Groundhog Day Storm May Affect More than 100 Million People

[JBean]

You made my husband's day, JBean! He grew up on a dairy farm just north of Chicago and gets enormous pleasure out of not being there any more.

Your brother's picture will end up on our fridge, I'm sure.

hahaha tell him to enjoy!

I was 10 for the blizzard of 67 so that was a blast for me. LOVED IT. One of my childhood highlights.
The Blizzard of 79 was a doozy and I was living in Wilmette for that one. To be honest I always enjoyed a good snow in myself and went through plenty; a good reason not to go to work. Of course with telecommuting now it isn't even a big deal not to show up. What fun is that?
Not to downplay the seriousness of it all, but there is always a little excitement with a good blizzard too. I got snowed in up in Big Bear during the El Nino season, 97 or 98ish and that was quite a snow season as well. NO way to get out of town or up or down that mountain. that's about all I can handle anymore; I am over snow except for fun and am dying for some of that nice 85 degree stuff to come and stay.

 

[mommy23]

I love all the pics!!!

Ya, we are supposed to get hit harder this weekend, with the subzero temps again, oh joy! But the worse of this storm seems to be on its way out, we made it to +5 degrees! :floorlaugh::floorlaugh::floorlaugh:

 

[Sooner Fan#1]

Hubby just left the house to see if he can get the the main road, to get gas for the suv. Dr's office canceled his appointment for today, but it's still on for tomorrow. It's a 2 1/2 hour trip normally, but we are going to try and make it. Odot advises the turnpikes are open but still not good.

My daughter in Quakertown, Pa was without power for 7 hours today due to ice on the lines. A tree limb broke and fell on their new car. Otherwise, in this part of the country we are having to get back to business.

Wind chill tomorrow is supposed to be -9.

Warm hugs and hopes to all in this monster storm!

 

[Dark Knight]

My mom has 2 tiny dogs, so I had to go an shovel paths and open areas in her YARD for them to go potty in!!!! If I never have to shovel again, it'll be too soon!

Thankfully my large driveway job was made easier with my snowthrower and my neighbor coming over with his truck and plow (praise the Lord for THAT!) Living in the country has it's benefits, but wintertime can be very harsh with the snow drifts. Especially with so much area to clear.

 

[drip~drop]

Hubby just left the house to see if he can get the the main road, to get gas for the suv. Dr's office canceled his appointment for today, but it's still on for tomorrow. It's a 2 1/2 hour trip normally, but we are going to try and make it. Odot advises the turnpikes are open but still not good.

My daughter in Quakertown, Pa was without power for 7 hours today due to ice on the lines. A tree limb broke and fell on their new car. Otherwise, in this part of the country we are having to get back to business.

Wind chill tomorrow is supposed to be -9.

Warm hugs and hopes to all in this monster storm!

I'm more scared of the bitter freezing tomorrow then being held captive by the 10 foot wall of snow surrounding me. My neighbor kid has managed to get out so if he remembers, he'll get me tomorrow after work for some supplies.
I didn't expect '78 all over again. Yikes!

 

[porkchop]

This is the worse I've seen since 79. That was the year I suffered my first concussion when my older brother and two of his friends decided to ride my bigwheel, and me being 5 begged them to let me have a turn, down what had to be a 20 foot pile of snow from the plow trucks that was left by the house. Since then I've had many more, which may explain some of my posting.

But the one thing I glad about is that I don't work for JP Morgan anymore. I used to work the overnight shift for one of the IT departments, and if I still worked there I would have been ordered to go into work last night. For some reason people have this belief that if you live in Chicago you should be able to drive in any type of weather, where as other people, like our site in Delaware, closed when there was over an inch of snow on the ground. The worst was our departments site in Houston that closed whenever they had a hard rain.

But never mind my rantings about driving in the snow, here are some of the most amazing picture I have seen of this storm yet. And take heed from the 15th picture, if you ever have to abandon your car durring a snow storm, make sure you close and lock your doors.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=133441869

 

[Sooner Fan#1]

This is the worse I've seen since 79. That was the year I suffered my first concussion when my older brother and two of his friends decided to ride my bigwheel, and me being 5 begged them to let me have a turn, down what had to be a 20 foot pile of snow from the plow trucks that was left by the house. Since then I've had many more, which may explain some of my posting.

