- [Narrator] Coming up.

- There's a fierce storm developing as we come to you this evening.

- [Narrator] In a city notorious for its winter weather... - A little bit of snow can be romantic, but when it doesn't stop, then it becomes a different story.

- [Narrator] Two historic storms live in infamy.

- [Announcer] The Windy City of Chicago is white as well as windy.

- [Narrator] The blizzard of 1967 blindsided millions.

- No warnings, no watches, no indication there was anything outta the ordinary happening.

- But by that time it was too late already.

- This is the city of Chicago.

It takes a lot to stop this city, but that blizzard stopped it.

- [Narrator] While the blizzard of 1979 sparked citywide outrage.

- [Announcer] This is turning out to be Chicago's winter of discontent all right.

- People were at the end of their ropes.

They wanted action and they weren't getting it.

- I'm not sure that there was a right decision that anybody could have made, but every decision seemed to be wrong.

- [Narrator] Turning a natural disaster into a political nightmare for the mayor.

- Is there anything you would've done different from- - Maybe I should have prayed harder.

- [Jane] No one could stop the snow, but good planning could prevent the collapse of public transportation.

- Jane Byrne, she had no chance and then it started to snow.

- That blizzard changed the course of history.

- [Narrator] "Legendary Blizzards," next on "Chicago Stories."

(light music) (train rumbling) (mellow music) (Narrator) The splendors of summer in Chicago are a scene to behold.

(ball whacks) (crowd cheering) The crack of the bat at Wrigley.

The scent of street food wafting through festivals.

The lake shore abuzz with bikers while boats bob in the background.

Perhaps no one celebrates the warm weather like Chicagoans do.

- Chicago in the summertime is the best city in the world, in my opinion, as a Chicago native (laughs).

(water splashing) - It's when the entire city explodes and it comes outdoors.

It's a joy because it's such a short period of time.

- The phrase Summertime Chi is around for a reason, right?

We get three good months to come out (laughs) and really live it up here in Chicago.

- [Narrator] But while Mother Nature's smiles on The Second City for a few months, the rest of the year, she is not so generous.

If summer is what makes Chicagoans fun, (air whooshing) then it is winter that makes them fierce.

- The pride that Midwesterners have for being able to withstand the types of winters that we have is something that we really wear on our sleeves, or on our big puffy coat jackets.

- I think that there's this sense that we can handle anything.

You can dump a pile of snow on us and we'll dig our way out and it'll be fine.

- [Narrator] While every winter conjures wind, snow and cold, a few historic storms have brought Chicago completely to its knees, and in the process changed the city forever.

(static crackling) - Good afternoon, I'm Tom Skilling.

This is a weather break and there's a fierce storm developing as we come to you this evening.

(water splashing) (anticipatory music) - [Narrator] Friday, January 12th, 1979.

Rookie WGN Meteorologist Tom Skilling was watching the models closely.

He knew that what he was about to report wouldn't be popular.

- Oh my gosh.

There is no more nerve-wracking forecast than to tell eight and a half million people that we're on the precipice of a big snowstorm.

(light music) - [Narrator] Earlier in the week, predictions had called for a routine snowfall of two to four inches.

But as days ticked by, Skilling saw the potential for something much bigger.

- We had advance indication that a storm was developing, but you didn't know until you got within a day or two of it exactly how much would come down.

And I remember on the eve of the storm's arrival, we started getting guidance that this was going to be something more than your garden variety snowstorm.

- [Narrator] Chicagoans were already fatigued from winter's onslaught.

(engine sputtering) - This city was under attack meteorologically.

We had barbaric cold spells, sub zero cold would follow every snowstorm.

- [Narrator] As it was, '79 had come in like a lion, with nine inches of snow falling on New Year's Eve, stopping revelers in their tracks.

Frigid temps kept the spoils of that storm from melting.

- There was about 40 days in a row with temperatures at or below freezing, so every time it snowed, nothing was melting.

- We, by that time had had 39 inches of snow for the season.

That's more snow than we typically get in a whole winter, and it's only early January.

And here comes this next storm.

- [Narrator] Flakes began to fall Friday evening and quickly intensified.

In the Inglewood neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, 10-year-old Christopher Essex eagerly awaited the return of his father, L.B., from his job as a delivery driver for Paddor's clothing company.

- I can remember it really like it happened yesterday because it was right before the Martin Luther King Jr.

weekend, and I was excited to go and play basketball with my dad.

And then 7:00 came and went and then 8:00 and 9:30 and then it was bedtime, and then I woke up in the middle of the night and where's my Pa?

And he's not there.

- [Narrator] What Christopher didn't know was that on the journey home from the suburbs, his father's truck had become stranded in whiteout conditions.

