Weather wreaks havoc, wrecks plans nationwide

CHICAGO – On one of the biggest travel days of the year, hundreds of Amtrak passengers bound for holiday destinations hunkered down in waiting rooms – some for nearly 24 hours – as snowstorms and Arctic cold delayed their trains and disrupted other Christmas traffic.

Don and Barbara Seifert, of Prophetstown, Ill., spent a sleepless, frustration-filled night at Chicago’s Union Station with hundreds of angry customers.

After waiting 12 hours for their New York-bound train to depart, their breath visible in the frigid indoor air, the Seiferts finally abandoned plans to visit their son and his family for the holidays.

“It’s spoiled our Christmas, sure,” 73-year-old Don Seifert said Tuesday before he and his wife headed back to their western Illinois home.

Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said crews in some cities headed out with picks and shovels to clear snow-packed track switches; elsewhere, trains were held back to give lavatory pipes time to thaw.

Each train delay caused a ripple effect, with other trains and their crews at other points having to wait or readjust, he added.

Around 600 passengers in Chicago waited for up to 22 hours before finally boarding their delayed trains – the Lake Shore Limited, which was bound for New York, and the Seattle- and Portland-bound Empire Builder.

Amtrak says several trains scheduled to leave Chicago on Tuesday were canceled. Passengers on shorter-distance trains were put on buses instead.

Meanwhile, freezing rain was making driving hazardous across parts of the nation’s midsection. At least 12 people died in car crashes on rain and ice-slickened roads – two in Missouri, two in Kansas, one in Oklahoma, four in Kentucky, one in Ohio and two in Indiana on Tuesday.

Streets in Ohio were closed in Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, Toledo, Cleveland and elsewhere because of conditions. In Indiana, Evansville’s bus system suspended service for several hours, and accidents also tied up roads in and around Indianapolis, where sections of Interstate 465 and I-69 were closed. A 36-mile stretch of Interstate 64 in Kentucky was shut down due to ice and multiple crashes.

The Chicago Department of Aviation said more than 500 flights were canceled at O’Hare International Airport because of the weather, and many others were delayed by up to 2 hours.