The official snow amounts at 9 a.m. ranged from 17.3" at O'Hare Airport to 21" in a town just West of us. Everything is stopped. The high wind has added extra problems. We have a drift at least 4' high right to the side of our front door. So glad it wasn't up against the door. It will continue to snow for several hours but not as heavy. During the late evening it snowed 2 to 3 inches per hour. Plows can't keep up with that type of snow.
We heard a plow go by about 9 pm last night but nothing has been down our street since we got up at 6:00. I am surprised that some nut with four wheel drive has not tried to race around town showing off.
The neighbors are starting to shovel. Standard snow blowers aren't much help because it is thick and heavy. My husband started working outside at 7:30 a.m. He just had to do something. He was like a caged lion pacing around the house. He shoveled his way to the garage to get the snow blower out. He has settled on the following system: first he hand cleared a working area; next he used the shovel to break down the wall of snow into the cleared area; this snow would then be blown farther into the yard with the snow blower; now with a little more space to work he would break down more snow which would then be blown into the yard. At least he isn't trying to lift the stuff. The silly thing is that our neighbor has a very powerful snow blower and said last night he would clear our drive later in the day but Dave just had to get started! We aren't planning to go anywhere.
Our power has stayed on. Our son lives an hour north of us and their power went out at 6:00 last night. Their townhouse is down to 50 degrees. If the dinner is open about 3/4 of a mile from them they plan to walk there, have a hot meal and recharge their phones and laptop.
Mom woke-up about daylight. I opened her window shade and showed her the big drift outside her window. She wisely decided to go back to sleep.
What a great day to quilt! Susan