"It was just a combination of things that all came together and very sadly so many folks were stranded." "That's hard to contend with when you're getting 1 to 3 inches of snow per hour, you're getting 60-, 70-mph winds and you have traffic that is trying to get out of town," she continued. We had wind gusts over 60, up to 70 miles per hour," Butler said. "It was literally pouring snow, and you had that coupled with the wind. That, coupled with remarkably strong winds, produced whiteout conditions that made safe driving an impossibility. On top of the volume of snow, Butler and Langford both said one of the most dangerous elements of the storm was the intensity and rate at which the snow fell. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)ĭespite the tragic outcomes, Butler said she believes the public was well-prepared for the storm as the forecast gave residents and businesses the approval to leave work early.īut even then, the intensity of the snowfall was hard to fathom.
#Lake shore drive 2011 blizzard drivers#
A winter blizzard of historic proportions wobbled an otherwise snow-tough Chicago, stranding hundreds of drivers for up to 12 hours overnight on the city's showcase lakeshore thoroughfare and giving many city schoolchildren their first ever snow day. history.Įileen Black takes pictures inside of a Chicago Transit bus that was stranded overnight on Lake Shore Drive Wednesday, Feb. In all, 11 people died from the storm's impacts, making it one of the deadliest blizzards in U.S. "They were loading up snowmobiles with the Chicago Fire Department to use as emergency vehicles so that they could possibly try to get to people.
#Lake shore drive 2011 blizzard tv#
"The men and women of the CFD (Chicago Fire Department) and the Chicago Police Department - they're so incredibly resourceful," Butler, the local TV meteorologist, said. In order to get to cars stranded on blocked roads, the fire department utilized snowmobiles to bring people to shelter. Langford said one of the most frequent emergency calls received that week was for drivers in stranded cars reporting fumes, running out of gas or needing rescue after abandoning their cars.
Snow accumulates inside of a bus as a bus that was stranded on Lake Shore Drive Wednesday, Feb. "So you were just there and it just took over." And as the heavy snow fell, "It did not take long to bury those cars."Īs people sat stuck in their cars for hours, vehicle fires and dangers from the fumes of burning fuel threatened the lives of those who were not even in the direct elements. You couldn't turn around you couldn't get off," he said. "All the cars started backing up they had no place to go. Another went off an exit that did not accommodate it, getting stuck at the bottom of an exit ramp with nowhere to turn around. One of the buses, Langford said, blocked a drive with a slight elevated portion. You can't get around it because on one side you've got guardrail and the other side you got high curb and grass," which slopes downward toward the lake, he said. "If one of those goes sideways on the drive, it's like a huge roadblock. Larry Langford, Spokesman with the Chicago Fire Department, told AccuWeather that he has never had a week like that of the 2011 Groundhog Day Blizzard.
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