- Everything just come out of nowhere.

The winds and the snow and that was it.

I couldn't go around because the people that was in front of me got out their car and started leaving the expressway.

- [Narrator] Abandoned vehicles littered the road ahead, trapping L.B.

Essex.

- So I'm like, "Damn.

Can't go nowhere."

- At this point I was worried.

I had no idea what was going on with him.

- As the temperature dangerously plummeted, Essex had no choice but to kill the engine and the heat.

- And I said, "Darn, I gotta do something," 'cause I had the truck running, it was warm.

I said, "I can't run this truck all the time because I'm gonna run outta gas."

- [Narrator] Luckily, L.B.

Essex was resourceful and he just happened to be driving a truck full of fur coats.

- I said, "Oh, there's fur in the back."

I put on one of them long fur coats.

I turned into Superfly, bundled up, and put 'em on my feet and stuff and laid back and kept the radio on.

And I listened to the Bulls at the stadium, and they lost.

And after that I went to sleep.

- [Narrator] L.B.

Essex was safe for now, but the rest of Chicago was under siege as the snow fell for 38 straight hours.

- Let's wrap things up tonight with a brief summary of our situation in Chicago at this hour.

Snow continues to fall in the area and a blizzard warning with more snow and brisk winds is in effect.

- [Narrator] CBS's Bill Kurtis reported on the storm from the anchor chair.

- Well, a little bit of snow can be romantic and you look out and there it is filtering down in front of the street lights and you think, "Oh, isn't that wonderful?"

And it doesn't stop.

And you look around and when you can't move, then it becomes a different story.

About the only course of action we can recommend tonight is that you stay home, put another log on the fire as they say, and ride out the storm.

Let's put another log on the fire and ride this out.

And it became the joke, but also representative of the time.

All you could do is laugh and ride it out.

- [Narrator] Residents across the city were grappling with the fact that this was no routine storm.

- I was 26 working at the City News Bureau of Chicago as a reporter.

About an hour before I was due to come into work, I called my editor and told him, "Look, it's been snowing all day.

I can't get my car outta the garage, the buses aren't running, I can't make it in today."

And he listened to me, and at the end of it he said one sentence.

"It's tough Garnett, but I expect you in here in an hour."

Hung up the phone.

And I remember walking across the Daley Center and there was nobody out there.

I imagine if you are stranded in the North Pole, that's the way it looks.

- Well, it's pretty at first, but then (laughs) it doesn't stay pretty long because it interfered with everything.

And then it was a deep freeze and I knew then we were in trouble.

- This just came in on the wire.

Acapulco, Mexico, Kingston, Jamaica both had high temperatures of 86 degrees today.

I don't know why they do that to us.

Bill?

- (chuckles) Can't get there anyway.

- Why do you tell us things like that?

(anticipatory music) - [Narrator] In the wake of the snow, temperatures below zero, coupled with nearly 40 miles per hour gusts created a devastating wind chill effect.

- The city was paralyzed.

You couldn't go anywhere.

- [Narrator] All flights in and out of Chicago airports were canceled and public transportation had ground to a halt.

- The CTA is crippled citywide.

They were lighting fires on the tracks to melt the ice and move the cars.

- And you had this incredible snow pack that had developed.

So they were having trouble running their buses and their trains.

CTA never faced anything like this.

- [Narrator] Roads were completely impassable.

- What was not happening was the streets, particularly the side streets were not being plowed.

I mean, this is the city of Chicago and it takes a lot to stop this city, but that blizzard stopped it.

It did.

- [Narrator] Peter Schivarelli was the Deputy Commissioner of Streets and Sanitation.

For his crews, it had been a long few weeks.

- The month of January, I think I went home maybe twice and just got clothes, changed, everything.

It was really crazy.

You felt like you were going on the beach at Normandy.

The thing that we wanted to accomplish were main streets first, side streets, and then of course alleys.

If you did an alley, you'd have people coming out.

"What about the street?"

We'd be doin' the streets.

They'd come out and say, "What about our alleys?"

And of course you'd feel like, okay, we're making great progress and then boom, you get hit again.

- [Narrator] Streets and expressways throughout the region were clogged with vehicles.

Among them, L.B.

Essex's delivery truck, stranded for 16 hours on Illinois Route 83.

- I was there to survive.

I wasn't concerned about nothing but getting to the next day and whatever means necessary, that's what I was goin' to do.

- Yeah, Saturday morning he's still not there.

So, now I'm freaking out.

But snow shoveling gave me an outlet and escape to like not so much think about like what was going on with him.

- [Narrator] After spending the night in his truck, L.B.

Essex, asleep under a pile of fur coats was awakened with a start.

- [Officer] Hey, you.

