Snow Causes Wisconsin Trouble

The worst moment for Sarah Cassity, 26, of Trevor, Wis., who was stuck overnight on County SA north of Antioch, was when the Kenosha County Sheriff called her back.

“It was about 1 a.m. and they called back to say they were canceling the help call because there was no way they could get to her,” said Cassity. The sheriff’s vehicles were either also stuck or trying to rescue someone else.

“I was freezing, but I wasn’t dying (they asked if she needed a ambulance, but she declined). I didn’t realize how serious it was,” she said.

She got into the problem because she was working at Walgreens in Antioch and the staff there was waiting for corporate approval to leave early. But they never received an e-mail because the people in the corporate office had themselves gone home early.

Cassity left work a little after 10 p.m. Driving north through Antioch was OK, but conditions changed at the state line.

“I couldn’t tell if I was on the right side of the road, and I couldn’t see anything. It was completely white,” she said.

A truck passed her at one point and she missed her turnoff, so she took the next road, County SA. She drove about a quarter of a mile before getting stuck. Her car had an OnStar onboard emergency link, and OnStar personnel were able to calm her down.

“If you don’t have it you should,” she said. “I was sobbing and crying, They were the best.”

She rationed her gas, turning the car on every hour for 10 minutes. Her car has a gauge that estimates remaining fuel in miles. She started at 60 miles and was rescued at 11.

“My mother even went on Facebook to see if someone would go get me, and two people tried,” Cassity said. She could hear one truck, but he couldn’t see her. Another man tried to get to her with a snowmobile, but he got stuck twice.

“There were times I was so cold,” she said. Finally, after over 10 hours, a snow plow associated with the fire department made it to her and drove her home to husband, Brian, and her two children, Josh, 4, and Emilee, 18 months.

“It was very lonely and very scary. It took something out of me. It was a really bad experience,” she said. “Now I’m home with my family,” she said.

Trevor Church, 23, of Mundelein was part of the nightmare on Peterson Road where Grayslake and Round Lake-area firefighters and police and snow plow crews had to rescue more than 100 stranded motorists.

He stayed at the Fremont Township offices, one of three emergency shelters that were opened, after being stuck in his car for a couple of hours. He was coming home from a friend’s house in Fox Lake around 7 p.m.

Church didn’t leave the shelter until the next day when state Rep. Ed Sullivan, R-Mundelein, picked him up. Church’s mother and Sullivan’s wife work together, and he helped get a truck to Church and a ride to the shelter.

“I slept on a foldout table with a Brawny (paper towel) roll as a pillow,” he said.

“There were 40 people there,” he said, with more coming in throughout the night. “There were elderly people and people with little kids. It was pretty chaotic,” he said.

The snow drifting while he was in the car was incredible. One couple had to climb through their window because they could not open their car door.

He went to retrieve his vehicle from Mac Truck, which also runs Northern Towing, which charged him $285 for a tow of about 1,000 feet.

“But something was wrong with the wheels, so I pulled into Target (near Mundelein) and had it towed to the mechanic,” he said, and paid another $80.

But he made it home. “It was quite a scene,” he said.

Peter Tekampe, Fremont Township supervisor, said he got to township center to open it as an overnight shelter by driving his tractor with a cab because his vehicles were drifted in his garage.

“It was about a mile and a half,” he said, and the cab was heated. “We used the food pantry food to feed people. We had bodies all over,” he said, referring to the township office and the highway department offices. “There were 80 to 90 people all together. There were no bad attitudes.”

In Antioch, St. Raphael the Archangel Catholic Church on Route 173 was used as an overnight shelter after a truck jack-knifed near Crawford Road and blocked Route 173.

“We had about 40 cars stuck (on Route 173),” said Fire Chief John Nixon. “For the most part it was handled well,” he said. “We also had the senior center for people who were without power,” he said, because part of the village lost power.

“Everyone was working at maximum capacity,” he said.

In addition, the Wal-Mart Super Center on Route 173 was closed because of concern that the snow load from the blizzard might collapse the roof. Contractors were called to clear it.