The second major snowstorm in less than two weeks slammed into northern Illinois Monday, snarling expressways during the morning rush hour and disrupting air traffic, but major highways and streets were mostly cleared by Monday night.
Four snow-related deaths were reported as of Monday night, two from traffic accidents and two from the exertion of shoveling snow.
Side streets remained snow-filled and slushy, and thousands of homebound holiday travelers were stranded at O`Hare International Airport, but all in all, Monday`s snowfall caused less disruption than the previous one.
A forecaster for Central Weather Service predicted dry weather for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with high temperatures in the 30s and lows in the 20s in the city.
Officially 8 inches of snow fell in Chicago as of Monday night, almost the same as fell on Dec. 14 and 15 in what was the biggest snowfall here in five years.
Elsewhere in the area, 10 to 12 inches of accumulation was unofficially recorded as of Monday night in the far northern suburbs near the state line. Antioch reported 13 inches of accumulation from the storm, which began Sunday night as rain and sleet and turned to heavy, fluffy, wet snow just in time for the rush hour.
Traffic was a mess during the morning, and snow fell at the rate of 2 inches an hour at times.
But the winds were light, enabling snow plows to clear roads with one pass because the snow did not blow back.
Mike Allison, village manager of Bensenville, called Monday`s snow, ”a picture-postcard snowstorm.”
By Monday night, traffic was moving smoothly on the major expressways, said Mitch Rogers of the Illinois Department of Transportation.
Rogers said the department`s computers showed no congestion on Chicago-area expressways after 5 p.m., which was remarkable because congestion on the expressways normally lasts until 6:30 or 7 p.m., he said.
”A lot of people didn`t go to work,” Rogers speculated. Either that, or they left early.
So far Chicago has recorded about 20 inches of snow, half of the average 40-inch snowfall for the entire season, according to Greg Soulje of the Central Weather Service. Usually, the heaviest snowfalls come in January and February, he said.
”But, the weather doesn`t look at the calendar,” he said.
A number of factors made the second major snowstorm of the winter a little more bearable than the first. Schools were closed for the holidays. Also, many workers were still taking some time off.
Commonwealth Edison Co. reported that about 3,500 customers were without power at some point Monday, mostly because of power lines felled by tree limbs. An estimated 165,000 customers were without power at some time during the last storm.
Debbie Vestal, spokeswoman for Edison, said the damage from Monday`s storm was less because most of the dead branches were shaken out of the trees in the previous storm.
Spokesmen for the Chicago Transit Authority and for the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation predicted a normal rush hour for Tuesday if no substantial amount of snow falls overnight.
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Snow removal is expected to begin on the city`s side streets at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday and continue into Wednesday, said Kirsten Svare, spokeswoman for the city Department of Streets and Sanitation.
Although O`Hare officially was kept open Monday by the city, most airlines, including United and American, canceled most flights.
The airport was jammed with travelers temporarily going nowhere, but the atmosphere was calm rather than hectic.
Most of the crowd at O`Hare appeared to be holiday travelers who took the delays in good spirits.
O`Hare workers kept at least two of the airport`s seven runways open throughout the day. The decision to cancel flights belonged to the airlines, said officials at O`Hare. At 9 p.m., four runways were open.
Two traffic deaths were blamed on the storm. State police said Daniel Drewry, 50, of Orland Hills, was killed when his northbound car skidded into the path of a southbound Greyhound bus at 6:10 a.m. on U.S. Hwy. 45 just south of Ill. Hwy. 83.
In Wheaton, Bernice Kroeger, 80, of 100 Park Circle, was struck and killed by a van at 5:30 a.m. as she crossed the 1700 block of North Main Street.
Police said snow was falling so heavily at the time that visibility was diminished for both the driver and the pedestrian. The driver was not charged. Two men were reported to have died of heart attacks in the Chicago area while shoveling snow.
Raymond Hogan, 72, of Elmhurst, collapsed at about 10:30 a.m. in front of his home. In Chicago, Fred Jezuit, 71, of the West Side, suffered an apparent heart attack while shoveling in front of his home.
The storm was worse in far northwestern Illinois, where it hit Sunday night, forcing authorities to close a 40-mile stretch of U.S. Hwy. 20 from East Dubuque to Stockton, said Jo Daviess County Sheriff Steve Allendorf.
County officials opened three public schools in Stockton, Elizabeth and Galena for about five hours to give 400 stranded travelers a place to wait out the storm. More than 100 travelers slept Sunday night in the Stockton school. North and west of Illinois, it was worse yet.
Fifteen inches of snow fell in sections of Minnesota, up to 14 inches in parts of Wisconsin and 12 inches in parts of Iowa.
On the Western Plains, where up to 34 inches of snow fell without warning in the Colorado foothills, more than 100 miles of Int. Hwy. 25 remained closed Monday night by snowdrifts in Wyoming.
On Sunday, the storm closed Denver`s Stapleton International Airport for 7 1/2 hours, the airport`s first complete shutdown since 1983. Airport official Richard Boulware said a second runway was opened Monday morning, but delays ranged up to three hours.