(officer knocking) - Somebody knock on the door.

Boom, boom, boom, boom.

All right.

"You guys ready to go?"

I said, "Yes, Sir."

- [Narrator] Rescue crews had come to clear the road, but L.B.

could only make it so far.

Saturday night he slept at a truck stop off the Dan Ryan Expressway.

It wasn't until Sunday morning, more than two days after he'd left for work that L.B.

Essex finally made it home.

- And so he comes in and I jump on him and hug him and I'm like really super excited to see him.

- They walk in jumping on me.

"Okay, y'all good?"

They good.

I'm tired as hell.

Went and got me something to eat, man, and went to bed.

- And so, I was like, now everything's cool.

- [Narrator] While the Essex's ordeal was over, the nightmare facing the city was only beginning.

By the time the snow stopped, over 20 inches had fallen.

- I think what's captured in the photographs is a city that has stood still, seeing these cars that are immobilized, buses that are stuck in the middle of the street.

There is one photo that I love of a couple standing on a corner and they're bundled up and they've got ski masks on.

Their body language is just kind of like, "Well, it's a blizzard but we're still gonna go out and get milk."

- (Kori) It's just these huge mounds of snow.

Maybe the top of a car is sticking out.

So, it's beautiful, but at the same token, it's potentially deadly and dangerous for people to be out and about in it.

(light music) (wind whistling) - In '79, we had just bought our first house.

We were living in Oak Park.

For the first time since I was a kid, I had to deal with clearing the snow out.

We'd come out and our garage has collapsed.

The snow had just come down on the garage.

My wife says, "Things look strange."

"Yeah, the garage has collapsed."

Fortunately, the cars were not in the garage.

- [Narrator] The city's snowplows worked around the clock.

- No matter what we did, it just seemed like it would never come to an end.

- [Narrator] In desperation, Streets and Sanitation hitched plows to garbage trucks to increase its fleet.

- Once we loaded up the trucks, the next question was, where do you put the snow?

- There was so much snow on the ground around here that the city didn't know where to put it.

- And so they would dump it in the Chicago River, and that's almost painful to see those photos because here's these huge dump trucks and they're just backed up to the river and in goes all that snow and dirt and whatever else along with it into the Chicago River.

- And people were saying, "How stupid could you be?"

Well, we had nowhere else to put the snow, but at that time, I don't care what we did.

There was constant criticism.

- People were frustrated.

They were still digging out from the New Year's Eve storm, let alone to have, what?

Two and a half feet more snow on top of that.

- [Narrator] The storm had put a lot of pressure on Chicago's Mayor, Michael Bilandic.

- Mayor Bilandic was a wonderful man, but you have to be an extrovert to be a mayor.

- Mayor, what priorities have you set up now?

And I know this is severe strain on the city facility.

- Well, we have over 1,000 pieces of equipment and over 2,500 people out fighting this grave emergency snowfall.

- I always thought that he was more like a staff lawyer who could handle things at the City Council level.

But as far as taking over the CEO job, he was really not prepared for it.

- Sounds like you've got your work cut out for you for the next two or three days anyway.

- Well, I bought a pair of snow shoes.

(Mike laughs) - [Narrator] At City Hall, it was a critical moment for the Mayor.

In just a few weeks, Bilandic would face off in Chicago's Democratic mayoral primary against Jane Byrne.

(graphic whooshing) Byrne was a long shot, but Bilandic needed to handle this crisis effectively.

Chicagoans knew all too well the havoc a winter storm could wreak.

12 years earlier in 1967, Chicago endured a storm like none it had ever seen before.

(dramatic music) - [Announcer] The Windy City of Chicago is white, as well as windy, battered by a furious winter storm, which dumped two feet of snow across the Midwest.

It reduced Chicago to a toddlin' town indeed.

(machine whirring) - (Linze) The blizzard of 1967 is the most important blizzard in Chicago's history.

It is the blizzard to end all blizzards.

It's still very much alive in Chicago's consciousness, whether you were there or not.

- [Narrator] Record breaking snow was the furthest thing from anyone's mind on Tuesday, January 24th, 1967.

Unseasonably warm temperatures climbed into the mid 60s, and Chicagoans ventured outdoors.

- Oh, it's such a Chicago thing.

If it gets into the '40s or the '50s, there's always that guy who's outside wearing shorts and a short-sleeve shirt frolicking, thinking the worst of winter is over.

- January thaw, which is an actual term.

It feels balmy, it feels great, and then winter comes crashing back.

Pump the brakes (laughs).

Don't rule out a cold or very snowy day.

(soft music) - [Narrator] In a cruel twist, the temperature dropped 30 degrees in just 12 hours and a dusting of snow was in the forecast.

