BLOOMINGTON - Most area students got the day off again Thursday, as a blast of bitter cold air prompted warnings from health care experts and police about the dangers of prolonged exposure. | Report a cancellation | Thursday's cancellations | Friday's cancellations | Photo gallery

And for those unlucky enough to have to brave the cold and go to work, the common greeting was a rhetorical one: "Cold enough for ya?"

In Bellflower, retiree John Wyatt was content to stay inside Thursday until it warmed up. After 34 years as a UPS driver, he said he's done his share of working in bitter cold. "You had to just go," he said.

Ashley Soliday and her boyfriend, Jason Michaels, both Bloomington juniors at the University of Illinois, were loading up their car to return to school, where classes resume Tuesday.

"I'm dressing lots of layers. Cuddle Duds are really warm, and I have furry boots, gloves and a hat," said Soliday, who is majoring in psychology. She said Thursday was the first day this season that Michaels has worn gloves.

They'll help each other unload luggage at their apartments, but Soliday said she's "kind of scared" about the cold since she faces a 20- to 25-minute walk to class. When the weather's really bad, she takes advantage of a bus that stops outside her apartment.

More than 5 inches of snow fell by Wednesday afternoon at one National Weather Service recording station near Bloomington, and winds whipped that up to whiteout conditions at times. Poor visibility and scattered slick spots caused falls and vehicle accidents across Central Illinois, and area hospitals saw people who strained their backs shoveling snow.

That snow closed schools Wednesday, but the arctic temperatures expected Thursday prompted districts in Bloomington-Normal and most of McLean County to stay closed Thursday.

"Our main concern is always the safety of our students and our staff," said Dayna Brown, spokeswoman for Normal-based Unit 5. "It's just not safe to be out in the temperatures that are predicted."

In Bloomington, the forecast high Thursday was 5 below zero and 15 below this evening. Wind chills were to hover between 25 and 35 below, with some areas between Galesburg and Pontiac expected to see 40 below zero wind chills, the National Weather Service reported.

Though winds may diminish tonight, the falling temperatures keep a wind chill warning in effect until noon Friday. The forecast high for Friday is 12 above zero, NWS says.

"It's going to be breezy with a northwest wind of 10 to 15 mph throughout the day (Thursday)," said NWS meteorologist Dan Kelly.

Hazardous roads

The weather and road conditions were the likely causes of a two-vehicle accident that killed a 26-year-old Mount Zion woman in Mount Pulaski, Logan County Coroner Bob Thomas said. Rachel Higgins was pronounced dead at 8:07 a.m. Wednesday at the scene of the accident. | Read full story

While area police reported no other accidents with serious injuries, there were quite a few collisions.

Normal firefighters were dealing with a van in a ditch about 11:30 a.m. when they watched three more accidents happen within five minutes on Interstate 55 near Veterans Parkway. They saw a car spin out, a pickup truck bounce off the median barrier and a semitrailer truck hit a spun-out a sport utility vehicle.

Normal Fire Lt. John Grussing said parts of the interstate were very icy, but it was impossible to tell by looking at it.

"You try to stop, you were done," he said. "People were going too fast."

Providing shelter

Home Sweet Home Ministries, 303 E. Oakland Ave., Bloomington, was at capacity Wednesday with about 80 people seeking shelter, said spokeswoman Sabrina Burkiewicz.

"When the weather is like this, we do whatever we can to accommodate people who need shelter," she said.

About 70 people have been going to Compassion Center, 313 N. East St., during the days recently, said Melissa Newbill, a case manager at the center. The center offers services during the day, but no overnight stays.

On Wednesday, that number included families because children were out of school.

Tom Fulop, director of The Salvation Army's Safe Harbor homeless shelter, said that if Compassion Center weren't able to open, Safe Harbor would do what it could to accommodate people needing shelter during the day hours. Safe Harbor normally opens only at night.

Busy hospitals

Hospital emergency departments and urgent care centers were hot spots on a cold Wednesday as patients came in with injuries resulting from the winter storm.

OSF PromptCare locations in Bloomington and Normal treated several patients with back strains from shoveling snow and an arm injury sustained in a fall, Germanis said.

At Convenient Care in Carle Clinic-Bloomington/Normal, by late afternoon, doctors had treated eight injuries - including ankle and wrist sprains from falls - after treating four weather-related injuries on Tuesday night, said Dr. Charles Dennis.

"It's been higher than usual - about double," he said of the weather-related injuries. He predicted that some people who got hurt Wednesday will come in Thursday when their pain doesn't subside.

The BroMenn Regional Medical Center emergency department staff, by late afternoon, had treated minor injuries from three motor vehicle crashes and four injuries from falls, said Eric Alvin, spokesman for the Normal hospital. But Alvin said those numbers - while higher than for an average winter day - were typical of the past several days since the ice storm.

Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital in Lincoln was busy, but it was a typical winter day with people with influenza and pneumonia symptoms rather than winter injuries, spokeswoman Amy Denney said.

OSF Saint James-John W. Albrecht Medical Center in Pontiac and Eureka Community Hospital in Eureka reported few weather-related injuries.

Power outages around state

About 2,100 Illinois customers of the utility Ameren were without power just before noon Thursday because of downed power lines, company spokesman Leigh Morris said. Most were around Belleville, just east of St. Louis, and near Decatur and had been without power since early to mid morning. He wasn't sure when electricity would be restored.

The cold may have been the caused the lines to snap, Morris said, though he could not say for sure.

Car care tips

People may worry about their cars starting in bitterly cold weather, but they also need to have the tire pressure and fluid levels checked this time of year.

"Flat tires are the number one cause of breakdown at the side of the road," said Steve Trower, an owner of Clay Dooley Tire and Auto in Bloomington. "The cold is hard on cars. It's good to let them warm up."

Trower recommends warming a car for about five minutes before pulling out if it has been sitting outside in such weather. That allows the oil to get warm enough to do its job.

Julie Gerke, Kevin Barlow, Phyllis Coulter, Paul Swiech, Ryan Denham, Sharon K. Wolfe and Associated Press contributed to this report.