Snowstorm leaves millions without power (Updates in post #249, #176, #277, #288)

AP on Yahoo ^ | 12/1/06 | Karen Hawkins - ap

[NormsRevenge]

CHICAGO - The season's first major snowstorm marched across the Plains and Midwest on Friday, slopping up highways, shuttering schools and knocking out power to more than 2 million homes and businesses.

A plane slid off a runway in Chicago, and at least three deaths were blamed on the storm, which was moving northwest through Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin on a path to Canada.

Fifteen inches of snow was reported in Peru, 80 miles west of Chicago, and Kenosha, Wis., had more than 16 inches.

Charles Parker, 38, happily operated his snow blower in Milwaukee.

"I just got this baby and I've been waiting to break it in," he said. "From the looks of things, it'll get a lot of use."

In Missouri, Holly Foster said she was the only employee who had made it in to Gov. Matt Blunt's office by 8 a.m.

"My husband loves a challenge," she said.

The wintry system struck Thursday from Texas to Michigan, forcing the closure of thousands of schools, colleges and universities and state offices. Snow had moved mostly into Michigan and eastern Wisconsin by early afternoon, leaving behind downed power lines and icy roads and runways.

About 2.4 million customers across central and southern Illinois and parts of Missouri were without power early Friday after ice snapped tree limbs and power lines. St. Louis officials opened five warm-up centers, and utility officials warned that it would be days before all customers have electricity again.

"A lot of people are going to have to leave their homes," said Ron Zdellar, Ameren Corp.'s vice president.

A Fed Ex cargo plane arriving Friday morning at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport slipped off the runway into mud, and crews were working to tow it away. By noon, more than 450 flights were canceled there alone.

Three traffic deaths were reported Thursday, including two in Missouri.

The weather delayed state high school football playoffs in Oklahoma, where snowfall ranged up to a foot.

A gust of up to 50 miles an hour toppled a tree onto a mobile home in Greencastle, Ind., 40 miles west of Indianapolis.

Jennifer Stark with the National Weather Service in Topeka, Kan., said the storm seemed especially impressive because of the unseasonably mild weather that came before it. Temperatures in some places had reached record highs earlier in the week.

___

Associated Press writers Dave Skretta in Kansas City, Mo., and Rochelle Hines in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.

[eeevil conservative]

What is FEMA doing about this?

[sodpoodle]

Glad that you didn't blame the airlines, like the woman stranded in Chicago;

"the airline just keeps giving us the runaround"

sheeeeeeeeeeeesh

sp

[Cementjungle]

What is FEMA doing about this?

If they're not giving everyone a free 4-wheel drive SUV then I demand an investigation!

[Capt. Tom]

Yup - and it'll barely receive a mention on the MSM until it hits the East coast. THEN IT'LL SUDDENLY BECOME THE STORM TO END ALL STORMS!!

The way they handle the forecasts in the Boston area is to make a routine "noreaster" sound like an unusual occurring event.

Once the storm gets north of Boston, coverage is stopped, and people in Maine can be getting hammered, and the world would never know it. - tom

[SouthTexas]

Now that's planning!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I loved snow in my younger days....but now the old bones feel better with heat...been chilly here on the beach .... into the low forty's....

[Andy'smom]

"No power here in STL...and they say it could be for 4-5 days."


I got a call from my daughter this afternoon. She and her husband are grad students at Washington University. No heat in her apartment. Her husband wants to get a hotel room outside of the city but she won't leave her cats.

[RightWhale]

'Closure' is a noun. So far so good. It is commonly understood to refer to the act of closing rather than the object that closes or is used to close. The misuse as a term meaning completion or leaving no loose ends is very common.

[demsux]

We got lucky...power just came back on...heat feeeeeels goooood

[Brad from Tennessee]

Below link is a summary explaining the natural cause of the current "climate change" from a paper by two recognized experts:

http://www.worldclimatereport.com/

[Issaquahking]

Envirowhackos - Wrong yesterday, and wrong today!!!






Click here for an American Electric problem!

Besides, they haven't made any serious upgrades to the national power grid in over 2 decades and given the environmental sentiment, they are unlikely to change soon. that means that we should all begin to have some reliability issues where electric is concerned.

IK clasps hands together (he's an electrician) says your generator is probably a little overkill (10KW would probably be more than enough) and knows that life is about to good as a nation gets sick of greenies!

[tcostell]

I know it's overkill, but my wife grew up in eastern europe and she'd rather have too much than too little. (and she's so good lookin that I just don't have it in me to say no to her...)

[Beagle8U]

"Therefore, one must speak of the weather's forcing a school's closing, not a school's [?]closure[?]."

You should check at Nerdsworriedaboutcrapnobodyelsecareabout.com and ask them.

[Issaquahking]

If she has a single sister, I can fix her shorts!

[HIDEK6]

The barbarians are at the gate.

[andyandval]

We could have gotten to Chicago on the 1:18 this afternoon but that was as far as they could promise...

Given the choice between possible overnight in O'Hare and a warm bed in Springfield...Well it's really no choice at all.

:)

[Beagle8U]

Joking aside, I would think "closure" would be be better to describing "ending" than "closing".

[Don Corleone]

What's snow????

[StarCMC]

Lost our power for a couple hours. It was nice -- no TV or other noise. :-)

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

I've been around a few years, and I've often seen snow melting from solar radiation when the air temp is below 32.

And of course anyone who knows anything about thermodynamics knows that solids can evaporate without going through the liquid stage. Just look at your ice cubes that shrink in the freezer if the trays are left in there for a while.