- [Reporter] WCFL weather cloudy today with a chance of snow tonight, possibly one to two inches by tomorrow morning.

- [Narrator] But nothing out of the ordinary for January, as kids set off to school and Chicagoans poured into downtown office buildings.

- You have to realize the environment in which meteorologists were working at that time.

You had no computer models, you had no operational satellite imagery.

I look back on that era of meteorology and I think how did they do what they did?

- [Narrator] As a 14-year-old boy obsessed with meteorology, Tom Skilling followed the weather report religiously.

- I'll never forget it 'cause I watched the weather closely and the forecast was no warnings, no watches, no indication there was anything outta the ordinary happening.

'67 was an unmitigated forecast disaster.

I mean, it really was.

- January 26th, that was a Thursday.

It starts snowing.

People go to work in the morning not thinking a thing, and then it just continued to snow and snow and snow.

- [Narrator] By late morning, snow was falling at an unprecedented rate of two inches per hour.

By noon, eight inches covered the ground, crippling transportation.

- [Reporter] The forecast has been revised now.

We expect around 15 inches of snow and I hope there's no more.

- People had gone to work that day totally unprepared for a massive snowstorm.

- A lot of the office workers that are caught downtown, it's women in skirts and their legs are exposed.

There are a mass amount of people waiting at buses, the train station, they're all right at the gates.

And so you feel for 'em because everybody's trying to get home.

- [Narrator] Thousands of shell-shocked Chicagoans resorted to sleeping at work or in nearby hotels.

O'Hare, the busiest airport in the world shut down for the first time in history.

- [Reporter] Are you having a fun time here in the airport?

- Yeah, but it would be funner in Florida (chuckles).

- [Narrator] By Friday morning, the city of Chicago was buried under two feet of snow.

36-year-old Anna Jeong, along with her husband, sister, and toddler son, had been stranded in their car overnight.

At daybreak, they realized they needed to find a way home and fast.

- So, you gotta imagine my mother was pregnant with me, and at that time, my aunt was also pregnant, and my older brother, who's only 2 years old, turning blue.

I mean, that's not a very optimal situation.

- [Narrator] Their car was out of gas and walking home was out of the question.

- So, from there they decided, let's take the L. Well, of course, little did they know the real adventure was gonna begin.

- [Narrator] Anna was nearing her due date.

- Lo and behold, I kind of knocked on my mom's womb and said, "I think I'd like to come out now."

My mom's water breaks.

They're saying, "Oh my God, we're having a baby."

They started putting newspaper all on the floor.

My mom's thinking, "I'm not having a baby on that."

So, I'm sure that was quite a scene at that time.

- [Narrator] In some areas of the city, it was pure pandemonium.

In others, an eerie calm.

- When I got to Michigan Avenue, there was a cross country skier, and he was poling along happy as a clam.

My first reaction was, is it always like this every winter?

We got to the television station and said, "Well, how are we gonna cover this?"

We were shooting film at the time, so we had to get the film back, processed and edited.

So, we tried to rent every snowmobile that we could find.

- And some of the photos that we have show people walking through the city streets and trying to find their cars.

And so, people are brushing off the snow and peering into the car windows if they can find a car.

It's kind of amazing to see.

- But I think the most striking images that everybody thinks of for this blizzard is all of the vehicles and the buses that are trapped on Lake Shore Drive.

- (Reporter) We went down the Lake Shore Drive, it looks impassable and impossible at the moment.

I would urge anyone that does not have to leave home to stay put.

- Imagine just shaking a snow globe.

That's what was happening.

White out conditions.

You can't see in front of you.

So, what do you do?

I'm either gonna run outta gas, I'm gonna freeze.

I gotta get outta my car and try to get home.

- [Narrator] 50,000 cars and 800 CTA buses were stuck on the roads.

Wind gusts whipped upwards of 50 miles per hour, creating continued whiteout conditions.

(typewriter keys clacking) - Well, it's just about over with.

The overall effect of this storm was just stupendous.

The snow fell continuously for 29 hours and 8 minutes.

- There had never been an apocalypse like that in winter, 23 inches of snow.

So, this was like no storm we had ever seen before.

- [Narrator] The struggle was something all Chicagoans were experiencing together.

- As the situation kind of unfolded, there really was kind of this sense of comradery.

- And there's people pushing cars out and helping others.

Obviously, as a Chicagoan, that warms my heart because I think that's what we should be doing is helping each other out in that type of instance.

- [Studs] Have you noticed any difference in the behavior of people as far as- - [Pedestrian] Yeah, you don't meet a stranger now.

Everybody seem to know each other now.

Just people, with the same problem, how to get home.

