CHICAGO — Hundreds of holiday travelers spent Tuesday night in Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and some of them faced the prospect of doing it again on Christmas Eve as airports across the country recovered from a barrage of snow and ice storms.
Conditions improved Wednesday, but highways were still dangerously slippery in some areas.
More snow fell in the Midwest, where the National Weather Service said up to 4 inches was possible in Chicago. The Northwest faced more snow and sleet, with up to 20 inches possible in the Cascade range in Washington, and icy, wet weather spread over the Northeast.
At least 30 highway deaths had been blamed on the weather, including a woman and her 7-month-old son who died in a two-vehicle crash early Wednesday in southeastern Wisconsin.
About 500 travelers had to spend the night at O’Hare after stormy weather canceled more than 500 flights Tuesday, said Chicago Aviation Department spokeswoman Karen Pride. Some slept on cots, some on the floor or across waiting-room seats, and it appeared some would spend Christmas Eve at O’Hare.
Complicating matters at O’Hare, an American Airlines plane hit an icy patch while turning onto a runway and slid sideways into the grass. There were no injuries in the Wednesday evening incident, and 54 passengers were to be put on flights leaving the same night.
Newlyweds Tommy and Siobhan Costello were at O’Hare on Wednesday gearing up to spend their second night in an airport hotel en route to their honeymoon in San Diego. They arrived from their native Ireland on Tuesday, but the weather meant the earliest flight out for them was today.
“This was supposed to be a pit stop,” said Siobhan Costello, 30. “But there’s nothing you can do.”
The New York metro area’s Kennedy and Newark airports reported arrival delays of up to three hours, the Federal Aviation Administration reported.
The Weather Service posted winter storm warnings and advisories for parts of the West, the Midwest and the Northeast.
Oregon’s largest utility, PGE, said it had restored service to 265,000 customers since the storm arrived Friday, but 47,000 were still blacked out Wednesday. More snow fell in the region Wednesday.
Amtrak also reported improvement Wednesday. Trains out of Chicago and elsewhere were leaving nearly on time, unlike Tuesday, when several trains were canceled and about 600 travelers waited for up to 22 hours for delayed trains at Chicago’s Union Station, spokesman Marc Magliari said.
