Blizzard 2011 - Wondering How My Metra Conductor Husband Is

My husband has been working commuter service in the Chicago area. I talked to him yesterday morning shortly before lunchtime. He went on duty at 1 pm and usually ties up around 1 am, and then heads back to the hotel in the outlying suburban town near the station where he starts his day- but now the blizzard has come and I don't know how he is. The roads are closed and roads are impassable. I've seen news reports that Chicago Metra trains were a madhouse, so I'm sure he's exhausted. I'm not sure if he had to go out and unfreeze and throw switches himself last night, or if there were enough maintenance of way people out to do that. It's pretty dangerous being out there in the dark, with low visibility and howling winds, working on throwing switches- especially when all of the schedules have been changed at the last minute to help load extra passengers due to the storm. It's easy to be out there, trying to unfreeze a switch, and actually not be aware of a train coming on a parallel track- conductors get killed doing that- especially when schedules have been altered and extra trains are running. Things get confusing. Miscommunication happens and people get killed- not often- but often enough to make me a little nervous.

So I'm a little worried about him. I'm not sure if he was able to get to his hotel at the end of his shift. The hotel is in an outlying area- not downtown. Not sure if he got stranded in his car, or if he had to spend the night in the train station, or on the train. He usually doesn't carry food in his grip, because he doesn't like the chance of bits of food messing up his paperwork, and the lockers on commuter trains are too small to carry an extra bag for lunch. He doesn't have room to carry pillows or blankets either. For all I know, passengers could have gotten stranded at an outlying station as well. Power has been out for tens of thousands of people- hoping that all of the train stations have power, that all passengers got home safely once they got off the trains, and hoping my husband is safe, and that he got some rest before going back to work today. I'd call him, but he could be sleeping, and I wouldn't want to wake him up if he's resting comfortably somewhere.

There are so many people out working in this storm- people of all professions- dealing with frustrated people. I'm feeling very thankful for all of them now- policemen, firemen, paramedics, doctors, nurses, electric company linemen, communications tower repairmen, and railroad crews- just to name a few. Let's all be extra nice to them next time we see them.