- [Narrator] Schools were canceled for more than 1,000,000 Chicagoland children who reveled in the magic of snow days.

- It's just like total jubilation.

I don't have to go to school today.

I can do whatever I want.

(kid laughs) - It's a snow day!

And off you go.

You grab the sled, find the nearest hill, and you're out for the whole day.

- It's always fun to wake up and have a snow day.

I wish we could have snow days as adults (laughs).

- [Narrator] But some students like those in suburban Markham had never made it home in the first place.

- In 1967, I was 13 years old in 7th grade and going to Canterbury Junior High in Markham, Illinois.

I think they had decided that they were going to get everybody on the buses early because it was looking worse and worse.

The snow was just too much, too fast, too heavy.

So they turned around and we went back to school.

Later, the fire department brought over baloney sandwiches.

So then we thought, well, looks like we're gonna be here for awhile.

They separated the boys and the girls.

The boys were staying in the gym and that's where they would be sleeping and the girls would be sleeping in the library.

However, I don't think there was much sleeping (laughs), especially for 13-year-olds.

I just felt that it was a great adventure and not a care in the world that I wasn't going to make it home.

I'm sure it was not as much fun for the teachers.

(baby crying) - [Narrator] Not everyone could afford to be so patient.

The Chicago Maternity Center orchestrated a dozen births over the phone.

And other pregnant women were transported to hospitals by toboggans and bulldozers.

Anna Jeong's water had broken... and she was in labor when the L train she was riding pulled toward the Howard Street station.

- You could just imagine that you're a passenger sitting on the L. My mom's water breaks.

They're saying, "Oh my God, we're having a baby," and you are going, "Oh my gosh, look at that family.

What are they gonna do?"

Luckily, the train got to Howard station, but unluckily it got stuck as well.

They were stuck for two hours.

The ambulance did finally come and the medics came in and said, "Who's having a baby?"

Well, my aunt was pregnant at the time.

My mother was pregnant at the time, and they both said, "I am," "I am."

And I believe maybe someone might have asked, "Who's having it now (laughs)?"

"She is."

Luckily, I was not born on newspaper.

I was born in good old Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston.

- [Narrator] With nowhere to put the snow, desperate crews loaded it onto train cars and sent it south.

And emergency responders took to the air, utilizing all available helicopters in the metropolitan area.

- Helicopters were being deployed across the city, delivering medical supplies.

So, there really was kind of this rescue mission when people were stranded and needed assistance.

- [Narrator] By the time the blizzard of '67 was over, the city's economy lost an estimated $150,000,000.

- The figure in today's dollars, there was like $1.4 billion in losses because of the disruption in transportation and commerce, which was the greatest since the Chicago fire back in 1871.

There had been nothing even comparable to it.

- [Narrator] Losses were not just economic.

The storm also carried a great human cost.

With resources limited, looting was rampant in some neighborhoods.

- A 10-year-old girl, Dolores Miller, was shot to death as police exchanged gunfire with some looters in a shoe store on West Roosevelt Road.

- [Narrator] Young Dolores Miller was one of 60 people to lose their lives because of the blizzard of 1967.

- That's 60 families that they're definitely always gonna remember this blizzard.

Of all the blizzards that we've had, that was the deadliest.

- [Narrator] Nerves were frayed.

And in the chaotic aftermath of the storm, the city needed leadership.

- In 1967, the storm was unexpected, but the messaging from City Hall on down was, "We're in this together.

Let's all work together.

Hey, you shovel your neighbor's sidewalk, they'll help you shovel yours."

- [Narrator] Controlling the message of Chicago's Democratic machine was no problem for Mayor Richard J. Daley.

Because when Daley spoke, everyone listened.

- During an emergency of this kind, we need the cooperation and the help and assistance of everyone, and we've had it.

- Richard J. Daley was the most powerful big city mayor who ever lived.

This was a king maker.

This was a guy who people, politicians, presidential candidates, came to kiss the ring.

- The man had a grip on the city 'cause he was an extremely powerful presence.

- [Reporter] Did you have any opportunity to try any shoveling yourself on South Lowe?

- Yes, I did.

- Did you watch your neighbors- - And a good shoveler too.

(all chuckling) - Mayor Daley puts on this persona of, "Hey, we can do this.

We're Chicagoans.

Everybody, let's get our shovels.

Let's go out in the streets.

Let's help the neighbors out."

And everybody listens to him.

He definitely has faults.

But in the realm of the 1967 blizzard, he took care of business.

(anticipatory music) - [Narrator] When the next monster storm clobbered Chicago a decade later in 1979, it was a different story.

Mayor Richard J. Daley had died in office in 1976.

His replacement was Alderman Michael Bilandic.

Bilandic was no Daley.

