schools.
- Police and transportation officials advised people to postpone any unnecessary travel. Most area expressways were covered with snow and ice and visibility was low, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation winter condition report.
- Side streets in Chicago remained snow-covered, as the city’s full fleet of 300 plows tackled the main thoroughfares through the morning, officials said. Streets and Sanitation Commissioner John Tully said crews were focusing on clearing main routes for law enforcement and emergency personnel and will focus on residential streets once the storm blows over.
- Around 950 flights have been canceled at the city’s airports, 700 at O’Hare and 250 at Midway, according to FlightStats. Visibility at the airports was less than three-quarters of a mile in the morning, and in some areas snow fell at a rate of one inch per hour overnight, officials said.
- State police in the Chicago district responded to 25 crashes late Thursday and early Friday, police said, a count that is “much more than usual.” Troopers responded to four crashes on the Tri-State Tollway, and another 15 crashes in the Elgin and Joliet districts.
- The Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in downtown Chicago is closed.
- All Cook County courts are closed Friday, except Central Bond Court at the Leighton Criminal Court Building and juvenile detention hearings at the juvenile center, according to a statement from Chief Judge Timothy Evans. All Friday hearings will be rescheduled.
- Chicago area secretary of state offices are closed Friday. Check closings here.
- The Shedd Aquarium is closed.
Warnings
The warning in effect until 6 p.m. covers DuPage, Cook, Kendall, Will and Lake counties in Illinois and Porter County in Indiana.
Indiana
The weather service said Lake and Porter counties could see 8 to 14 inches of snow. Election boards in Lake and Porter counties could get an extension for the closing of candidate filing, which was set to end Friday at noon.
“It’s just a wait and see right now,” said Michelle Fajman, director of the Lake County Board of Elections and Voter Registration. “We do have the backup plan.”
The Indiana secretary of state’s office notified the state’s county election offices that if their buildings are closed because of the storm, state law will automatically defer the close of filing to noon Monday.
Suburbs
In north suburban Lake County on Friday, snow totals around 7 a.m. included 5.5 inches in North Barrington and Mundelein, 5 in Gurnee and 4.8 in Lake Villa.
West of the county line, Woodstock reported 6.2 inches and locations in McHenry County reported 6 inches.
The Lake County Division of Transportation reported more than a dozen crashes between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m., including collisions that delayed traffic on the Tri-State Tollway south of Grand Avenue in Gurnee.
The College of Lake County canceled classes and closed all campuses Friday, and elementary and high school districts across the county called off classes, including Waukegan District 60.
Elgin police and fire officials responded to two significant incidents overnight and through midmorning Friday.
Elgin Fire Battalion Chief Terry Bruce said that after 1:30 a.m. Friday a Fire Department ambulance heading east on Larkin Avenue was hit by a southbound pickup truck with a plow that apparently ran through a red light at Larkin and McLean Boulevard.
Bruce said neither the truck’s driver or the three firefighters on Ambulance 6 were hurt in the accident, but the plow damaged a rim and tire on the ambulance. The Fire Department would be using a reserve ambulance.
In Naperville, 107 trucks were being deployed throughout the city to continue plowing and salting efforts, according to a news release. As of 6 a.m., about 4.5 inches of snow had fallen in Naperville. By 10 a.m., that total was expected to reach 8 inches, officials said.
Major arterial roadways throughout Naperville are passable but remain snow-covered, officials said. Crews focused on major roadways during the morning rush, then were to shift their focus to plowing neighborhood roadways.
Aurora’s snow-removal crew worked through the night plowing primary streets, and more than 75 contractors have started to assist with the residential streets, according to the city’s Facebook page.
Bethany Shapiro of Waukegan started her commute via public transportation to her job at Gurnee Mills earlier than usual Friday to give herself extra time, toting dry shoes to change into when she arrived.
“I don’t like this weather but you just have to deal with it because we can’t control it,” she said.
While many commuters got an earlier start than usual to account for slower travel, Vince Peterkin pushed his work day back a couple of hours. He usually catches the 6:13 a.m. train from Waukegan to his job in North Chicago, but on Friday he wanted to wait until after sunrise, when he felt travel would be less dangerous. He also took the bus to the train station Friday morning; usually he walks the half-mile from his apartment.
“Living here, you know it’s going to happen. We know we’re going to get a couple of storms a year,” he said.
