natural gas looks better and better..(ultimate perishable commodity :)
U.S. Winter Storm Strengthens, Targets
Midwest
06:26 p.m Jan 01, 1999 Eastern
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Travel warnings were issued
and snowplows readied Friday as a powerful winter
storm gathered strength and took aim at the Midwest,
authorities said.
A moderate snowfall produced accumulations in the
Dakotas while heavy thunderstorms pounded eastern
Texas as two storms along a frontal system
converged and threatened the Midwest with its
heaviest snow in decades, meteorologists said.
''This is definitely a powerful winter storm. In
Chicago, you could possibly have the biggest
snowstorm in 20 years (over the weekend),'' said Jon
Racy, a forecaster with the National Weather
Service's Storm Prediction Center.
High winds at the back of the storm were expected to
create blizzard conditions and pile up drifts in frigid
temperatures.
Hundreds of cots were prepared for an expected
army of stranded travelers at Chicago's O'Hare
International Airport. United Airlines, which has a hub
there, suggested that people planning to travel
Saturday and Sunday try to make other
arrangements.
''We urge them to consider moving their plans,''
United spokesman Joe Hopkins said. ''We're
probably going to have limited operations'' in Chicago
over the wintry weekend, he added.
Hundreds of plows and road-salt-carrying trucks
were assembled to battle the storm, which was
expected to dump more than a foot of snow on the
city.
Sandbags were piled up along vulnerable sections of
Chicago's Lake Michigan shoreline to try to prevent
wind-driven waves from flooding a highway.
''We've never had forecasts so dire,'' a city
spokesman said.
Much of the Midwest has enjoyed a mild late fall and
winter, although conditions turned frigid earlier this
week.
The storm was expected to dump ice and sleet further
south and possibly hit Virginia, where a Christmas
Eve storm knocked out power for thousands of
people, some of whom were still without electricity a
week later.
The latest storm was expected to sweep into the
Appalachians. It also threatened to develop into an
ice storm in coastal New England, forecasters said.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited |
