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Chicago has eye on history as it preps for major snowfall
The city says it is preparing for major snowfall Tuesday night into Wednesday with an eye on history.
CHICAGO - The city says it is preparing for major snowfall Tuesday night into Wednesday with an eye on history.
As anyone who's been in Chicago longer than a decade knows, Chicago is no stranger to Groundhog Day snow storms.
In both 2011 and 2015, Groundhog Day brought blizzards to the city of Chicago — 21 inches in 2011, 19 inches in 2015.
While those totals aren't forecasted for Wednesday, OEMC says "anything is possible" and is prepared for what they call "outlier lake effect" which could bring heavier snowfall than expected.
Back in 2011, when hundreds of cars were stuck for hours and eventually abandoned on North Lake Shore Drive, the city learned a valuable lesson and made a major structural change that could help this time around.
"There are sections on Lake Shore Drive that we can pull out, so in a situation that — from 2011 — that we would learn from, that [cars] would be able to make that turn[around] right there," said Cole Stallard, Commissioner of the Department of Streets and Sanitation. "So there's just things that we've learned every [snow-fighting] program that goes by."
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OEMC says it expects the city's full fleet of snow-fighting trucks to be out by 3 a.m. Wednesday.
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Chicago officials warn of rough morning commute as winter storm begins moving in
Back in 2011 when hundreds of cars were stuck for hours and eventually abandoned on North Lake Shore Drive, the city learned a valuable lesson and made a major structural change that could help Wednesday.
"2015, as you're well aware, we had a snow storm coming our way that was supposed to be three to six inches, then four to eight inches, then somewhere around 12. I think we ended up with 19 inches of snow in a short time period, so our trucks are ready to escalate as needed," said Rich Guidice, Executive Director of OEMC.
OEMC says to plan on it being a VERY bad morning commute Wednesday, and asks people to work from home, if possible.