Furious snow storm descends on Chicago- 1000 flights canceled

March 5, 2013 – CHICAGO – Mother Nature is apparently saving the best, or at least the biggest, for last. Chicago residents expected to find themselves in the midst of a storm that could wind up dumping as much as 10 inches of snow in the area before the end of Tuesday — the most since the 2011 blizzard and its more than 20 inches of snow. “This will be the biggest widespread storm of the winter,” National Weather Service meteorologist Amy Seeley said. The forecast is for 8 to 10 inches throughout northeastern Illinois and northwest Indiana, a far cry from last March, which saw less than a half-inch of snow and was the warmest one on record in Illinois. Hardware stores in and around the city did brisk business Monday, selling salt and snow shovels at a time many usually turn their thoughts toward gardening and baseball. “Everybody’s got a little comment with every bag they’re buying,” said Mike McIntosh, who works at Dressel’s Hardware in Oak Park just outside Chicago. Workers had started to stock the shelves with tools and supplies associated with spring and summer, only to find the shovels and salt they thought they’d hold for another year were still in demand. “Everybody’s a bit surprised, but it’s good for us, we’ve got a lot of this stuff to move,” he said. On Monday, the system moved across the Dakotas and Minnesota, dropping up to a foot of snow in some areas and freezing rain in others. Some schools closed and officials warned motorists to stay off the roads. As it moved eastward, emergency officials in a number of states issued similar warnings in the hopes that commuters will leave their cars in the garage and take public transportation to work. In Wisconsin, where as much as a foot of snow is in the forecast, emergency managers urged residents to put winter survival kits in their vehicles and check on road conditions. State patrol officers were searching for a semi driver in the Red Cedar River near Menomonie in western Wisconsin early Tuesday after the vehicle slid off the nearby snow-covered Interstate 94 into the frigid waterway. A wet snow pelted commuters as they slid along the slick streets of downtown Chicago through the soggy wintery mix early Tuesday. Snow was forecast for the morning and afternoon rush hours, Seeley said. The weather service also said that as much as 1.5 inches of snow could fall per hour, “making snow removal difficult and travel extremely dangerous.”Ill. Gov. Pat Quinn urged motorists to avoid driving unless absolutely necessary, insisting that “safety comes first.” The Illinois Department of Transportation planned to send a fleet of 360 trucks to plow roadways in northeastern Illinois early Tuesday, with a total of 600 throughout Northern Illinois. The storm is creating wet, heavy snow — known euphemistically as “heart attack snow” — which could pose a risk when it comes time to shovel for the elderly, sedentary people or those who have heart problems. –US NEWS