Spring snow puts crimp in spring break

It's one thing for the calendar to announce spring's arrival but quite another for the weather to match the season. Every Chicagoan knows that.

Still, with area residents trying to travel for Easter weekend or escape the Midwest altogether on spring-break vacations, Friday's early-spring snowfall proved particularly onerous, shutting down flights and snarling ground traffic.

By 4 p.m. Friday, airlines at O'Hare International Airport had canceled more than 400 flights. Travelers fortunate enough to get off the ground endured delays averaging 90 minutes to two hours, according to Chicago's aviation department.

It was one of those days at O'Hare, where frustration and confusion seemed the rule. Some passengers complained of what they called conflicting information.

At noon, Jeanette Clark of Aurora was trying to catch a flight to Philadelphia that would connect her family to their spring-break destination in Puerto Rico.

"We have a US Airways flight booked through United," Clark said. "Over in the US Airways terminal, they told us: 'Everything is canceled; go home. ' "

But, Clark said, the departure board in United's terminal indicated the flight was still on, even though the departure time had passed.

"We called twice before we came," Clark said. "First they told us it was canceled. Then they told us it was back on. Then, here, they told us it's canceled. Now it might be back on."

United spokesman Jeff Kovick said his airline has "code-share" arrangements with more than a dozen carriers and that those cooperating airlines work together the best they can to communicate with passengers.

Kovick said United used its weather information to cancel many flights well in advance scheduled departure.

"If we're aware that there's going to be a significant weather situation, we try to be proactive in canceling flights," Kovick said.

"We hear from our customers that they'd rather wait out a storm from the comfort of their own home rather than at the airport, so we like to give them as much notice as possible."

Still, the logic of cancellations puzzled even some whose flights survived.

Diana Quinn of Vernon Hills was keeping her fingers crossed that the flight taking her -- along with her husband and two sons -- to Roanoke, Va., for a connection to Florida, would stay on schedule, as the departure board showed. But she noted that a flight to Richmond -- not so far from Roanoke -- had been canceled.

A few travelers faced the prospect of changing modes of transportation entirely.

Peg Reilly, with her husband and two teen sons, saw their flight to Miami canceled Friday and were told the next available O'Hare flight would be Sunday.

"Our cruise leaves tomorrow, so obviously Sunday's not an option" Reilly said. "If we can't get another flight, we'll drive it. But we have to be (in Miami) by three tomorrow and we have to get back to Rockford on the bus first to get our car."

Friday's actual snowfall was short of earlier U.S. Weather Service forecasts in most parts of the suburbs.

That was cold comfort to residents who were hit hardest, including those in Lake County, where 8 inches or more made commuting all but unbearable. Traffic volume was down because of Good Friday, or it would have been worse.

As it was, police and rescue officials said scattered accidents along with the heavy snow caused travel times to increase.

Road crews tried their best to keep up with the snowfall. Libertyville Public Works Director John Heinz kept a sense of humor.

"We're figuring it will stop sometime in July," he said.