But the one thing I glad about is that I don't work for JP Morgan anymore. I used to work the overnight shift for one of the IT departments, and if I still worked there I would have been ordered to go into work last night. For some reason people have this belief that if you live in Chicago you should be able to drive in any type of weather, where as other people, like our site in Delaware, closed when there was over an inch of snow on the ground. The worst was our departments site in Houston that closed whenever they had a hard rain.

But never mind my rantings about driving in the snow, here are some of the most amazing picture I have seen of this storm yet. And take heed from the 15th picture, if you ever have to abandon your car durring a snow storm, make sure you close and lock your doors.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=133441869

Thanks for checking in! We be in a heap of trouble driving in this, but tomorrow is a new day! Stay warm and Safe!

 

[Disguiseduser0308]

Can't have a blizzard in Chicago without some kind of story like this:

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/...osed-due-to-blizzard-20110201,0,5700082.story

I'm curious as to what WS posters think of it? Now, let it be said, people were warned well in advance to try to avoid this particular thoroughfare. It runs adjacent to Lake Michigan. Chicago lake effect snow can be beyond brutal. Anyone who lives there should know that.

Now there is an outcry because the city didn't act fast enough to 1. close LSD down and 2. people were left for far too long in their vehicles (which according to a PC by the city yesterday, many people didn't want to leave their cars).

Thinking this through, I have to side with the city and LE. They were having to deal with the same conditions and restrictions those conditions brought with it. Unless and until someone can fashion a Robocop there was no way they could have saved over 1000 cars in a timely fashion. In a blizzard.

 

[Pedrosmom]

Can't have a blizzard in Chicago without some kind of story like this:

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/...osed-due-to-blizzard-20110201,0,5700082.story

I'm curious as to what WS posters think of it? Now, let it be said, people were warned well in advance to try to avoid this particular thoroughfare. It runs adjacent to Lake Michigan. Chicago lake effect snow can be beyond brutal. Anyone who lives there should know that.

Now there is an outcry because the city didn't act fast enough to 1. close LSD down and 2. people were left for far too long in their vehicles (which according to a PC by the city yesterday, many people didn't want to leave their cars).

Thinking this through, I have to side with the city and LE. They were having to deal with the same conditions and restrictions those conditions brought with it. Unless and until someone can fashion a Robocop there was no way they could have saved over 1000 cars in a timely fashion. In a blizzard.

ITA!!! In addition to the blizzard warning - they warned about lakefront flooding and anticipated 25 foot waves coming over the drive. The LAST place I would go when this puppy started was LSD. People always want to blame someone when they make judgment errors. I'm just wondering if that man they found dead in Diversey Harbor was from that group stuck on LSD. Did he start to walk from his car and get taken in or slid in? I can't imagine a nice walk along Diversey when this storm started. The winds were here before the snow. So sad when I heard that.

On a different note - I remember the blizzard of 79 and it was more fun. We wanted to sled off the roof, make igloos and play games. My kids wanted to drive around to see if any stores were open. Target was the only one I found - and the Starbucks was closed, to my dismay. To add insult to injury they closed school tomorrow and it will be subzero.

 

[Disguiseduser0308]

I don't mean to come across as cruel and uncaring to those who had to endure that nightmare on LSD. I think many things were to blame: Employers could have allowed their employees to go home earlier. We knew this storm wasn't going to pass us up. It was going to hit us and hit us hard.

The city could have closed down the drive earlier. However, they could not have predicted a bus accident would occur so early in the storm. In theory, the drive should have been okay for a short time.

I have to agree, Pedrosmom, there would have been no way I would have entered the drive if the storm had already started. That so many people kept entering when we were already feeling the affects of the blizzard is beyond anything I can understand. I understand even less sitting with a car for 3+ hours just because I didn't want to leave it. The car be damned, I'm going to get out of there and worry about the car later. It's replaceable. Human life is not.