- By the time that Daley died, he'd been the mayor of the city of Chicago for 21 years, and so he was a hard act to follow.

- Michael Bilandic was the 11th Ward Alderman, kind of a robotic, very awkward human being.

Not really a natural politician at all.

- In order to be the mayor of the city of Chicago (chuckles), you had to have one strong personality.

This is not an easy city to govern.

It never has been.

It never will be.

- [Narrator] Right from the beginning of the 1979 blizzard, it appeared the Bilandic administration was in over its head.

- I think the attitude at that point was just do what you need to do to get the city operating again.

- I'm not sure that there was a right decision that anybody could have made, but every decision seemed to be wrong.

- [Narrator] The timing could not have been worse for Bilandic, who was in the home stretch of a reelection campaign.

- What about the removal efforts by city crews?

Have you set up specific priority areas?

- Yes, we have.

We are identifying major parking lots around the city, and we're asking our citizens to take their cars into those areas and put 'em there.

That will make our snowplowing operation much more effective.

- Mike Bilandic asked people to get their cars off the side streets so the plows could get through and told people to park in these school parking lots.

- [Narrator] The Mayor announced that more than 100 lots were cleared and open.

- Well, the "Tribune" went to look at those school parking lots and they were still covered in snow.

- And the "Trib" had a headline that said, "Mayor Bilandic says you should park here."

And the picture was of lots that were completely filled with snow.

- I had found that our citizens are not utilizing all of those lots that we have cleared.

- And so there was a sense of arrogance and denial and just total mishandling of the situation.

- 410 pieces of equipment are being used.

- [Narrator] Bilandic doubled down.

Any snowed-in cars left on the street would be ticketed, no exceptions.

- His messaging was, "Hey, you need to move your car.

I don't care if you're old.

I don't care if you're sick, I don't care if you're poor."

- He says, "Take it to the judge."

So as you can imagine, Chicagoans are not in love with this.

- The problem was that the cars were towed and all of a sudden you go out to the street and your car's gone and it was a mess.

- The area along the North Lake Shore still looks like an arctic wasteland, which has become a graveyard for automobiles.

Hundreds of cars were towed here during the city's snow removal efforts.

- [Narrator] As days turned into weeks, it seemed Michael Bilandic could do no right, and Bilandic's blunders created an opportunity for his Democratic mayoral opponent, Jane Byrne.

Byrne was never seen as much of a threat to Bilandic's office.

- Well, she threw her hat into the ring sometime in the fall of '78.

And I, like a lot of people, didn't know who she was.

I don't think anybody was really taking her very seriously until the blizzard.

- Now, Jane had been fired by Bilandic from a City Hall job for criticizing Bilandic.

- I have also this morning terminated Jane Byrne, effective at once.

- [Reporter] You believe he's trying to muzzle you?

- I believe he's trying to muzzle me.

He fired my- - And so now this was an opportunity for her to come back onto the scene.

- [Jane] I thought the machine itself was somewhat of a paper tiger.

It had gotten sloppy.

- [Narrator] Byrne had found an edge.

In the blizzard's fallout, Chicagoans were fuming.

- Got my vote, I guarantee you that.

That man ain't doing nothin' for the city of Chicago at all.

- [Jane] Thank you.

- [Narrator] The parking lot and ticketing fiascos were just part of a long list of gripes.

Schools closed for a full week.

Trash went uncollected for 10 days.

- Even though the temperature was very cold outside, the temperature of Chicagoan's attitudes was very hot.

People had definitely lost their chill (chuckles).

- There was a degree of cabin fever in this city, psychologically that was stunning.

And I'll tell you, it's not surprising a population would react to it the way they did.

- I think that's a terrible job of transportation.

The man in the office ought to come out here and stand and wait.

- [Bystander] Yeah.

- And then he'd know what it's all about.

- He felt persecuted by the media and he compared himself to Jesus Christ on the cross, the crucifixion.

- Is there anything you would've done different or we as citizens should have done different in terms- - Maybe I should have prayed harder.

- [Norman] Could be.

Me too.

Yeah.

- We all should have.

But these are acts of God.

- [Narrator] Prayer would be of no help for those tasked with snow removal who were under intense scrutiny from the public and the media.

The previous spring, Chicago had paid City Hall crony, Kenneth Sain, $90,000 to update the snow emergency plan.

But when the blizzard hit, Sain's plan was exposed as nothing more than an unfinished outline.

To make matters worse, Snow Command Chief Peter Schivarelli came under fire for connections to childhood friends who grew up to be notorious Chicago mobsters.

- Growing up, basically it was like I lived on the set of "Casino."

(upbeat music) - You only exist out here because of me.

That's the only- - I mean, everybody that's in that movie, they were the neighborhood guys and we were all buddies.

