Snowpocalypse 2011

Watching from afar and snow free here, I was searching for accounts and especially pictures of the big blizzard. Thought this one was the iconic photo of the storm.

The link will surely rot in a few weeks as Yahoo links are prone to do, but finally found the back story:

CHICAGO – Lindsey Wilson was on Lake Shore Drive, but she couldn't tell where. It was dark, and the snow swirling around the stranded bus made it impossible to see anything but the closest cars.

There was talk among her fellow commuters of 25-foot waves washing up from Lake Michigan and about when the bus might get going, but nobody knew anything — not the driver, not the emergency operators passengers were calling, and not the shivering motorists climbing aboard to keep warm after firefighters pulled them from their cars.

When a group of passengers decided enough was enough and started to walk, she joined them.

"I got 100 feet, everything was an orange hue, there was snow in my face, I couldn't see anything, I turned around and couldn't see the bus and I thought I was going to die," she said Wednesday morning.

Incredible. Over a thousand cars stuck in snow with the people in them stranded for hours. One thing I wonder about though, if you click over to the gallery, you'll see they opened up the opposite lanes right next to it by the next day. Surprised that people stuck near the outside lane didn't organize and dig themselves out. It wasn't that far to freedom and even if you hired ten teenagers to do the digging, would likely have been cheaper and faster than waiting for the city to tow you out.

Oh and the woman quoted above did make it safely back to the bus where they were eventually rescued. [AP photo]