Blizzard 2011 - The "Snowpocalypse"

Tuesday February 1 the snow began.  There was plenty of warning, and we were prepared.  A lot of Chicagoans thought it was just a bunch of hype, that the news people were blowing it out of proportion.  It became evident real quick that they knew what they were predicting!  Total accumulation was 20.2 inches, making it the third largest snowfall in Chicago's recorded history.

We truly had enough food to last us a fortnight if necessary, and I was looking forward to have a little time to cook actually.  The only thing we feared was losing power, but we were among the lucky and warm ones.  (Over 130,000 homes did lose power!) 

Jason got off work at 1pm and I had been home with Logan, so we were home safe and sound before the snowfall began; around 3pm it was looking serious.  We were very glad to not be fighting the 5pm commute home in this weather.  Unfortunately thousands were not as lucky.  Three individual accidents on northbound Lake Shore Drive (the major artery I drive daily, and take home from the office) prompted the city to close the road at 7:50pm.  All southbound traffic made it off the Drive safely, but the northbound drivers were sitting in their cars waiting for the accidents  to be cleared... and waiting.. and waiting.  All the while it kept snowing, and after hours, people began abandoning their vehicles.  The last people were evacuated from the road at 5:30am on Wednesday... like I said, a commute I was glad to have missed. 

Wednesday Chicago Public Schools were closed for the first time since 1999.  So was most of the city.  Plows were concentrating on main thoroughfares and made no promises about when they might be getting to the side streets.  In fact our plow finally came through this morning (Friday).  The snow continued until about 2pm, and Lake Shore Drive was a mess and closed until 5:30am Thursday. 

Over 1000 abandoned cars had to be towed from Lake Shore Drive.

 The view of our neighbor's car from our living room window. 

(You can tell it's a car by the side view mirror sticking out of the snow.)

 Our parking lot out back.  Note on the left, where the drift is as high as the minivan. 

City officials state they do not plow the alleys.  Not sure who our plow angel was who cleared the way for us.

Here you may note that the snow is way deeper than Logan is tall.

In fact, it's going up our bedroom window there... about chest high.

 That's some serious hat head!

Helping with the inside chores.

Still a big fan of the banana pudding!