Blizzard Of 1979 Makes Pain Of Winter 2014 A Bit More Bearable
By John Dodge
CHICAGO (CBS) -- For all of the snow that has piled up here, Chicago has avoided "The Big One."
Meaning one of those super-storms like the Blizzard of 1979.
By many measures, the winter of 2013-2014 has been bad. Really, really bad.
The snowstorm that struck Chicago on Jan. 13-14 is best remembered for costing Mayor Michael Bilandic his bid for re-election.
Between 7 and 10 inches of snow were already on the ground, after an earlier blizzard the previous New Year's Eve.
More snow began to fall with a vengeance on the night of Jan. 12, and it kept piling up until 2 a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 14.
The new snowstorm alone topped out with 18.8 inches on the ground.
The city's poor response to clearing the snow and getting city operations back to some resemblance of normal were widely criticized.
In some cases it took weeks, even months, to clear the snow.
JoAnn Elam shot some fantastic vintage 8 mm footage of the snow in the Logan Square neighborhood.
And, yes, there are some examples of residents calling dibs on their parking spots.
It ranks as one of the worst storms to ever hit Chicago. One of the Big Four (1967, 1979, 1999, 2011).
Despite as bad as this year has been, Chicago still hasn't broken the top 10 for worst single snowfalls in the city as measured by the official station at O'Hare.
Not yet, anyway.
