Midwesterners Dig Out After Biggest Storm in Decades

Chicagoans dug out from their biggest snowstorm in more than 30 years Sunday while thousands of already delayed travelers across the Midwest waited for airlines to get their planes de-iced and back in the air.

About 22 inches of snow piled up from Chicago to the East Coast.

“I think Old Man Winter can just go away now and give us 80 degree weather. He made his point,” Karen Erickson said after finding her car covered by a snow drift in Fond du Lac, Wis.

At least 36 deaths had been blamed on the storm, 11 of them in Illinois.

Four people were killed and as many as 23 others were injured in a multi-vehicle crash Sunday morning on Interstate 81 just south of Lexington, Va.

State Police Sgt. R.D. Ross blamed the crashes on icy roads and excessive speed. A police dispatcher said the wreck involved eight tractor-trailers and seven cars, including the car of a trooper who had been working on an earlier accident.

Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive reopened and pavement was clean on many other main arteries. However, public and Catholic school classes were canceled for today.

“It’s going real well considering that 24 hours ago we were in the second-worst snowstorm in Chicago history,” said Terry Levin, a spokesman for the city, which put more than 700 pieces of snow-fighting equipment on the streets.

The city’s record is 23 inches, set in 1967.

The ice and blinding, wind-driven snow created havoc for air travelers through the entire weekend.

At Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, the nation’s busiest, United, American and most other airlines canceled the bulk of their flights Saturday.

And on Sunday--expected to be one of the busiest travel days of the year--United canceled 60% of its flights out of Chicago and American canceled at least half, according to officials at the airport’s two largest carriers.

Indianapolis International Airport closed overnight for the first time in 20 years.

Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport reopened Sunday.

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STUCK IN L.A.

Some tourists aren’t unhappy about return-trip snafus. B1