Numerous Roads Blocked, Schools and Industries
Forced to Close
By Jo Rector, City Editor
Kosciusko County Residents were "digging out" today
following one of the worst mid-winter storms in recent years,
blocking highways and forcing the closing of all city, county
and area school and many industries.
Activities came to a near standstill Wednesday afternoon as winds
of blizzard proportions gusting up to 50 miles per hour swept
foot-high accumulations of snow off fields and lawns onto the
highways.
Between 1:18 p.m. Wednesday, when the Kosciusko County Commissioners
declared a civil emergency because of the blizzard, and by about
midnight Kosciusko County Police had logged reports of 15 traffic
accidents, many of them "chain reactions" involving
more than two cars, that were attributed to the nasty driving
conditions.
Commissioner Frederick Gilliam, in announcing the declared emergency,
ordered county residents to stay off the highways for their own
safety because county highway removal crews were unable to keep
roads clear in the path of the swirling drifting frozen precipitation.
Commissioners asked that the county's emergency preparedness plan
be put into action by county Civil Defense Director William Chapel,
who mobilize leaders of volunteers and helped coordinate governmental
units and crews to deal with the emergency.
Emergency Plan
Chapel said the emergency plan was to have county highway snowplows,
directed by Superintendent Jack Mills and his assistant, Don Forney,
disbursed throughout the county and standing by to make emergency
runs to pave the way for ambulances or fire trucks if they were
called to a drifted-in location.
City Street Superintendent Pat Ragan agreed to have his crews
pulled off their all-night snow clearing operations to assist
in similar emergencies outside the city limits.
Civil Defense personnel throughout the county assisted in making
the plan work, Chapel said, adding, "Everybody is really
cooperative, and that's what we need in a situation like this."
"For example, in North Webster the Civil Defense director
set up cots in the town fire station to house stranded motorists
who couldn't find a place to stay, and the Lakeland Snowmobile
Club volunteered to go after people who were stranded on the roads,"
Chapel said.
Radio Role
He said county citizens band radio enthusiasts, led by Mrs. Maxine
Wiley on Channel 9, the REACT emergency channel, were invaluable
in directing rescue operations by four-wheel drive vehicles, snowmobiles
and, when the snowmobiles couldn't get through, snowplows.
That county's KEMRAD members also were standing by with their
communications gear and rescue equipment, and county Red Cross
volunteers offered their assistance. Mrs. Wiley, in charge of
the REACT operations on citizen's band radio, said she longed
30 calls for assistance in just one hour Wednesday between 2 and
3 p.m.
"We have units all over the county and in an emergency like
this they turned their antennas to get the best coverage so they
can relay messages from the main highways and county roads back
to me in Warsaw," Mrs. Wiley said.
Relay, Dispatch
"Those of us in Warsaw then get the message to the police,
or in the times that the police were really busy, we'll call wreckers
on our own to go out and help the people who are stranded,"
she said, noting that the organization also dispatches snowmobiles
and four-wheel drive vehicles when they are needed.
"We had one couple stuck in a snowdrift out on a county road
for four hours, but we finally got to them and go them out. In
the last snow storm we had a police car, a wrecker and another
car all stuck at the same place at the same time," Mrs. Wiley
added.
She said four-wheel drive vehicles were used Wednesday night to
transport medical personnel to hospitals so they could report
for work.
Dozens of motorists were stranded in snowdrifts and were rescued
from the bitter cold by the county-wide network of volunteers,
police, snowplow drivers and other motorists.
Those who made it home were lucky. Motels in Warsaw were rapidly
filling up early in the evening with businessmen and motorists
who adhered to the commissioner's request to stay off the roads
because of their impassable condition.
City Police said that Murphy Medical Center officials offered
overnight accommodations to persons who were stranded in the city
without anyplace to stay.
Bus Comes Back
A school bus loaded with 22 Warsaw Community High School juniors
and seniors in a mechanics class arrived home safely at about
9 p.m. Wednesday from a field trip in Indianapolis. Dr. Max Hobbs
said the youths left early Wednesday morning on the field trip
and started back to Warsaw at 4 p.m.
When they hadn't arrived here by 8 p.m., we called the police
in Peru to try to stop the bus if it came through there and have
them stay overnight in Peru because of the bad roads. At that
time the Peru police told us that U. S. 31 north of Peru has been
closed to traffic," Hobbs said.
The superintendent said he and other school officials, as well
as the parents of the students were "very worried" about
their safety in the blizzard and were relieved when the bus pulled
into the city.
Hobbs said the bus got stuck once on State Rd. 15 year the Claypool
overpass, but other than that and some slow traveling because
of the blinding, blowing snow, made the return trip without incident.
Trucks Jackknife
County police said they received reports of four semi tractor
and trailer rigs that were jackknifed on U. S. 30 between the
Marshall County line and Warsaw.
Radio Dispatchers Gene Norton and Mel Byers, stationed at the
county jail said the two telephones in the dispatch room "never
stopped ringing for five hours solid." Late Wednesday afternoon.
"We never even put the receiver in the cradle," they
said.
Many of the callers were seeking information about road conditions,
and what they heard was bad news from the police and on Radio
Stations WRSW AM-FM, which posted frequent bulletins about the
weather and road conditions.
