Side Streets Now the Focus as Chicago Digs Out from Sunday Night Blizzard

Deborah Bayliss | As of Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Cars still covered in snow on Tuesday, Feb. 3 along the 400 block of East Oakwood Blvd. following Sunday’s, Feb. 1, 2015 snow storm. Mounds of snow still need to be plowed and hauled away.
Cars still covered in snow on Tuesday, Feb. 3 along the 400 block of East Oakwood Blvd. following Sunday’s, Feb. 1, 2015 snow storm. Mounds of snow still need to be plowed and hauled away. Photo by Deborah Bayliss.

As the City of Chicago digs out from what’s being called Chicago’s fifth-largest blizzard, the City dispatched more than 350 snow removal vehicles to neighborhood streets, according to information on the City’s Plow Tracker website.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel held a press conference Monday afternoon where he discussed cleanup efforts, telling residents that even though the snow has subsided for now, city services will “stay on the job” with plowing, salting and other efforts to help clear roadways.

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Photo by: Deborah Bayliss

With side streets impassable and hundreds of cars blocked by the mountains of snow left by the City’s snow plows, many residents including, more than a third of Cook County Jail employees, could not get to work on Monday. That absenteeism led to the jail being ordered on indefinite lockdown, according to the Cook County Sheriff's Office.

Movement "aside from court and medical appointments" was being limited.

"Approximately 36 percent of jail staff did not report to work over the last 24 hours," Sheriff Tom Dart said in a statement released Monday morning with more than 100 officers ordered to work overtime to make up for the staff.

Calls for a Taxi cab had waits of three to four hours with no guarantees as to when one could be dispatched to customers.

The snow also caused Cook County Board President, Toni Preckwinkle to cancel her visit to the Gary Comer Youth Center on Monday to watch the South Shore Drill Team rehearsal.

Chicago Public Schools were, closed Monday but re-opened on Tuesday.

As for power outages, ComEd reported that about 2,400 customers remained without power Monday morning and was about 51,000 at its peak.

Most of those affected with outages are in the southern part of the region.

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