South Chicago - wasn’t too bad. Very icy though - it rained yesterday, then the rain slowly turned into hail, then sleet, then snow. So under the pretty fluff it’s all hard ice. Took me twice as long to walk to class, but I managed not to fall on my ass.
100 miles west of St. Louis here, and holy crap nights like last night make me want to quit my job and go sit in a cave in a fetal position.
They not only closed 70 and 63, they also closed 54 for a while. By 2 AM the snow removal folks had given up; we had white-out conditions so nothing further was done to the roads until daylight. Waits for tow trucks were up to 3 or 4 hours and some people were stranded roadside all night long. Me and my crew couldn’t get home this morning so our boss shelled out for a couple of motel rooms so we could get some sleep before coming back in. He also had to drive around and ferry our replacements in to work as well as taking us to the motel (and can I just take this opportunity to say that my boss is a freaking miracle; he not only put us up for the day and brought us yummy food cooked just for us by his girlfriend tonight, he’s spent the entire day driving around NOT getting stuck and checking on slide-offs). County roads and most state roads were impassable by midnight.
We had cops and first responders and ambulances getting stuck all over the place, most of the ones that worked overnight were stranded here all day as well because the day shift couldn’t make it in, and meanwhile the phones were ringing off the hooks with moronic morons who demanded that the snowplows HAD to come plow their roads RIGHT NOW because they had to leave for work soon, as well as people who couldn’t understand that we are physically incapable of pulling tow trucks out of our asses to come pull them out of the ditch.
Truck drivers who drove into this mess basically just pulled over to the side and stopped; highway 54 is one long parking lot. They still haven’t got the roads cleared off and we still have people sliding off, although thankfully it’s nowhere near as bad as it was last night; I think people finally got it through their heads that they need to stay home. I believe we ended up with something like 16 inches, but the wind blew it into drifts 2 and 3 feet high, and looking at the highway this morning I noticed that you couldn’t tell the lane from the shoulder from the median from the ditch. My car is buried in the parking lot; one of our deputies is being really nice to me and is outside trying to move it to a clearer spot.
Fortunately we didn’t have any major emergencies last night or it could have been a lot worse than it was. Right now I just want to get through the night and get home and take a shower and get out of these funky clothes I’ve had on since Thursday evening and go to sleep in my own bed.
Wow, this got long, but I think I needed to vent a little bit. Thanks for asking about us!
Yep - I walked over to a meeting at 1:00 PM yesterday, and it was windy, but the temp was still in the mid 50s. By the time I left the meeting at 2:30, I was glad I’d taken my coat with me because it was down in the 40s with wind chills in the 30s (that’s an estimate - I didn’t check the temp when I got back). The difference felt really extreme.
But no snow, so I’m happy - maybe a dusting of lake effect Sunday night, but maybe not.
We were just on the edge of it, so not too bad. The roads were pretty messy yesterday morning, though, and I waited for the bus for almost an hour. It probably showed up eventually, but my boss ended coming to my rescue and picked me up.
Did you get any "hunker down"s? 
Marlitharn, what do you do for a living that you would be out and about?
If anyone has pictures I’d love to see them. This Florida gal hasn’t had much experience with snow. I think I’ve seen it three times in my mumbly mumbly years.
I apologize for the [sub]wimps[/sub] remark. That kind of snow would shut down Minneapolis, too.
Good luck, and all that.
911 dispatcher/EOC operator. I finally made it home this morning. Last night wasn’t nearly as bad as Thursday night, when I was trying to find a way to climb through the phone lines and choke people. Especially the King of the Universe, who called to demand that we make the traffic in front of him move faster. :rolleyes: You betcha, Zippy, just give me a second to find my wand.
www.columbiatribune.com has lots of pictures of the white crap. Click the link and then click on “Slide Show” below the front page picture.
Oh, that’s right. You did a “Ask the 911 operator” thread awhile back.
I’ve seen some stupidity during hurricane season, so I can only imagine the yahoos you get. Are you allowed to tell folks they’re being idjits, or do you have to smile sweetly and answer politely?