Most of the county roads were virtually impassable by the time
county highway crews gave up the futile battle with the elements
about 8 p.m. Wednesday. At that time State Road 13 was closed
south of Pierceton; State Rd. 5 was declared closed south of Ligonier
by the Indiana State Police, and U.S. 30 east of Columbia City
and many state and federal highways east of Fort Wayne also were
socked in by the drifting snow.
Clear Main Roads
By 11 p.m. Indiana State Highway Department crews had opened State
Rd. 15, which had drifted shut in many treacherous areas. The
status of the highway, according to Indiana State Police, was
passable with some areas only one-lane wide for traffic. Other
parts of State Rd. 15 that were not drifted were slick in spots.
State Police announced that the highway crews had opened State
Rd. 13 in "passable" two-lane condition. State Rd. 25
was passable, but only open to one lane of traffic. U.S. 30 through
Kosciusko County was slick in spots but reasonably clear of snow.
At 11 p.m. State Rd. 19 was declared closed and impassable north
of Akron all the way to Nappanee.
Police said area wrecker services were doing a land-office business
extracting stuck cars from ditches and snowdrifts and rearranging
the jackknifed trucks, and a state highway snowplow had to be
called out to scoop a path for the South Whitley Emergency Medical
Service ambulance to reach injured victims of a traffic accident
on State Rd. 5 south of South Whitley.
By press time today most state roads in Kosciusko County were
reported by police as being "open and passable."
The exceptions were State Rd. 15 north of Leesburg, which had
only one lane cleared and State Rd. 19, which still was closed
at least as far south as Akron and as far north as Etna Green.
Main county roads were being plowed out this morning, but police
reported that 75 per cent of the county highways were still closed
at 10 a.m.
Bitter cold temperatures are forecast for today, and tonight the
thermometer is expected to nosedive to 15 below zero.
Within the city of Warsaw there was little evidence of the latest
storm's severity. Downtown and residential streets and parking
lots were comparatively clear of drifting, thanks in a large part
to city crew who worked through most of the night and early morning
hours. Skies were clear here at mid-morning with the temperature
rising from a low of 4 below zero at 6 through 8 a.m. to 1 above
at 10 a.m.
Wayne Tombaugh, member of the Mentone Town Board, has asked Mentone
residents to leave the water faucet run at night about the size
of a pencil lead so lines will not freeze, until the weather changes.
Bill will be pro-rated according to last year at same time.
Also, residents are asked to put trash in front at the street
as sanitation service workers cannot get through alleys.
Northern and central Indiana areas were the hardest hit by Wednesday's
storm which produced little new snow but caused extensive drifting
as strong winds whipped old snow into a frenzy. Visibility was
near zero in numerous places at the peak of the wind storm. Winds
were measured at 25 to 30 miles per hour with gusts up to 40 m.p.h.
Lodging in Armories
Rensselaer and Marion opened their National Guard armories to
house stranded motorists. Motels in various cities were packed
with marooned guests sleeping in lobbies.
State police said that in addition to investigating hundreds of
auto accidents, they were involved in assisting many motorists
find lodgings for the night.
State police closed Interstate 65 in Lake County for a time Wednesday
evening.
Many other northern Indiana roads were also closed and remained
blocked as of this morning. U.S. 421 south of Indiana 10, Indiana
39 south of LaPorte and Indiana 23 north of North Liberty.
Central Indiana roads closed included Indiana 1 in Randolph and
Jay counties, Indiana 3 in Randolph County, Indiana 9 in Madison
and Grant counties; Indiana 28 between Elwood and Alexandria,
and Indiana 37 north and south of Elwood.
County Roads Closed
Many county roads also were closed by the drifting snow, including
those in White, Carroll and Cass counties.
U.S. 30 and 24 were closed for a time Wednesday in Allen County,
and 30 cards were involved in a chain-reaction accident on Indiana
3 near Huntertown, while 20 others were piled up on Interstate
69 north of Fort Wayne.
The bad roads also forced the re-closing of many schools which
had reopened following the winter storm earlier in the month that
brought heavy snow to the state.
Meanwhile, Northern Indiana Public Service Co. Wednesday announced
it was cutting natural gas supplies to its industrial customers,
allowing them only a minimum of fuel. NIPSCO previously had only
trimmed industrial users by 20 per cent.
The cutback by the state's largest natural gas company will add
to the thousands of Hoosiers already laid off temporarily because
of other gas curtailments to industry.
More snow was in the Indiana forecast for tonight and Friday,
and another blast of Arctic air will send temperatures well below
zero this weekend.
The National Weather Service said highs today would reach only
the teens and 20s, then dip into the single digits to teens tonight.
Highs Friday were forecast for the teens and 20s again.
But lows Saturday and Sunday morning may plunge to 10 to 15 below
zero, then dip to around zero on Monday.
 Drivers of this car and pickup truck were headed south on a side raod, approximately a mile east of County Rd. 100 East on the Armstrong Rd. when they could go no further. The raod was completely covered by mountains of drifting snow. The vehicles made it only about 300 feet south of the Armstrong Rd. (Photo by Walt Rogers) |
Background & Graphic by Roxy's
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