We knew each other.

Well, consequently, once the press kinda got on this thing, Mike Royko, who had won the Pulitzer Prize, he writes this full page story about me two days in a row like I was Al Capone or something running the Snow Program.

Perception is greater than actuality.

- [Narrator] Schivarelli's bad press added to the city's growing list of distractions.

Everyone was agitated.

- Take it up with the commissioner.

- Naturally, there was pressure.

Everyone wanted to get the job done.

I've kind of felt like, what more could we do?

- [Narrator] The pressure of working around the clock for weeks on end was too much to bear for one snowplow driver.

(rig crashes) Thomas Blair smashed his rig through 34 vehicles on the South Side, killing one person in the rampage.

- Just lost it.

I guess he'd been overworked and started slamming into cars.

He just went completely crazy.

- [Narrator] When questioned by police, Blair confessed that he drank a pint of Canadian whiskey while behind the wheel and said, "I hate my job.

I want to see my kids."

Thomas Blair pled guilty to reckless homicide and was sentenced to 90 days in county jail.

As the tumultuous weeks after the blizzard ticked by, Jane Byrne's campaign gained steam.

- Jane Byrne was one of the most talented politicians I have ever covered.

She could walk into an arena of 10,000 people and pick you out in the 12th row and go "Hi," and make you feel like you were the only person in that place.

(anticipatory music) - She was going out in the communities talking to people.

She really kind of made herself sound and feel like, "I care about you, I care about what you're going through, and this guy, the Mayor, Michael Bilandic, does not."

- [Narrator] Byrne was also quick to attack Bilandic when, in the wake of the storm, trains began to bypass the least populated stops along L lines, most of which were in Black neighborhoods.

- There were complaints about the travel time from the outer fringes of the city into the downtown area.

And they opted foolishly to cut the stops in largely African-American communities.

And people there had to get to work.

- I think a message, whether they meant to send this or not, was that some Chicagoans were more valuable than others.

- I do remember being bypassed.

The excuse was we're trying to make the trains a little bit more express to get people to their destinations faster.

And the attitude in African-American communities was, "Yeah, faster without us."

- And I think that was maybe the final nail in his coffin and Jane Byrne had a field day with that one.

- No one could stop the snow, but good planning can prevent the collapse of public transportation and clean the city up fast.

I'm Jane Byrne.

I think it's time to get Chicago working again for you.

- [Narrator] Byrne's criticism of her opponent appealed to voters.

- And she gave the overall impression to Chicago's African-American community that "I care about you, that I'm concerned, that there will be changes once I become mayor."

Oh, yeah.

I remember thinking he's gonna pay dearly for this.

Folks that I knew in my neighborhood and the community is like, "We gotta get rid of this guy.

He's gotta go."

- [Narrator] With the tide turning against him, Michael Bilandic struggled to defend himself.

- Try to imagine the problems that piled on Michael Bilandic's desk.

You have an act of God that you couldn't plan for, and you're dealing with a personal issue.

Mayor Bilandic, his mother was ill and ultimately died.

And what's my responsibility?

To hammer the guy as a hard hitting Chicago news reporter?

No, I felt sorry for him, but it was at that point, at least in my mind, that he lost the election.

- [Narrator] On February 27th, 1979, the day of the Chicago mayoral primary, the skies were clear and temperatures mild.

- On the day of the primary, it was a beautiful sunny day.

How poetic is that?

- And I believe it was like the second largest voter turnout in something like 40 years.

People were motivated, they were mad.

- What is a leader?

A leader is someone who has this ability that when he says charge, there's a whole crowd behind him saying, yeah.

From adversity is great opportunity.

And yet, if you're not a leader, if you're not that kind of leader, then you take great opportunity and you blow it.

- Chicago voters took out their frustrations at the polls.

And Jane Byrne secured a two point victory, including a clean sweep in the city's African-American wards.

- But I don't believe that she just lucked out.

She worked hard at this, and she was in the right place at the right time and had the guts to take him on.

- When you go into politics, you get the glory, but you also get the blame.

- Well, I'm just going to work today like I did every day for the last few years for the people.

And I made my statement last night and that's it.

- [Reporter] Mayor can you tell us... - People expected a lot more.

Okay.

People expected a lot more.

- [Narrator] When the dust settled and the snow melted, Chicago had a new mayor.

Jane Byrne became the first woman to hold the office and the once mighty political machine that ruled the city was put on ice.

The blizzard of 1979 would serve as a cautionary tale.

- Every time it snows, I would venture to say that almost every city in the country goes through the same thing, thinking about Chicago and what can happen.

- So when the snow comes, when the flakes start falling, politicians all over the city are running to catch it, each flake just because they're afraid of what happened to Mike Bilandic.

