Excitement on the River

One day at work I happened to look out the window (not mine, my boss's) and saw a helicopter hovering low over the river. Come to find out, witnesses reported someone had jumped from the bridge and they were lowering in divers to find him. After about an hour (they had three sets of divers who only stayed in the water about 15 minutes - the water was literally freezing) the rescue crews gave up. (Sorry about how bad the diver picture is, it was taken through glass a dozen floors up.)

The operation was handed over to the Chicago police (I guess after an hour in the river the rescue types won't really be able to help and it then becomes a recovery operation) and for the next few days they sent men out with what looked to me like sonar equipment that they lowered into the water. Strangely, they apparently never found anyone even though several witnesses reported seeing the man jump.

How to graphically depict cold.

It's cold in Chicago right now. And it feels even colder when you look at the frozen over river. I don't remember seeing this much ice on the river. A co-worker and I were discussing whether the river would ever totally freeze over when barge went through and broke up the ice. That answered that question.