Commuters got a crash refresher course on driving to work in the winter as the heaviest snow to hit the Chicago area in a year caused cars to spin out, trucks to jackknife and travel times to nearly double.
"They're everywhere," State Police Master Sgt. Jason LoCoco said, tallying up all the accidents on expressways this morning.
State police responded to dozens of accidents on the Kennedy, Dan Ryan and Eisenhower expressways. The most serious appeared to be a jackknifed truck on Interstate 290 at Lake Street that shut down three lanes.
No serious injuries were reported.
Andrew Ulm, 49, said it took him about an hour and a half to travel from Aurora to the Loop for a doctor's appointment this morning.
"They were fair, but it was a crawl," he said of the roads he took between 6:30 a.m. and 8 a.m.
"I left about a half-hour early to try and compensate, to try and get here on time," he added, standing in the lobby of a State Street parking garage.
Trasha Embry, a 44-year-old attorney, adjusted her normal commute to dodge the brunt of this morning's snowfall.
"I drove in later and I drove slower," she said as she was heading out of a Loop parking garage around 9:30 a.m. "I was not expecting it to be bad, but I am intentionally later."
Embry drives into the Loop from around 53rd Street.
She said Lake Shore Drive wasn't a problem, but her neighborhood roads were less plowed than they she thought they would be at that point in the morning. Her travel time was its usual 20 minutes, she said.
By the time the snow tapers off today, accumulation in most parts of the Chicago area will range between 2 and 4 inches, according to the National Weather Service.
As of 6 a.m., 2.6 inches had been recorded at O'Hare International Airport, making this the largest snowstorm to hit the Chicago area since Feb. 24 of last year, when 3.5 inches were recorded.
"We're not going to get much more," said Matt Friedlein, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. "A half-inch to an inch more maybe. More in Indiana."
Arlington Heights had about 3.4 inches as of 6 a.m., Elgin 3.3 inches, Elk Grove Village 2.8 inches, Woodstock 2.3 inches, St. Charles 2.2 inches, Oak Park 2 inches, Countryside 2 inches and Aurora 1 inches.
In Chicago, snow plows were focusing first on clearing main streets and Lake Shore Drive, according to the Department of Streets and Sanitation. After clearing those roads, plow drivers will shift their focus to side streets.
The snow was also forcing cancellations and delays at O'Hare. As of 7 a.m., 127 flights had been canceled and 57 delayed, according to FlightStats, which draws data from airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration.
chicagobreaking@tribune.com
Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking
Biggest snow of season hits the morning rush
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