PEORIA, Ill. — Snow covered roadways, scrambling snow fighters, stranded motorists and sporadic traffic deadlocks are what marked the early part of Wednesday in Peoria, day one of what the Weather Channel has named “Winter Storm Landon.”
Earlier, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker had announced hundreds of Illinois National Guard forces and State Patrol troopers would be used to help stranded drivers and it would appear they may have been quite busy in the area.
While Peoria residents were strongly encouraged to stay home amidst the storm, many drivers could be seen on the roads throughout the morning hours, some of them getting stuck in the snow and on hills, delaying the Public Works Department’s ability to plow.
City officials said on Tuesday night, Peoria’s Emergency Communications Center received fifty 9-1-1 calls for disabled or stuck vehicles.
Some drivers tried to climb up a steady incline where Knoxville Ave., Spalding Ave., and Interstate 74 intersect. Those drivers were essentially ordered to turn around and at one point shortly after 6:30 a.m., crews shut down the nearby ramps onto I-74.
Images also showed a heavy traffic back-up on Interstate 74 heading into downtown Peoria.
Peoria Public Works had elected, during this storm, to hire contract snow fighting crews to help clear the city’s many residential streets.
Peoria will remain under a City-wide parking ban through 6 p.m. Thursday.
Efforts to clear the roads will apparently take a little longer in Pekin. Brett Olson, the City of Pekin’s Operations Supervisor told WMBD News most neighborhood streets likely won’t be plowed until Friday. He said, “We’re trying to stay on our main arteries and do the best we can to at least get the main routes clear.”
Olson said he’s only working with 13 individual snow plow drivers, assigning them to rotating 12 hour shifts through the day Wednesday and into early Thursday.
Meanwhile, at General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport, there were very few passengers coming and going.
State and local authorities as well as weather forecasters have all warned that as the wind picks up through late Wednesday, it will become virtually impossible to travel.
Tazewell County’s Highway Supervisor Scott Williams said on WMBD’s “The Greg and Dan Show” early Wednesday, “”The roads right now are probably the best they’re going to be for the next 24 hours.”
