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Snow tapers; advisories continuing into morning

A heavy, wet snow that began early Tuesday has ended, but not before it canceled nearly 700 flights, mucked up commutes and canceled activities throughout the suburbs with northern counties hit the hardest.

Snow advisories were called off early Wednesday morning, at about 4 a.m. rather than 6 a.m. as anticipated. But, not before leaving some areas of Lake County with more than 10 inches of snow and southernmost areas with closer to 4 inches.

Final snow totals show Gurnee and Waukegan had about 10.5-inches of snow, while Woodstock had 7-inches. More totals are expected to be reported at the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network later this morning.

Despite the chaos created by the storm that included numerous fender benders and spinouts, expressways and tollways remained open and mostly clear throughout the night with no serious injuries reported.

Numerous schools either closed for Wednesday or will be opening late as they dig out from the storm. A list of those schools are located online at the Emergency Closing Center.

At O’Hare International Airport, delays of between 60 and 90 minutes lingered late into the evening with 510 flights canceled Tuesday. At Midway, flights were delayed more than 30 minutes with 170 flights canceled.

As of 7:30 p.m., the number of ComEd customers without power had dropped from about 2,600 to 700 scattered throughout all of northern Illinois. None of the outages were specifically labeled as weather-related, a spokeswoman said.

Numerous after school activities were shut down Tuesday because of the storm.

For example, Northwest Suburban High School District 214, Rolling Meadows High School closed at 12:30 p.m. Wheeling, Buffalo Grove, Hersey an Prospect High Schools closed at 1:15 p.m., and Elk Grove High School closed at 1:45 p.m. All after-school and evening activities, events, and Community Education classes in District 214 were canceled as well.

In Barrington Unit District 220, middle school and high school students were dismissed at 1:15 p.m. and elementary school students were dismissed at 3 p.m. There was no afternoon kindergarten. After-school athletics and activities were canceled.

Wauconda Area Unit District 118 had early dismissal at Wauconda High School and Wauconda Middle School and Matthews Middle School. Officials said the early dismissals were to ensure that school buses were ready to take elementary school students at their regular dismissal times. All after-school activities also were canceled.

The IHSA Boys’ Basketball Regionals scheduled to be held at South Elgin High School have been rescheduled for the same time Wednesday.

Palatine Township Elementary District 15 canceled all after-school activities requiring late-activity buses. Other scheduled evening activities possibly were canceled. After-school CARE remained open.

All Palatine Schaumburg High School District 211 after-school activities and athletics, including practices, Scholastic Bowl and IHSA regional boys basketball contests, were canceled. All facility rentals were canceled.

District 211 continuing education classes, evening high school credit recovery classes, ESL classes and alternative high school classes were canceled.

Wheeling Township Elementary District 21 canceled all after-school student activities but still planned to conduct after-school programs, such as Clubhouse, CAP, and Children-in-Action.

Diamond Lake Elementary District 76 also canceled all after-school and evening activities, including parent-teacher conferences.

Libertyville Elementary District 70 canceled all after-school activities, including the Common Core meeting for parents.

All after-school activities at Stevenson High School were canceled. The regional boys basketball game at Prospect High School has been moved to 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Woodland Elementary District in the Gurnee area canceled all after-school activities. But the school board meeting took place as scheduled.

The College of Lake County canceled all classes and events scheduled for 3 p.m. and later at all locations. The CLC board meeting also was postponed.

  A jogger treks through the snow as it starts to fall in earnest in Geneva Tuesday morning. Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com
  Shoppers make their way along Third Street in Geneva as the snow starts to fall Tuesday morning. Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com
  Phyllis Szczesny crosses the intersection at Northwest Highway and Lee Street in Des Plaines near the train station on Tuesday, February 26, 2013. George LeClaire/gleclaire@dailyherald.com
Alex, 8, and father Bill Koc of Batavia built a 7-foot-tall snowman with the snow that fell all day Tuesday. Courtesy of Bill Koc
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