Chicago:
A deadly late winter storm dumped heavy snow on the Midwestern United States on Tuesday, contributing to numerous automobile accidents on highways and flight cancellations as it moved east toward the Ohio Valley and the mid-Atlantic states.
In Chicago, where the National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning through midnight, residents girded for between 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 cm) of snow.
With rush hour underway, wind-whipped snow was falling at a heavy rate throughout the Chicago area, according to the Illinois State Patrol, reducing visibility to less than half a mile and causing heavy delays on roads in the region.
Monique Bond, a spokeswoman with the Illinois State Patrol, said bad weather may have been a contributing factor in a deadly crash on Interstate Highway 70 in Marshall, Illinois near the Indiana border.
A female driver headed east on I-70 crossed the median and crashed into a westbound tanker trunk. The driver of the car and her young child died in the accident.
Most of the other weather-related incidents the state patrol responded to on Tuesday were spinouts involving single vehicles, Bond said.
More than six inches of snow fell at O'Hare International Airport, causing 900 flight cancellations, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.
Southwest Airlines, which canceled nearly 250 flights out of Midway Airport, resumed flight operations at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, the aviation department said. But delays of an hour or more were common.
At a press conference hosted by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the city's Office of Emergency Management & Communications said nearly 300 snow plows were working to keep the city's 4,100 miles of roads clear.
Hundreds of schools were closed in northern Illinois, according to local media. But normal classes were held for the more than 400,000 students enrolled in Chicago's public school system, the nation's third-largest school district.
Roads in northwest Illinois had patches of ice and snow on Tuesday and road crews were bracing in northeast Illinois for the storm, which began dropping snow on Chicago near the middle of the morning rush hour.
In western Wisconsin, a semi-tractor flipped off an Interstate 94 bridge and fully submerged in the Red Cedar River in Menomonie early Tuesday, said Christine Ouellete, a Wisconsin Transportation Department spokeswoman.
Wisconsin rescue crews recovered the body of a man thought to be the driver of the truck and were searching for the body of his co-driver, who was presumed dead, State Patrol Lieutenant Jeff Lorentz said.
Wisconsin's transportation department listed numerous roads as snow-covered or slippery from the storm across southwestern Wisconsin, but no road closings.
Slick roads contributed to numerous crashes and a slow commute across the border in Minnesota. Driving conditions remained difficult along highways in parts of North Dakota.
Minnesota's public safety department reported 215 crashes from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, but no fatalities.
Several spots around the Twin Cities area reported nine inches of snow and driving conditions on highways throughout the Twin Cities were still listed as "difficult" hours after the storm passed through.
The storm was expected to move eastward over the Ohio Valley and then the central Appalachians and mid-Atlantic states on Wednesday, hitting Washington with its biggest snowfall in possibly two years, the National Weather Service said.
Winter storm warnings were in effect for all or parts of 16 states from the Upper Midwest to the mid-Atlantic on Tuesday, National Weather Service spokesman Chris Vaccaro said.
The storm was forecast to move across Ohio and the Tennessee Valley and merge with a developing storm off the mid-Atlantic states that could produce heavy, wet snow overnight and through Wednesday into the mid-Atlantic states that could bring down trees and power lines, Vaccaro said.
"It will be a wet, heavy, gloppy snow consistent with wallpaper paste," he said.
In Chicago, where the National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning through midnight, residents girded for between 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 cm) of snow.
With rush hour underway, wind-whipped snow was falling at a heavy rate throughout the Chicago area, according to the Illinois State Patrol, reducing visibility to less than half a mile and causing heavy delays on roads in the region.
Monique Bond, a spokeswoman with the Illinois State Patrol, said bad weather may have been a contributing factor in a deadly crash on Interstate Highway 70 in Marshall, Illinois near the Indiana border.
A female driver headed east on I-70 crossed the median and crashed into a westbound tanker trunk. The driver of the car and her young child died in the accident.
Most of the other weather-related incidents the state patrol responded to on Tuesday were spinouts involving single vehicles, Bond said.
More than six inches of snow fell at O'Hare International Airport, causing 900 flight cancellations, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.
Southwest Airlines, which canceled nearly 250 flights out of Midway Airport, resumed flight operations at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, the aviation department said. But delays of an hour or more were common.
At a press conference hosted by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the city's Office of Emergency Management & Communications said nearly 300 snow plows were working to keep the city's 4,100 miles of roads clear.
Hundreds of schools were closed in northern Illinois, according to local media. But normal classes were held for the more than 400,000 students enrolled in Chicago's public school system, the nation's third-largest school district.
Roads in northwest Illinois had patches of ice and snow on Tuesday and road crews were bracing in northeast Illinois for the storm, which began dropping snow on Chicago near the middle of the morning rush hour.
In western Wisconsin, a semi-tractor flipped off an Interstate 94 bridge and fully submerged in the Red Cedar River in Menomonie early Tuesday, said Christine Ouellete, a Wisconsin Transportation Department spokeswoman.
Wisconsin rescue crews recovered the body of a man thought to be the driver of the truck and were searching for the body of his co-driver, who was presumed dead, State Patrol Lieutenant Jeff Lorentz said.
Wisconsin's transportation department listed numerous roads as snow-covered or slippery from the storm across southwestern Wisconsin, but no road closings.
Slick roads contributed to numerous crashes and a slow commute across the border in Minnesota. Driving conditions remained difficult along highways in parts of North Dakota.
Minnesota's public safety department reported 215 crashes from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, but no fatalities.
Several spots around the Twin Cities area reported nine inches of snow and driving conditions on highways throughout the Twin Cities were still listed as "difficult" hours after the storm passed through.
The storm was expected to move eastward over the Ohio Valley and then the central Appalachians and mid-Atlantic states on Wednesday, hitting Washington with its biggest snowfall in possibly two years, the National Weather Service said.
Winter storm warnings were in effect for all or parts of 16 states from the Upper Midwest to the mid-Atlantic on Tuesday, National Weather Service spokesman Chris Vaccaro said.
The storm was forecast to move across Ohio and the Tennessee Valley and merge with a developing storm off the mid-Atlantic states that could produce heavy, wet snow overnight and through Wednesday into the mid-Atlantic states that could bring down trees and power lines, Vaccaro said.
"It will be a wet, heavy, gloppy snow consistent with wallpaper paste," he said.
© Thomson Reuters 2013
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
