Great Lakes area braces for heavy snow, strong winds

It looks like we got about 3 feet of snow drifted over on the road, and it’s just a mess out here.

The woman says she was on her way home from work when the snow plow she was following got stuck. Scores of motorists also ended up stranded overnight when their cars got stuck in the heavy show.

“Well the winds died down”, she said by phone from her auto. “They’re going vehicle by vehicle, getting them out”. Hipke said none of the drivers were seriously hurt or needed to go to the hospital.

The National Weather Service issued winter weather warnings Wednesday for an area stretching from Missouri northeast through Illinois, Indiana and MI, with blizzard warnings for counties in eastern Illinois and northwestern Indiana.

Schools were closed in Beecher, Grant Park, Manteno, Momence and Peotone. View the latest Chicago-area school closings HERE. Snow will be diminishing/ending from the south west to east across our area later tonight into Thursday.

“The heaviest snow will shift from a line between Adrian, Pontiac and Port Huron toward a region from Tri-Cities (Bay City area) to Northern Thumb to Flint between 1 and 3 p.m.”, the alert read.

The tiny town of Waverly took the brunt of the storm.

NIPSCO said it could be days before all power is restored. Outages were reported in Portage, Highland, Lowell, Merrillville, Valparaiso, Wheeler, Gary, Crown Point, Hammond and Porter.

Wind gusts of up to 45 miles per hour are making driving hazardous. Now we’re seeing slick and snow-covered roads across the entire district.

As of 9 a.m. about 30 to 40 semis remained stuck on Illinois Route 17, east of the village of Grant Park in Kankakee County.

Snow will continue tonight through Thursday morning and taper during the day Thursday. Some people near Lowell, Ind. abandoned their cars on the road, while others were towed out.

Northwest Indiana bore the brunt of Wednesday’s storm.

She said a plow was expected to free up the westbound side of the road soon. She stayed at the station because it has a generator.

“The only thing I’m thankful for is I had a full tank of gas, and a good working vehicle”, Meredith Dorge said after sitting in her auto on Route 2 for about 11 hours before she was rescued by state police. “I’m just ready to be home, and I know my family is anxious”. Snow will fall in bursts and bands through sunrise Thursday.

Troopers responded to more than 220 property damage accidents, resulting in more than 60 injuries, and answered 176 calls for help from drivers throughout the state. Thankfully, there were no fatalities. The heavy weight of the snow, coupled with the strong winds, brought down many trees and power lines in the St. Louis area.

Flint was expected to get 8 to 12 inches of snow, and officials urged residents to make sure they have enough filters, cartridges and bottled water on hand. The south suburbs were the hardest hit.

At the height of the storm, almost 30,000 NIPSCO customers lost power. The biggest problem in Chicago was the wind.

Hundreds of schools in the Chicago area, northwest in and southern MI canceled after-school activities and classes on Thursday. Many airlines issued travel waivers to passengers who needed to change flights.

About 860 flights were canceled at O’Hare International Airport by Wednesday evening.

By 8 a.m., it was snowing lightly in downtown Pontiac, picking up by 8:30 a.m. with minor accumulation.

“They appreciated it. They didn’t have anything”, he said. Lauderdale was canceled Wednesday and Thursday. “I mean, this is nothing”, he said.