February 11, 2009 5:23 PM
- Text
Big Chill Hits Midwest And Northeast
(CBS/AP)
At least four deaths are being blamed on the cold weather that's been blasting the northern Plains, Midwest and the Northeast.
All four deaths occurred Sunday. In Kentucky, an elderly man wandered away from his home while a motorist whose car slid on ice overturned in a river. State police in Michigan say an eight-year-old girl and her mother were killed in a wreck on an icy road.
Elsewhere, temperatures as low as 38 below zero shut down schools for thousands of youngsters, halted some Amtrak service and put car batteries on the disabled list from the northern Plains across the Great Lakes.
The cold was accompanied by snow that was measured in feet in parts of upstate New York.
"Anybody in their right mind wouldn't want to be out in weather like this," Lawrence Wiley, 57, said at the Drop Inn Center homeless shelter where he has been living in Cincinnati. Monday lows in the area were in the single digits.
With temperatures near zero and a wind chill of 25 below, school districts across Ohio canceled classes. "We have a lot of kids that walk to school. We didn't think it was worth the risk," Sandusky City Schools Superintendent Bill Pahl said.
Learning was stalled at schools in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, where school buses wouldn't start, and it was far too cold to let any child walk to school, reports CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers.
With a temperature of 12 below zero and wind chill of 31 below, Wisconsin's largest school district, Milwaukee Public Schools, also shut down, idling some 90,000 children. In upstate New York 34,000 kids got the day off in Rochester because of near-zero temperatures. Schools also closed in parts of Michigan. Even in Minnesota, where February cold is the norm and people are accustomed to coping, some charter schools closed.
The temperature crashed to 38 below zero Monday morning at Hallock in northwestern Minnesota, and to 30 below at International Falls, the weather service said.
Veterinarian Wade Himes wasn't too concerned as he ate breakfast at the Shorelunch Cafe in International Falls.
"We get up and go to work, and people come and see us. I don't think anything changes that much. (You) just dress warm," said Himes, 69.
Grand Forks, N.D., also registered 30 below.
"For this time of year, this isn't that unusual, as far as temperatures go," said weather service meteorologist Bill Abeling in Bismarck. "To get record temperatures this time of year in North Dakota, you've got to delve down in the 40-below region, so we're not even close."
Hayward, Wis., fell to 27 below on Monday, with a wind chill of minus 36, and wind chills around the state dipped to nearly 40 below.
Overnight, it was 23 below in Duluth, Minn., and one problem that comes with cold weather isn't just cars that won't start, but cars that won't stop.
"We do often have problems with auto theft, because people are stealing cars that are unlocked and unattended when they're warming up in the cold weather," police Sgt. Dan Boese told CBS Radio News.
In western New York, the big problem was snow...piled five feet deep in some places, adds Bowers. Amtrak shut down passenger service in parts of western and northern New York state, and whiteout conditions and slippery pavement shut down a 38-mile stretch of the New York Thruway during the night.
"Roads are treacherous. We have our DPW and our highway departments out, and they can't keep up," said Terry Yarnell, superintendent of the town of Aurora.
"It's coming down too quick, they just can't keep up with it," agreed Steve Slawinski, assistant police chief of Evans, N.Y. "If you go out, you're just going to go in a ditch or get in an accident."
New York City was registering wind chills of minus 8 to minus 11 Monday morning.
With wind chills around 30 below, Chicago emergency room doctor Sean Motzny said he was somewhat relieved the Bears lost the Super Bowl, because it meant fans weren't out celebrating and exposing themselves to frostbite and hypothermia.
"This can come on very quickly," Motzny toldRegine Schlesinger of CBS Radio station WBBM (audio).
Cold made all the more cruel when you consider that just a month ago in Chicago, golfers were teeing off in temperatures near 60, reports Bowers. Today the high was one degree.
At least 30 water main breaks were blamed on the cold in Detroit, city Water and Sewerage Department spokesman George Ellenwood told The Detroit News.
The cold also brought calls for help from car owners faced with dead batteries and frozen locks.
