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Crime & Safety

No. 5 of 2011: The Blizzard That Froze Time

The "snow event" of 2011 may not be the biggest blizzard ever, but it was among those that we'll remember.

  • Editor's note: This is the sixth of the 10-part countdown of the top stories on Geneva Patch in 2011. These 10 are my choices. At the end of each story, you'll get a chance to pick your own top story. I strongly encourage you to click on the links to the original story or stories, because that's where you'll find the real fun in this trip down memory lane.

 

There is something magical about a major "snow event" like the one we experienced in February 2011.

The world more or less stops. No school, no work, no rush to get from Point A to Point B. You dig out, and you help your neighbors dig out. And you walk your dog, if you can, and play with your kids. And if you're a Geneva Patch editor, you keep working, because that's what you do, but the joy is that you get to bear witness to people helping each other and being neighborly in the most fundamental ways.

Find out what's happening in Genevawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

We were supposed to get 20 inches before in was over, and that was pretty accurate. Overall snowfall in the region ranged between 15 and 25 inches, according to news reports.

but the on Tuesday, Feb. 1. The "snow event" was almost immediately followed by with temperature readings below zero and windchill factors between 20 to 25 degrees below zero, according to the National Weather Service.

Find out what's happening in Genevawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Kane County employee  collapsed and died while plowing snow during the blizzard.  50, of St. Charles, was a 14-year employee with Kane County Division of Transportation.

With the of the summer, 2011 is likely to end up the since they started recording such things. 

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