Ice, freezing rain make for dangerous conditions in northwest suburbs
CRYSTAL LAKE, Ill. (CBS) -- Ice and freezing rain wreaked havoc throughout much of the Chicago area Wednesday, leaving dangerous conditions in particular to the north and northwest of the city.
As CBS 2's Jermont Terry reported, the rain started falling early Wednesday and had been a constant downpour – turning the shower into ice.
In Crystal Lake, ice had the grass crunching and the cars completely encased – and power lines were drooping treacherously lower and lower as the ice weighed them down.
Back a little closer to the city in Arlington Heights, the winds toppled a tree onto the garage. There was a sport-utility vehicle inside the garage, but luckily, no one was inside the vehicle.
In Villa Park, trees and power lines snapped under the weight of a thick layer of icicles.
And while plow and salt trucks were out early to keep the road passable, there was little crews could do near Buffalo Grove – where a huge tree snapped and blocked four lanes of traffic.
"Our neighborhood is all down right now. We actually had a tree fall on an ambulance. So we're going home, staying put by our fire," said McHenry County resident Briana Mesick.
"We live in Oakwood Hills," said Trystan Greenenwald. "The trees are falling all around us. We've been trying to help the neighbors out."
Mesick, Greenenwald and their friends discovered just how serious the ice storm was when power lines covered in ice knocked out power to an entire shopping center in Cary.
"For a store to go out, you know, it's pretty serious," Mesick said.
"It flickered once or twice," Greenenwald said. "I was expecting for a generator to kick on, all the lights to turn on – but naw."
The Jewel-Osco store in the shopping center and the other stores shut down early – leaving many to take the ice warning seriously.
"They said it was going to be light ice. This is not light ice by any means," Greenenwald said. "It's crazy. It's crazy. There's a lot of ice everywhere."
Roads remained passable because crews had been diligent about salting them. But private lots, sidewalks, and front driveways remained dangerous.
Meanwhile, ComEd as of 10 p.m. was reporting 2,426 active outages affecting 110,340 customers because of the weather.