At least 16 people died Tuesday as a result of the biggest snowfall in the Chicago area in five years. Most of the deaths were caused by shoveling wet, heavy snow, according to officials in the six-county area.
Although 16 deaths were confirmed by hospitals late Tuesday, the actual number of weather-related deaths may be at least 25. The Cook County medical examiner`s office reported 19 deaths caused from shoveling snow or pushing snowblowers. Coroners in other counties reported 6 snow-related deaths.
The ”thundersnow” that struck the Chicago area late Monday and early Tuesday brought the biggest accumulation for a single storm since April 5, 1982, when more than 9 inches fell.
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The snow depth Tuesday officially measured 8 inches at O`Hare International Airport and was unofficially reported to be 12 inches deep in some areas.
The snow was so wet and heavy that officials in some suburbs reported that their smaller snowplows could not move it.
”It`s about the heaviest stuff I`ve ever seen,” said Jim DiCola, 23, weather forecaster at the Central Weather Service.
The storm shut down O`Hare International Airport for several hours Tuesday for only the fifth time in its history.
The unusual storm combined snow, lightning, thunder, powerful winds, large hailstones and an extreme drop in barometric pressure. The pressure drop, which led to spiraling winds, matched the conditions of small hurricanes, said Paul Merzlock of the National Weather Service.
These extraordinary conditions caused hundreds, perhaps thousands, of scattered power failures all day Tuesday.
At one point, an estimated 165,000 Commonwealth Edison Co. customers were without power, according to Debbie Vestal of Edison. She said the peak number of power fsilures, which occurred between noon and 1 p.m., may even have been higher. By late Tuesday night, 14,000 homes were still without power.
Hundreds of schools closed throughout the Chicago metropolitan area, mostly in the suburbs. Chicago public schools stayed open but reported many absentees.
Some businesses closed, and at least one large suburban shopping mall, the Fox Valley Shopping Center in Aurora, closed for several hours.
The Central Weather Service forecast a few days` relief, saying the next substantial snowfall, which is also expected to be a wet one, should not occur until Friday night or Saturday.
Wednesday is expected to bring snow showers accumulating to less than half an inch, forecaster Mike Sharp said.
But he said high winds of 20 to 30 miles an hour were expected to continue Wednesday morning, with temperatures rising gradually from an expected morning low of 15 degrees in outlying areas. The combination of wind and temperature should cause a wind-chill factor of 10 degrees below zero in outlying areas to 5 degrees above zero near the lake.
”As the temperature warms (to a predicted Wednesday high in the mid- to upper-20s), the winds will die out, too,” Sharp said. He said Wednesday afternoon ”it will feel like the temperature has gone up 20 to 30 degrees.” Merzlock and DiCola both called the storm Monday night and Tuesday a
”thundersnow” because of the unusual combination of thunderstorm activity combined with major snowfall.
Winds unofficially estimated at 70 m.p.h. in De Kalb and Oswego Tuesday morning blew out windows in some dormitories at Northern Illinois University, De Kalb, Merzlock said.
Officially, the highest wind gust was a gale-force 64 m.p.h., recorded at O`Hare at 5:06 a.m., he said.
Wind gusts of 60 to 65 m.p.h. were also recorded at Rockford and Moline, he said.
In terms of the total amount of snowfall, the 8 inches of Monday night and Tuesday was far less than the ”Big Snow” of Jan. 26-27, 1967, in which Chicago received 23 inches in more than 24 hours. The Monday-Tuesday snowfall also paled in comparison to the 16.5 inches that fell Jan. 13, 1979. The 1979 figure was part of a historic snowfall that took place over eight days.
But for ”intensity,” based on the extreme low pressure system which caused the high winds, Merzlock called the latest storm ”the storm of the decade.”
He said the last time the Chicago area saw its like was on Jan. 26, 1978. That storm dropped about 13 inches of snow, he said.
The wet snow also clogged snow blowers, and hospitals reported treating at least 13 people who injured their fingers while trying to unclog by hand snow blowers that were stalled by the wet snow.
Some of the injuries resulted in the amputation of finger tips.
The weight of the snow caused a wall and part of the roof to collapse in a two-story building housing Englewood Electrical Supply Co., 3939 S. Karlov Ave., at 10:45 a.m. Tuesday. The occupants were evacuated, and no injuries were reported.
The snowfall and blocked roads also caused courthouses to remain closed all day in Du Page and Lake Counties. One courthouse in Chicago, at 1340 S. Michigan Ave., was closed all day Tuesday because it had no heat.
Traffic was a mess on highways during the night and before dawn, with police departments reporting many cars sliding off roads into ditches and many more fender-bender accidents. Police said, however, that roads were less crowded than usual and speculated that many people stayed inside to watch the football game. In Du Page County early Tuesday, a snowplow driver took a detour from his assigned route to make a path to the hospital for an expectant mother and her husband.
Wind was the worst problem reported by the Cook County Highway Department Tuesday. ”The wind has been whipping real bad,” said Jim Breen, road maintenance chief for the department. ”No sooner do you get the roads cleared than the wind whips the snow in behind you.”
In Du Page County early Tuesday, a snowplow driver took a detour from his assigned route to make a path to the hospital for an expectant mother and her husband.
The snowplow driver was flagged down by the father at 2 a.m. at Butterfield and Naperville Roads. The snowplow driver then plowed a path to Central Du Page Hospital, Winfield, with the expectant parents` car following. They reached the hospital in time, said Karl Fry, Du Page County highway superintendent.
Laura Ford, the mother, had a baby boy at about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The deaths that could be confirmed from the storm Tuesday were the following:
COOK COUNTY
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Anthony Irpino, 65, of Capulina Ave., Morton Grove. A Cook County sheriff`s spokesman said Irpino ”apparently became disoriented and drove into the lake” at 4300 block of Westlake Avenue, Northfield Township, at 12:05 a.m. Tuesday.
Frank Crumley, 86, of Pick Lane, Glenview, died while shoveling snow.
Richard Marzec, 61, of Ruby Street, Schiller Park, died while shoveling snow.
Kenneth Skaalen, 65, of North Potawatomie Street, died while shoveling snow.
Anthony Zubak, 61, of South 13th Avenue, Riverside, died while shoveling snow.
Arnold Abraham, 69, of Grassmer Lane, Elk Grove Village, died while shoveling snow.
Allan Schneider, 43, of Thacker Street, Des Plaines, died while shoveling snow.
Rocco Montano, 84, of Park Ridge, ”snow related.”
Einar Gustafson, age unknown, Morton Grove, ”snow related.”
Herbert Drengberg, 71, of Niles, ”snow related.”
Walter Smigielski, 66, of 9521 S. Maplewood Ave., died after shoveling snow.
Phillip Schlogel, 75, of 9411 S. Hamlin Ave., died after shoveling snow.
DU PAGE COUNTY
Richard Karp, 57, of South Avers Avenue in Chicago, died in Downers Grove after shoveling snow. A Hinsdale Hospital spokesman reported another snow-related death but declined to give the victim`s name.
LAKE COUNTY (Illinois)
Karl Holzman, 52, Zion`s commissioner of public health and safety, died while shoveling snow.
LAKE COUNTY (Indiana)
Adolph Kabo, 62, of Hammond, died while shoveling snow.