Even as the last remnants of the blizzard of 2011 vanish with time, a record of the response to the region's third largest snowstorm ever the events of Feb. 1 and 2 by several dozen Kane County employees and volunteers is being made part of county's permanent public record.
A resolution recommended for approval by the Kane County Board's Public Health Committee and expected to receive full county board on March 8 formally recognizes the many selfless contributions made in response to the blizzard.
Among other things, the resolution thanks 35 volunteers from the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) as well as members of the Hampshire White Riders and Du-Kane Snow Mobile Club for providing search and rescue services to more than 50 stranded motorists and with helping assist with emergency shelter operations and providing transportation for physicians who needed to reach hospitals and assuring that stranded KaneComm telecommunications workers could report for duty.
Battling snowdrifts of up to eight feet high while also contending with "whiteout" conditions, the volunteers traversed roads that had disappeared under the extreme snow fall and continued to provide services for more than 23 consecutive hours during the blizzard, according to Kane County OEM director Don Bryant's report on the emergency.
At one point, according to Bryant, 66 people either found shelter or were transported to a BP service station on Route 72 at Route 47 to wait out the storm.
Bryant reported that the county's Emergency Operations Center (EOC) was activated at noon on Feb.1 and remained operational to coordinate the response to the disaster until 3:30 pm on Feb. 2. At the start of the blizzard on Tuesday, county board Chairman Karen McConnaughay issued a disaster declaration activating an Emergency Operations Plan, said Bryant.
As the blizzard intensified, the EOC received numerous reports of stranded motorists and weather conditions eventually rendered the county Sheriff�s patrol cars inoperable. Several snowplows became buried in deep snowdrifts. In addition to EOC's request for assistance from local snowmobile clubs to help rescue stranded motorists and take them to a place of safety, Bryant said the OEM also sent out �rescue convoys� made up of volunteers with three to four four-wheel drive vehicles per convoy to assist with the rescue.
"Each convoy was structured to not only give the team a larger capacity for transporting stranded motorists, but also to provide the capability of pulling each other out of the snow should it be necessary," said Bryant. Rescued motorists were taken to one of six shelters that were opened throughout the county.
Data obtained from county departments and municipalities during OEM's initial damage assessment will be used to help validate Gov. Quinn's request for a federal disaster declaration, according to Bryant.
