In temperatures this cold, coupled with the treacherous driving conditions, which can easily lead to traffic crashes, it’s important for motorists to have easy access to winter supplies in their vehicles if they must travel.Īccording to Cook County spokeswoman Natalia Derevyanny, the Department of Transportation and Highways is monitoring conditions and ready “to deploy all resources necessary to keep the 1,500 lane miles the County maintains safe for drivers.” Interstate 55 north at Route 30 was closed until about 3:45 p.m. Scott’s Law requires motorists to change lanes and move away from emergency vehicles stopped on the side of the road. “This crash marks the sixth (state police) Scott’s Law-related crash year-to-date in 2021 and the second in two days,” the statement said. Then as the trooper sat in his squad car, a black 2010 Cadillac driven by a 20-year-old man who also suffered minor injuries, “crashed into the rear of the trooper’s squad car causing injury.” The two vehicles that initially collided were not hit and the occupants were not injured, officials said. The trooper “pulled behind the wrecked vehicles in the left lane and had the emergency lights activated in order to assist with directing traffic to the right,” an emailed statement said. Officials later said a state trooper who responded to help the motorists involved in the initial crash had to be flown by air ambulance to an area hospital after suffering “serious” injuries, according to a statement from state police. For other options - Chicago OEMC February 15, 2021Īround midday, Illinois State Police said all northbound lanes of Interstate 55 near Joliet in Will County were closed at Route 30 because of a traffic crash. Notif圜hicago: All city operated testing sites will be closed Tues Feb 16 due to weather conditions. There also had been 582 delayed flights out of O’Hare and 73 delayed flights at Midway. there were 360 canceled flights between the city’s two main airports, 213 at O’Hare and 137 at Midway Airport, according to the city’s Department of Aviation. Petr expected the narrow bands of lake effect snow to mix with widespread snow from a system that earlier was causing nearly unprecedented snowfall in Texas and Oklahoma that arrived in Illinois by late afternoon.Īt 5 p.m. at the city’s official weather center at O’Hare, he said, but lake effect snow that had been falling in Indiana - dropping more than 8 inches near Valparaiso - shifted to the Illinois lakefront, making it look like a near-whiteout near the shoreline. The first two criteria were met, he said, but Monday could only be described as “blizzard-like” conditions because it didn’t get windy enough in the city. Petr said Monday’s storm technically didn’t qualify as a blizzard, but it came incredibly close to meeting the three main requirements to earn the title: heavy, persistent snow, low visibility and strong, gusty winds, greater than 35 mph, for three or more hours. Slattery, 35, was in front of his Logan Square apartment Wednesday morning, trying to fit his 2014 Smart Fortwo into the spot he’d shoveled out.Cold isn’t the only concern for the coming week, as there remains the potential for another snowfall event Wednesday into Thursday. A full list of opened warming centers can be found at or .Īnd despite the snow, plenty of people were still at work, on their way or, in the case of Donnie Slattery, just getting off work - and looking for a place to park. The snow is expected to be followed by frigid conditions, with temperatures predicted to drop into single digits.Ībout two dozen warming centers across Cook County will be open for people who lack adequate heating. The massive snow system, dubbed “Winter Storm Landon” by forecasters, also prompted state legislators to cancel much of the legislative session this week. Pritzker had to change plans for his “State of the State” budget address, moving it to the Old State Capitol building in Springfield. In declaring a disaster, Pritzker deployed 1,800 trucks to plow and treat roads throughout the state, and activated 130 Illinois National Guard members to help any motorists who might end up stranded in the whiteout conditions. Some parts of central Illinois could get as much as 15 inches as the storm moves across Peoria, Bloomington and Kankakee and into Indiana, the weather service said. In the Chicago area, the warning covers southern and central Cook County, most of Will County, all of DuPage, Kendall, Grundy and LaSalle counties and, in Indiana, Lake and Porter counties.
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