![]() ![]() ![]() The incoming storm slammed into Missouri and southern Illinois mercilessly. As the end of the year rolled in things quickly took a decidedly colder turn. Hopes for a white Christmas had been dashed and things were looking like the rest of the winter would be uneventful. October through December had been unusually warm. The city had been mostly unprepared for this storm. The governor called in the National Guard, activating at least 500 troops, to cope with the crisis. According to CBS, sixty-mile-per-hour winds blustered, rocking trees, whipping flags, and toppling dumpsters. On Saturday alone, 18.6 inches of snow fell – this is the largest single-day snowfall ever recorded in Chicago. On New Year’s weekend, a storm piled 21.6 inches of snow on the ground. Snow Removal Services Are Important No Matter When It Happens The story of this ferocious storm can be found at the post to the right. I-70 which cuts across the central US was closed in Missouri for the first time in its history. Preparations for the Super Bowl were complicated by injuries caused by snow buildup falling from the retractable dome at the Cowboys Stadium in Dallas. The storm would go on to dump 10-30 inches of snow in a swath from Oklahoma to Maine. The snow fell at a rate of up to 4 inches an hour at its height, creating drifts of 10-15 feet across the city. Sustained winds of 40-50 MPH were reported throughout, with peak gusts of up to 67 MPH at the edge of Lake Michigan. Over 21 inches of snow was reported from the storm, the third-largest in the city’s history. Littered with stranded vehicles, some of them almost completely buried in snow, Lake Shore Drive looked like a scene from an apocalyptic film. Streets and expressways were jammed with stranded commuters. Blizzard of 2001Īccording to NBC, the storm, which hit February 1, blew out windows and caused power outages affecting tens of thousands of people. You can read more about this snowstorm that brought Chicago to its knees by clicking on the post to the right. According to Chicago Mag, city officials invoke his name as a warning: “Plow the streets, or you’ll end up just like Mayor Bilandic.” The inability of local government to quickly resolve the crisis sparked a political upheaval - it is believed to have caused Mayor Michael Bilandic to lose the 1979 Democratic primary. The use of wood, rather than steel, provided insulation against the 600-volt third rail on the train tracks. Their shop technicians created makeshift plows of heavy plywood. From January 13 to January 14, twenty-seven inches of snow accumulated, paralyzing traffic for several days.Īccording to Chicago “L”, the CTA was forced to improvise. The agency’s snow removal equipment consisted mostly of cars fitted with small snowplows designed for up to twelve inches of snow. In the early weeks of 1979, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) was ill-prepared to cope with the coming storm. Don’t Fail At Planning For Your Snow Plowing Needs
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