"During the weekend, 10,000 motorists called for assistance. And that's a record in recent years," Nancy Cain, spokeswoman for AAA Michigan, said Monday. "This morning we've already had 300 calls for help."
All four deaths occurred Sunday. In Kentucky, an elderly man wandered away from his home while a motorist whose car slid on ice overturned in a river. State police in Michigan say an eight-year-old girl and her mother were killed in a wreck on an icy road.
Elsewhere, temperatures as low as 38 below zero shut down schools for thousands of youngsters, halted some Amtrak service and put car batteries on the disabled list from the northern Plains across the Great Lakes.
The cold was accompanied by snow that was measured in feet in parts of upstate New York.
"Anybody in their right mind wouldn't want to be out in weather like this," Lawrence Wiley, 57, said at the Drop Inn Center homeless shelter where he has been living in Cincinnati. Monday lows in the area were in the single digits.
With temperatures near zero and a wind chill of 25 below, school districts across Ohio canceled classes. "We have a lot of kids that walk to school. We didn't think it was worth the risk," Sandusky City Schools Superintendent Bill Pahl said.
Learning was stalled at schools in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, where school buses wouldn't start, and it was far too cold to let any child walk to school, reports CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers.
With a temperature of 12 below zero and wind chill of 31 below, Wisconsin's largest school district, Milwaukee Public Schools, also shut down, idling some 90,000 children. In upstate New York 34,000 kids got the day off in Rochester because of near-zero temperatures. Schools also closed in parts of Michigan. Even in Minnesota, where February cold is the norm and people are accustomed to coping, some charter schools closed.
The temperature crashed to 38 below zero Monday morning at Hallock in northwestern Minnesota, and to 30 below at International Falls, the weather service said.
Veterinarian Wade Himes wasn't too concerned as he ate breakfast at the Shorelunch Cafe in International Falls.
"We get up and go to work, and people come and see us. I don't think anything changes that much. (You) just dress warm," said Himes, 69.
Grand Forks, N.D., also registered 30 below.
"For this time of year, this isn't that unusual, as far as temperatures go," said weather service meteorologist Bill Abeling in Bismarck. "To get record temperatures this time of year in North Dakota, you've got to delve down in the 40-below region, so we're not even close."
Hayward, Wis., fell to 27 below on Monday, with a wind chill of minus 36, and wind chills around the state dipped to nearly 40 below.
Overnight, it was 23 below in Duluth, Minn., and one problem that comes with cold weather isn't just cars that won't start, but cars that won't stop.
"We do often have problems with auto theft, because people are stealing cars that are unlocked and unattended when they're warming up in the cold weather," police Sgt. Dan Boese told CBS Radio News.
In western New York, the big problem was snow...piled five feet deep in some places, adds Bowers. Amtrak shut down passenger service in parts of western and northern New York state, and whiteout conditions and slippery pavement shut down a 38-mile stretch of the New York Thruway during the night.
"Roads are treacherous. We have our DPW and our highway departments out, and they can't keep up," said Terry Yarnell, superintendent of the town of Aurora.
"It's coming down too quick, they just can't keep up with it," agreed Steve Slawinski, assistant police chief of Evans, N.Y. "If you go out, you're just going to go in a ditch or get in an accident."
New York City was registering wind chills of minus 8 to minus 11 Monday morning.
With wind chills around 30 below, Chicago emergency room doctor Sean Motzny said he was somewhat relieved the Bears lost the Super Bowl, because it meant fans weren't out celebrating and exposing themselves to frostbite and hypothermia.
"This can come on very quickly," Motzny told
Cold made all the more cruel when you consider that just a month ago in Chicago, golfers were teeing off in temperatures near 60, reports Bowers. Today the high was one degree.
At least 30 water main breaks were blamed on the cold in Detroit, city Water and Sewerage Department spokesman George Ellenwood told The Detroit News.
The cold also brought calls for help from car owners faced with dead batteries and frozen locks.
"During the weekend, 10,000 motorists called for assistance. And that's a record in recent years," Nancy Cain, spokeswoman for AAA Michigan, said Monday. "This morning we've already had 300 calls for help."
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