I was listening to our scanner last night and my heart broke for everyone on LSD. Especially for rescue crews who were likely doing all they could (given the conditions) to get people out of there.

 

[drip~drop]

I take back what I said yesterday. I'm actually going bonkers being held captive in the house the past 4 days. I woke up very upset this morning realizing that I'll be stuck in here again today.

I'm going to have to break in to the human foood for the cats by tomorrow....the kuboda, which can plow me out is stuck behind 10 feet of snow so I have no idea how I'd get it out of the garage anyhow.
:cry: I'm beginning to H A T E this.:maddening:
Oh yeah...plus dh has been out of State and we're all on our own with me in charge and I'm starting to crack.
Now what?

 

[tlcya]

No school, no Scope (daycare), DS still has a fever (day three) and I am so sick of looking at the inside of this house. Bitter cold out there. Go away winter. please.

 

[Hopeful One]

Well, we are dug out and I'm back at work today. Wah!

That was one helluva storm. I didn't go in to work yesterday but my husband did. Here are pictures of part of his drive. The first is a drift in the road. You can't see how bad it really was in the picture - he said part of it was probably 10' high. He stopped, obviously, and a plow driver came over to his car to tell him it might be awhile. There were 15 cars stuck in the drift!! They plowed some of them out and then a plow plowed this path for cars to get through. Mind you, this is a two-lane highway and that path is only big enough for one car at a time. Me thinks my husband was a moron for going through it. I would have turned around and come back home.

My daughter sure enjoyed playing in the snow with the neighbor girls though. We had drifts as high as the windows in our house, and our house is set high. Probably 12' at the highest point.

Today we're left with a temp of -17 degrees below and the kids still had school. :banghead:

 

[not_my_kids]

CABIN FEVER SUCKS!!!! How many days til it's officially spring? We only got 9.9 inches, but they measure our snowfall at the airport, which is on flat ground not surrounded by anything, so we may have gotten more. Hard to tell with the blowing. The 4wd transfer case on our truck went, so we are bound to get stuck if we leave, and I'm way too sick to walk right now.
AGH! Enough already.

 

[drip~drop]

Seriously, I am close to losing it.
Not only stuck here but no human contact in all this time. :cry: I'm so done.

 

[Only4Justice]

ooooh, all my Websleuths friends This is a bad storm, for sure.

I have sunshine today, thank God he answered my prayers. I've been stuck in the house since Tuesday, but if you read my earlier posts you will know I was stuck home without my vehicle, which got stuck down the road in a Huge snowdrift, which is very common in my area. I have 6 feet at the end of my driveway, so I'm working from home today.

The good news is I just got my vehicle, really stressed me out not having it and knowing it was out there in the storm, stuck in a ditch.

Go Away Winter! I've had enough

 

[Dark Knight]

CABIN FEVER SUCKS!!!! How many days til it's officially spring? We only got 9.9 inches, but they measure our snowfall at the airport, which is on flat ground not surrounded by anything, so we may have gotten more. Hard to tell with the blowing. The 4wd transfer case on our truck went, so we are bound to get stuck if we leave, and I'm way too sick to walk right now.
AGH! Enough already.

Seriously, I am close to losing it.
Not only stuck here but no human contact in all this time. :cry: I'm so done.

Praying for BOTH of you gals, in Jesus' Name, amen! :blowkiss:

 

[mommy23]

Seriously, I am close to losing it.
Not only stuck here but no human contact in all this time. :cry: I'm so done.

Nope, losing it is not allowed The warm up will begin today, and tomorrow should be even better! Are you alone? kids? Animals? I am still half asleep from a migraine, cant remember even where you are! haha:innocent:

 

[carbuff]

We're pretty well dug out here in the Boston area, but now we're looking at this: school roofs collapsing and other homes and businesses. The weight of the snow is incredible.

 

[indybail]

After 2 inches of ice, we're looking 0 degree temperatures so it won't melt. Snow days can be great, ice days, not so much.