My boss’s only real rule is Act Like An Adult (seriously, he has it printed in big bold letters on a sheet of paper, laminated and stuck in a binder labeled “Policy and Procedure” and hanging on the front of his office door), so unfortunately I can’t tell people what poopyheads they’re being.
Ah, another CoMo resident! (One of, what 4 now?) Friday my car doors were frozen and I couldn’t get them open (even with a can of that anti freeze stuff). My roommate had to come and pick me up, and when I woke up in the morning we were trapped in. So we all took a 1 mile hike to Hy-vee to buy alcohol and enjoy the day off school. (Second time in history, or 30 years or some crap, last time it happened there was a lot of hub bub, and they made it policy to never have a closing again, guess there are exceptions to the policy).
I finally got my car back today, but even so the roads were still bad. The residential area I live in (back behind Hy-Vee) never gets plowed. At least in the last 4 years there has never been a snow plow come through. So I figure we are stuck with piles of snow, cause if they don’t come when there isn’t a city-wide crisis, they won’t come when there is. Lol.
Since all your Columbia folks are here, I’m curious: is the city still spreading ashes from the power plant on the streets, instead of salt? (thus leading to months of dirty footsteps everywhere, followed by duststorms when the snow all melts) I always used to hate that when I lived there (many years ago).
In my little corner of St. Louis we lost power for 18 hours – compared to 3 1/2 days last July, so we’re feeling pretty lucky. Particularly since the neighborhood about 600 feet away is on a different grid circuit and still without power. Our pharmacy and nearest supermarket are still without power, and another nearby supermarket is working off generators.
The sun came out today and did a pretty good job of starting the melting process. Unfortunately, the temeperature is supposed to drop to 15 degrees (F) tonight, so the streets will be sheets of ice by morning.
My back door is frozen shut. I’m going to have to go out the side door and wade through the snow to get to my garage; that’s where my deep freeze is, and my Christmas tree, which I wanted to put up today.
I don’t live in Columbia (I’m a Callawegian born and bred, now living in Mexico MO) but I was a senior at Stephens College back in '95 the last time they canceled classes. At least that time I was stranded at home instead of at work. My entire crew commutes 30 miles or more, that’s why the boss decided to put us up in a hotel Friday; there was no way in hell any of us were getting home.
My car is still at work, I caught a ride home yesterday with someone with better wheels than mine. I hope my car starts Tuesday morning.
My boss actually had to pick me up for work yesterday - my car is still stuck in snow. The roads here are atrocious! I’m afraid of having to drive myself today; I’m no good in bad weather driving. And we were busy as hell yesterday! I thought most people would stay in or only go out for food and stuff, but nooo everyone felt the need to shop despite the weather. My roommate’s dad got us a shovel (not a snow shovel, those are all gone. A ‘real’ shovel. Shall be interesting) so even though I feel like ass I gotta get out there and hack at the snow and pray I don’t wipe out on the way to work.
Thanks for the shameless plug…I work for Panera/St Louis Bread Compant (in St louis area)…my store has been PACKED since we got power back…
Still without power at home, going on 4 days…using a coleman propane lantern for heat and light but I cannot find anymore propane, damn. The outlook is still bleak as most of my town (Collinsville IL) is w/o power, except the houses to my imediate north. Damn it is frustrating to have no heat or power and look out my window to see my imediate neighbors christmas lights. :mad:
Keep warm you all,
TSFR …IL/MO bi-state
9 inches on Saturday south of Thunder Bay, so on Sunday I snowshoed three hours up Big Thunder, skied an hour across the top of the mesa to Loch Lomond, and walked an hour along country roads until I was home again. A terrific day.
My commute on Tuesday morning ended up taking almost an hour due to the snowfall the previous night; it usually only takes 20-30 minutes. No slipping and sliding, just very slow-moving traffic as everyone was extra-careful in the first snow of the winter. Since then, we’ve had very cold winds and another 2-3 inches of snow, but nothing too bad. So far this has actually been a pretty mild winter in Cleveland, IMHO.