Crews worked through the night in brutally cold weather to clear abandoned vehicles and reopen a snow-socked Lake Shore Drive in time for Chicago’s Thursday morning commute, two days after the third-largest winter storm in history hit the city.
by Caryn Rousseau and Michael Tarm CHICAGO (AP) — Crews worked through the night in brutally cold weather to clear abandoned vehicles and reopen a snow-socked Lake Shore Drive in time for Chicago’s Thursday morning commute, two days after the third-largest winter storm in history hit the city. The temperature Thursday morning was 0 at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport with a wind chill of -12. The bone-chilling temperatures set in after the National Weather Service issued wind chill advisories for dozens of Illinois counties. "It’ll probably be the coldest (day) of the season so far," National Weather Service meteorologist Amy Seeley said. A blizzard that barreled into the region late Tuesday left more than 20 inches of snow in Chicago. An eerie quiet lingered over normally bustling streets as courts, schools, businesses — and many of its commuter trains — were shut down Wednesday. Many schools canceled classes for a second day Thursday. The weather also halted nearly all flights at both of Chicago’s international airports. Chicago Department of Aviation officials said they hoped flight operations would return to normal Thursday, a day after more than 2,200 flights were canceled at O’Hare International Airport and more than 400 canceled at Midway International Airport. At the height of the storm, hundreds of motorists became trapped and stranded in vehicles on Lake Shore Drive — some for as long as 12 hours. Mayor Richard Daley’s chief of staff, Raymond Orozco, told an early Thursday news conference that the vital roadway has been reopened. He said city workers moved the stranded vehicles to a half-dozen parking lots and that motorists can collect them. Orozco called it a storm, "the like of which we haven’t seen in decades." City officials came under fire for waiting until late Tuesday to close Lake Shore Drive, by which time hundreds of motorists were already stranded. Orozco said closing the drive earlier would have resulted in disastrous traffic on other city streets and increased the possibility of accidents. "Public safety is our top concern and we asked for patience while we dealt with everything this storm threw at us and we’re not done yet," Orozco said as the criticism mounted Wednesday. "At the end of the day, the Lake Shore Drive decision was a judgment call. Specifically, it was my judgment call." Clearing snow remained a challenge Thursday as cars buried in snow also were stuck on side streets — which city officials said they’d get to after all major thoroughfares were clear. The accessibility issue, along with the wind chill and electricity outages, led Chicago Public Schools officials and several suburban districts to cancel classes Thursday for the second straight day. The last time Chicago public schools were closed because of weather was in January 1999. "Because of the severity of this blizzard, it is very clear that many of our personnel, teachers and especially our students are simply physically unable to get to our schools," said interim schools chief Terry Mazany. He said officials would decide Thursday whether to keep schools closed on Friday. Several interstates that closed because of the weather reopened by Wednesday evening, Illinois Emergency Management officials said. Gov. Pat Quinn asked National Guard soldiers on Wednesday to use Humvees to transport Illinois State Police troopers to assist stranded motorists. Quinn called up about 500 members of the National Guard a day earlier. Utility crews across the state battled stubborn wind gusts and drifting snow Wednesday as they scrambled to restore electricity to tens of thousands of homes and businesses left in the dark. Authorities in the Chicago area were investigating whether the storm contributed to at least four deaths, including a man who collapsed while shoveling snow and another who left his car along a rural road and tried to walk home. Associated Press Writers Sophia Tareen, Don Babwin, Karen Hawkins, Tammy Webber and Barbara Rodriguez in Chicago, Jim Suhr in St. Louis and David Mercer in Champaign contributed to this report. Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
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