- [Narrator] Years later, Michael Bilandic reflected on the storm that ended his administration.

(audience applauding) - Once upon a time, Chicago was known as a city that works.

Is this a city that works?

- It certainly does work, but it hasn't been snowing as much since '79.

(all laughing) - [Narrator] Despite his defeat, Bilandic never threw his snow patrol under the bus.

- I did stay in touch and I constantly would try to tell him that I wish we could have done better, and he was so good.

He just said, "Are you kidding?

You guys did a great job."

I had nothing but great respect for him.

He was like a perfect gentleman.

- [Narrator] 1979 would go down as the snowiest year in Chicago history with a record 89.7 inches falling.

It would also be one of the coldest.

Winter weather has blasted the windy city since.

But as technology has improved, so has Chicago's readiness.

- I think we're better prepared now.

The forecasts go further out and I think it's easier for people to have access to any change in the weather plan.

- [Narrator] Warnings only work, however, when heeded, which is not always the case.

Take February 2nd, 2011, when another blizzard dumped 21 inches on Chicago.

- (Tom) The Groundhogs Day blizzard, when that thing hit, it hit exactly when it should have with the exact winds that were supposed to happen with the exact amount of snow that was supposed to fall.

And I remember a friend of mine emailed me with that iconic picture of Lake Shore Drive.

Then he said, "What part of blizzard warning didn't folks understand?"

- [Narrator] Chicago's biggest blizzards transformed the city in countless ways, impacting politics, preparedness, and surprisingly even parking protocol.

(upbeat music) - Chicago dibs came in around 1967.

This is the idea that we still have today in Chicago, that if there's a snowstorm and you clear your parking space, that is your parking space.

- I think kind of the go-to for dibs is maybe like a patio chair or something like that.

I have seen like a full table and chairs set up as well.

You see the shopping carts, so you're like, where did those come from?

I've seen people put out the nativity set and then it's like, well, who's gonna move baby Jesus (laughs), you know?

- I saw somebody use a refrigerator.

I don't know how they were gonna move that.

A toilet.

I feel like maybe the things inside your home that are heavier should not go out there.

- You're not supposed to do that legally, of course.

But people in general in Chicago respected that.

And if some bozo came in your parking place, he might find his tires flat or something else.

- [Narrator] Resolve and resilience are hallmarks of the Chicago spirit.

And for many survivors of its greatest storms, memories of challenges faced have given way to a fond nostalgia.

(both laughing) - This is January 12th, 1979, the first stage of the snowstorm that will change the political complexion of Chicago.

Isn't that something?

You look back on a period like that and you say, "Wow, what a privilege it was to go through that era and be able to watch it right up front, close and personal."

(chuckles) I'm sorry, there's a majesty to all this.

It's such a privilege to do what I do and have had a chance to do it.

And I think Chicago's an amazing place to do it.

- I don't ever like to see snow, can I make this clear?

And I think this is a result of the winter of 1979.

I'm afraid of winter, I really am (laughs).

(somber music) - My mother was always my hero.

Every time it's my birthday, I called my mother to celebrate her heroism.

I said, "Mom, today's not my day.

Today's your day."

My mother passed away in 2016 and she was in hospice.

And I told the nurse about how I was almost born in an elevated train.

And my mom, just outta nowhere from her stoic face, just started laughing and smiling with this huge grin.

And that was actually the last time I saw her smile.

So it was really meaningful to come back full loop with that that story with her and how that's always bonded us.

- My father was a hands-on father.

We've always had a close relationship.

- Oh hey, that guy made it!

- He didn't miss a beat.

It's not like the storm impacted him at all.

Pop, you got the furs, you got the Bulls game.

Is there anything else you would've liked to have on that truck to make that night a little bit better for you?

- Some Leon's barbecue ribs.

(Chris laughs) - He knew that he had a family to take care of and I sincerely think like, that's where I got my work ethic from.

If you could have them deliver that Leon's to you, how long would you have stayed on that truck?

- For as long as possible.

I would've got paid.

I was on the clock.

(both laughing) - [Narrator] With rising temperatures, will future generations have a storm they remember in the same way?

It's still possible.

- Every time you have a cold spell, somebody will utter, "Well, what happened to global warming?"

Global warming's alive, well, and happening.

The warming of the atmosphere doesn't mean it's not gonna snow anymore.

And in fact, the atmosphere being warmer means that when you do get snow, it can be heavier than you might've gotten otherwise.

And could it happen again?

It sure could.

There's no reason to believe it won't.

- [Narrator] And in that event, past experience will help Chicago be ready for it... or so we hope.

(upbeat music) (music continues) (music fades)