Lee Thomason will be dealing with the storm's fallout long after the roads are plowed. He owns Thomason Express, a trucking company based in Marion, Ill., that has 50-75 trucks on the road. This storm and those that preceded it this winter, he says, "just kill the bottom line."
When bad weather hits, truckers can be late picking up or delivering loads, disrupting schedules. Some customers won't wait for a tardy truck and hire someone else.
On Wednesday, Thomason says, two trucks here couldn't deliver their loads after the company receiving them closed. Three trucks were stuck in an ice storm in Weatherford, Texas. Storms "affect everything. It's just a domino effect," he says.
This was the seventh major winter storm to hit portions of the USA over the past six weeks, according to the Weather Channel. With more than six weeks of winter left, several cities — including Chicago, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and New York City — have had snowier-than-average winters, the National Weather Service says.
Beth Ann Bovino, of Standard & Poor's, says the loss of productivity caused by weather can affect the economy but probably won't slow the recovery.
Bad weather means construction workers get smaller paychecks and have less to spend, she says, and manufacturing slows temporarily when factories are forced to close. "The storms are certainly going to be a hit, but it seems unlikely that it would stop or curtail sharply the upward trend," she says.
Mary Ellen Balchunis, a La Salle University political scientist who analyzed snow costs when she was an aide to former Philadelphia mayor Wilson Goode, says cities and states with tight budgets cringe when big storms approach.
On the other hand, she says, bad weather can create short-term jobs such as snow-removal work.
Scores of factories, shopping malls, restaurants and other businesses remained closed Wednesday. City, county and state government workers stayed home. Kim Freely, spokeswoman for Sears and Kmart, says 49 stores were closed Wednesday in the Midwest and South; 62 more opened late.
Ellen Cohen, who works at a Chicago clothing store, was dismayed to learn it would be closed Wednesday. "Snow day means no pay," she says.
QuikTrip, based in Tulsa, felt obliged to keep its 570 convenience stores in nine states open, spokesman Mike Thornbrugh says. "People depend on you."
It wasn't easy: Some employees worked double shifts, some stayed in hotels near their stores, and some who couldn't get to their store were told to report to the one nearest their homes instead.
Still, Thornbrugh says, "we've been crushed by this storm." The kitchen that makes the stores' prepared food in Tulsa closed because of snow there, and trucks are having trouble making deliveries in Dallas and elsewhere.
Tom Pientok, president of Apache Hose & Belting Co. in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, opted for worker safety over the need to meet weekly output goals.
Employees on Tuesday's second shift were told to leave early when the weather worsened, and the 130 people who work the first shift reported at 10 a.m.
Wednesday instead of the usual 5 a.m. Company facilities in St. Louis, Kansas City, Mo., and Romeoville, Ill., also curtailed hours because of the storm.
Pientok says lost productivity will be made up by longer workdays and a Saturday shift. "Our biggest productivity hit," he says, "is that we've got 20 guys out shoveling snow" that's covering goods stored outside.
Dealing with weather challenges, Pientok says, "is part of the cost of doing business."
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