Chicago area residents coped with an arctic cold wave Tuesday and early Wednesday, when temperatures plunged at midnight to minus 9 at O`Hare International Airport and threatened to break the 104-year record for the date of 14 below before dawn.
The bone-numbing cold turned even short trips into survival treks and disturbed the routines for most area residents.
Some suburban schools closed Tuesday rather than expose students to the subzero temperatures, school buses were late in Chicago and a broken water main knocked out telephone service to about 900 homes and businesses in suburban Cicero.
But almost everybody was just coping, including flamingos at Lincoln Park Zoo that were forced to spend the night in a heated basement when the aviary furnace conked out.
”It`s the coldest weather I`ve ever experienced in my life,” said Patrice Pitman, 22, who recently moved to Evanston from New York City.
”I don`t understand why people live here,” said Pitman, who is, for the present, a receptionist in the Loop. ”I don`t know why I live here. I`m thinking of moving back to New York.”
The official low for Tuesday was 11 below at 7 a.m. at O`Hare International Airport, the official recording station for Chicago, with a wind-chill factor of 49 below, according to the Central Weather Service. At Aurora Airport, a temperature of minus 17 was recorded at 6 a.m. Tuesday.
Tuesday`s official high temperature was only 2 below zero at 3 p.m., but the wind chill was 38 below at the time.
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At 3 p.m. Tuesday in Anchorage, Alaska, the temperature was 18 above, according to the National Weather Service.
The record low for Jan. 6 is 14 below, set in 1884. Jeff O`Toole, a forecaster with the Central Weather Service, said the expected low for Wednesday morning was ”going to be close at O`Hare.”
At least one death in the Chicago area Tuesday was attributed to the cold. Ruth Giwa, 40, address unknown, was found lying in an alley near Chicago Police Headquarters at 11th and State Streets Tuesday morning after she apparently froze to death.
In Cicero, 900 homes and business were without telephone service after a water main broke and damaged a telephone cable.
Patricia Montgomery, speaking for Illinois Bell, said: ”Our folks will be working through the night to get it fixed. In order to put telephone cables back together, you have to use bare hands, which is not too much fun.”
Montgomery also reported that the volume of phone calls was up Tuesday.
”People are calling each other to commiserate,” she said. ”People like to suffer together.”
Samuel Hurley, city water commissioner, said crews were working overtime to fix a reported 86 water leaks. Hurley said the number of leaks was not unusual, but because of the ice hazard they create on streets in this weather, the city was trying to fix them rapidly.
The city Water Department offered to thaw out frozen pipes in private homes ”if people are without water,” even though the city does not ordinarily provide such service, said James Pleasant, deputy commissioner.
Despite the frigid weather, Chicago public schools held classes, though some students were unable to come because their buses failed to show up, said Robert Saigh, Board of Education spokesman.
At some schools, only half the buses arrived, while at others buses were late, Saigh said. He had no estimates on the number of buses idled by the cold or the number of youngsters absent from school.
Saigh urged parents to take their children to school Wednesday if possible. The public schools did not close because ”we used up our weather days,” Saigh explained.
Usually four extra days are built into the school calendar to provide a cushion for weather problems. But the school year was trimmed by those four days as part of the strike settlement with the Chicago Teachers Union after the walkout that delayed the opening of school last September.
In the suburbs Tuesday, several schools closed because of the dangers of children waiting for buses or walking to school in such weather.
Students were given the day off because of the weather at the two high schools, four middle schools and nine elementary schools of the Valley View School District of Romeoville and Bolingbrook.
”When you have students who stand at bus stops in an extremely low wind chill, there is a danger of frost bite,” said Emmie Dunn, administrative assistant for the district.
Tuesday`s arctic blast helped lower attendance in several elementary schools in Lake and Cook Counties as parents kept their children indoors.
”We tell the parents, especially if they have kindergarteners or 1st-graders, if they feel uncomfortable, keep them home,” said Zion Supt. Eugene Latz.
The Lake County school district had an absentee rate of about 15 percent, Latz said. Schools average a 5 percent absentee rate under normal conditions, he said.
Taxi drivers and stores that sell cold-weather gear reported extraordinarily good business.
”In the cold weather, it`s the best time to drive a taxi,” said Johnnie Jamison, 38, a driver for Famous Cab Co. ”It`s kind of cruel, but we wish for cold weather. . . . Business is up 50 per cent when it`s cold like this.
”Summertime is the worst. Everyone is walking, holding hands, kissing, enjoying the beautiful weather.”
Many dreamed of warmer climes.
”People are coming in and saying, `I want to go away tomorrow, and I want to go somewhere warm,” said Shonah Rabman, manager of Adventura Travel. Another travel agent, Alexandra Petropoulos at American Express travel agency, said: ”People have been coming in laughing at themselves because it`s so obvious why they`re here. People are talking primarily about the Caribbean and looking for last-minute openings on cruises.”
Some people tried special measures to deal with the cold. Claude Smith, a messenger for Cannonball Inc. messenger service, wore something resembling a hockey mask to protect his face. His apperance caused brief consternation at the Harris Trust Bank, 111 W. Monroe St., he said. They made him doff his mask before accepting his delivery.
Chicago city officials said people looking for a place to get warm could go to the public libraries and the public senior citizens` centers, as well as to the city`s daytime warming centers.
The city said people could call 1-800-654-8595 for directions to the nearest warming center.
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City and private shelters for the homeless reported their quarters were nearly filled Tuesday, and some were filled.
Wednesday`s high temperature is expected to be a more merciful 10 to 12 degrees above zero, said John Fox at the Central Weather Service.
Wednesday night the mercury is expected to dip to minus 5 degrees. Thursday and Friday, the temperature may climb to 15 or 20, but on Friday a low of minus 5 is forecast again.
Saturday night is expected to be another bitter cold experience, with a low temperature of minus 5 to minus 10, says the weather service.
Elsewhere, deadly cold throttled the rest of the Midwest and Northeast Tuesday, closing schools, leaving the homeless jammed ”like cordwood” in shelters and bringing freezing temperatures to just about every corner of the nation.
In Akron, Ohio, police rescued Linda Harris of Yorktown, Va., after her car ran out of gas. She had no money and was afraid to leave the car in the bitter cold, with a wind chill of 40 below. So she scrawled ”God Help Me” in the ice that formed on the inside of the windshield, and waited.
Freezing temperatures extended as far south at Jacksonville, Fla., where it was 32 degrees.