The Chicago area braced for a new onslaught of ice and wind early Tuesday after one of the worst ice storms in recent years.
The Central Weather Service said southwest winds could gust to as much as 50 miles an hour Tuesday as the temperature plunges into the low or mid-20s.
That report was bad news for crews struggling to clean up debris and restore electrical power after a storm of snow, ice and rain Sunday and Monday left the area strewn with fallen tree branches, broken power lines and flooded basements.
At the height of the storm Monday morning, 80,000 Chicago area customers were without electricity, 60,000 of them in the western suburbs.
By 10 p.m. Monday, Commonwealth Edison Co. estimated that 23,400 area customers were without power, including 2,000 in the city and 15,000 in the western suburbs.
At least 12 west and southwest suburbs set up emergency shelters Monday night to house people whose homes had no power, according to the Red Cross.
The news was worse elsewhere. As much as 28 inches of snow fell in South Dakota, and wind-driven snow closed airports and highways and idled schools and businesses throughout the upper Midwest.
The roof of the Silverdome in Pontiac, Mich., collapsed for the second time in 10 years from the weight of ice and snow, and in Minneapolis, workers climbed the roof of the Hubert Humphrey Metrodome to shovel off snow to avert its third collapse.
Eleven children under age 10, some without shoes and socks, were rescued Monday from a station wagon stuck in snowdrifts on Int. Hwy. 90 in southeast Minnesota.
The body of a 70-year-old woman who apparently got lost after leaving a stalled car was found in a snowbank at a service station in Milwaukee County, Wis., officials said. Three construction workers in Evansville, Ind., were killed when a gust of wind toppled a 30-foot-high wall on them at a movie theater they were building.
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Because of the storm, Monday was declared a day off for most of Minnesota`s 35,000 state employees, while in Pierre, S.D., stranded state legislators played cards, watched television and gazed out motel windows as they waited for a break in the weather.
In the Chicago area, authorities warned that sharply falling temperatures combined with strong winds could cause further damage Tuesday. Tree limbs and exposed power lines were dripping wet late Monday and subject to freezing and breaking.
Strong winds blew down a wall in a two-story commercial and apartment building at 3448 W. Roosevelt Rd. Monday night, Fire Department officials said. No injuries were reported.
Just after 7 p.m. Monday, a power line in Niles broke, apparently because of high winds. The break in the line caused several transformers to blow, lighted the sky and knocked out power to about 11,000 people in southeast Niles, southwest Skokie and Morton Grove, according to authorities. There were no reports of injuries.
Edison reported that power to much of that area was restored by 10 p.m.
In Du Page County, schools and government offices closed by Monday`s storm were expected to reopen Tuesday. The Du Page County government complex in Wheaton was closed Monday because of a power outage, and power was lost briefly in the Du Page County Jail.
The storm closed businesses and canceled school in Wheaton, Elmhurst, Villa Park, Glen Ellyn, Carol Stream, Downers Grove and Lisle.
Monday`s heavy rain left pools of water ready to be turned into ice as the temperature fell below the freezing mark.
The Red Cross said the suburbs that set up emergency shelters were Brookfield, La Grange Park, North Riverside, Hillside, Westchester, Lyons, Downers Grove, Westmont, Wheaton, Hinsdale, Glendale Heights and Bolingbrook. One Du Page County man, Stanley Rycek, 61, suffered a heart attack early Monday while bailing water from his flooded basement in Woodridge.
In Chicago, Sandra Benson, 46, of South LaSalle Street, was injured when she was struck by ice falling from a building near Franklin and Adams Streets. O`Hare International Airport was shut down temporarily because of low visibility.
During the storm that began Sunday, the temperature roller-coastered from a low of 29 Sunday night to an official high of 50 at 11 a.m. Monday at O`Hare and then headed down again.
At Chicago`s lakefront, the temperature reached 57 degrees, and at Midway Airport it reached 55.
Rainfall, heavy throughout the area, was heaviest in downtown Chicago. The Metropolitan Sanitary District said 3 inches of rain fell at its measuring station at Rush and Erie Streets between 7 p.m. Sunday and 7 a.m. Monday. Weather officials said this is equal to 30 inches of snow. The official heaviest snowfall in Chicago was 23 inches in 1967.
In Springfield, Gov. James Thompson said the state has run out of sandbags for flood control. He authorized the emergency purchase of 80,000 sandbags at 50 cents each.
The Sanitary District was twice forced to open the Wilmette locks of the Chicago River to avert flooding. Such action causes not only rainwater but sewage to flow into Lake Michigan.
Some plumbing supply companies reported on run on pumps as residents tried to dry their basements.