On February 2nd, the Ann Arbor Public Schools were treated to a day off from school due to about 12 inches of snow. The snow began to fall at around 7pm on February 1st and didn’t let up until around 1pm the next day. Twelve inches of snow in Ann Arbor was not the extent of the storm’s capability.

Perhaps the most affected city from this storm was Chicago, Illinois. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, just over 20 inches of snow fell on the windy city resulting in 1,596 non-emergency 311 calls.

Like Ann Arbor, the Chicago public schools also had an unexpected two-day vacation because of the storm.

Lake Shore Drive, a main, scenic road along Lake Michigan, was completely shut down. The wind, sometimes gusting over 70

miles per hour, made huge waves that pounded over the barrier and caused the road to be very icy. With the ice and 20 inches of snow, plowing was almost impossible. People abandoned their cars because the snow was too hard to get through. Some cars sat on the road, unmanned, for almost three days. The city of Chicago estimated that about 900 cars were stuck on Lake Shore Drive.

Laura Bevington is a Chicago citizen and works at a hotel downtown. She didn’t leave her house for a few days and it took her a few hours to shovel out. “My power went out from 9 o’clock at night until 4 in the morning,” she said. Chicago Sun-Times reports that 190,000 homes in Northern Illinois lost power and 22,000 feet of electrical cable had to be replaced.

Cancellations came pouring into the hotel. “I wasn’t here but know that we didn’t have people come a couple days prior to the storm and we are still getting a few people not being able to make it,” said Bevington. Business

at the hotel and around town was affected greatly by this monster storm.

The Midwest and East Coast was the most affected area. The South was hit as well with record low temperatures and ice storms that coated the streets. This storm really hit hard in almost all the country. This year alone there have been four very large storms but this one is the greatest in size and damage. Snowfall and temperature records were shattered as this storm made its way across the country.