Score one (hundred) for Mother Nature. This past weekend holiday travelers were slaughtered by snow, ice, fog, and high winds that crippled airports from coast to coast.
I too have spent the past few days dealing with horrific weather conditions that have blasted the Midwest portion of the nation. Luckily, I didn’t have to travel too far from home for Christmas, but, unfortunately, I didn’t have the luxury of simply staying in my house until the inclement weather passed either.
All tolled (according to news reports) more than 25 weather related traffic deaths have occurred in the upper Midwest during the past three days alone. In Michigan, crashes on icy roads caused multiple injuries and shut down sections of three interstate highways in Detroit, Dearborn and Warren. Here in Wisconsin last Friday we had 10 inches of snow on the ground, by early Saturday morning a steady rainfall and 50 degree temps melted all but a couple inches, but then Mother Nature hammered us again. In less than 2 hours the temps dropped more 35 degrees. By 7 a.m. Saturday morning the mercury sat at 12 degrees, the rain froze on every major highway and side street, winds gusted up to 65 mph and more than 14 inches of snow fell over the western part of the state (we got 6 inches).
And, yes, we had to travel in it. But, so did millions of other people who took to the highways, rails and skies in an effort to see their loved ones for Christmas. The storm rolled through Colorado and Wyoming on Friday, then spread snow and ice on Saturday and Sunday from the Texas Panhandle to parts of Michigan and Indiana before heading to western New York. So, no, we weren’t alone in dealing with the horrible travel conditions.
In Chicago, more than 250 travelers stayed overnight Sunday at O’Hare International Airport after 300 flights were canceled because of high winds and fog. The airport set up cots for travelers, and I couldn’t help but feel incredibly blessed that a year ago Sunday when we were flying from Wisconsin to Hawaii for Christmas the skies were clear and we didn’t experience a single delay—-what a difference a year can make.
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