DuPage Co. weathers storm well

DuPage County streets crews and emergency workers were ready for a winter storm of apocalyptic proportions Friday, but were pleased when it was just a standard December snow dump.

Unlike the neighbors to the north who received almost twice the amount of snow and the neighbors to the south who received a blanket of ice as well as snow, DuPage received just enough to make it messy and close schools.

"I'm not at all disappointed," said Wheaton streets superintendent Bob Harazin. "We were anticipating a lot worse and we were ready for it."

Most weather stations in DuPage County were reporting three to four inches of snow from the storm.

Glen Ellyn's public works crews are breathing easier after the storm turned out to be fairly mundane. They're still short about 400 tons of road salt they ordered earlier in the year.

"It kind of makes our lives a little more difficult since we don't know what we'll have tomorrow," said Glen Ellyn Public Works Director Joe Caracci. "There's enough salt to get through the weekend and the holiday. But there's a chance of not having salt when you need it."

DuPage County Board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom activated the county's emergency operations center ahead of the storm that began dumping snow at about 11 p.m. Thursday and lasted until the Friday-morning commute. About a dozen county workers manned the center through the night to coordinate activities with communities if the weather got as bad as predicted. It's the first time the center has been operational since the mid-September floods, county spokesman Jason Gerwig said.

Carol Stream's assistant public works director Matthew York wasn't surprised to see DuPage dodge the weather bullet.

"The Chicago area is so weird because when they make weather reports it's such a large region it's hard to say what it's actually going to be like," he said. "And as we saw last night, a few miles can make a difference."

The one complaint most plow crews had with Friday's snow was its heaviness. Naperville Public Works Director Dave Van Vooren said because it was a wet snow, curbside mailboxes were in jeopardy from passing plows shooting the heavy mass into the mailbox posts. However, Naperville has a program to reimburse homeowners whose mailboxes were damaged by plowing. For more information call the city at (630) 420-6095.

"We've had a fair share of calls about mailboxes today," Van Vooren said.