An icy mess: Area residents hunker down amid sleet, freezing rain and drifting snow

A cold wintry mix of sleet and freezing rain followed by snow pummeled Bartholomew County on Thursday, leading officials to declare the county at warning level “red” and restricting travel to emergency workers only.

The National Weather Service listed the county in a winter storm warning through 1 a.m. today, predicting snow amounts of up to 7 inches and as much as one-tenth of an inch of ice coating the area.

The heaviest snowfall was expected by Thursday night, tapering off between 2 and 5 a.m. this morning.

To add to the misery, Bartholomew County was predicted to receive winds of 35-40 mph, decreasing visibility and causing the likelihood of blowing and drifting snow.

County and city road crews had the additional challenge of not being able to pretreat roads due to Wednesday’s heavy rainfall, leading to a coating of ice, that was then covered with mixed precipitation and then snow.

Since the county’s travel warning remains under red, only emergency vehicles and those who provide medical and first-responder services should be on the roads, Bartholomew County Emergency Management Director Shannan Cooke said. Besides the city and county crews, there were also several private contractors and individuals with snow plows out trying to clear roads and streets, she said.

Columbus Department of Public Works Director Bryan Burton said that city workers began the day by putting down some material to help with traction at intersections and “treacherous” spots.

“We haven’t put much material down,” he said at about 11 a.m. Thursday. “Right now, we’re actually plowing. … It’s just covering back up by the time they turn around and come back.”

He described the work as “taking it (the snow) off by layers” as more fell, with workers focusing on the main roads at that time.

Burton hoped to provide workers some time to rest Thursday night, while still having a few trucks out, in order to prepare them for 4 a.m. start this morning with the full crew. That’s when the “real work” begins, and they can make some headway, he said.

In the meantime, Burton asked that residents be patient.

He said that while city crews will be able to do more once the winter system moved out — which, again, should be early this morning — it will take some time to clear the roads, especially given the low temperatures expected.

“We should be able to get the main roads cleared off pretty early in the morning,” he said. “And we should be in the interior streets by about this time tomorrow (11 a.m.).”

He expected crews to have cleared most of the city streets by tonight.

He observed that most residents seemed to be abiding by the county’s travel status, with minimal traffic making things easier for not for city crews, but also local police and medics.

“People are listening, and it does make a big difference,” Burton said.

However, there were some exceptions. Cooke said there were reports of a couple of factories disregarding the warning status and requiring their employees to report for work.

In addition, a few retailers opened their stores, and while the number of vehicles out on the roads and streets is greatly reduced from normal, there is traffic out on the roads, Chief Deputy Sheriff Maj. Chris Lane said. While several four-wheel patrol vehicles are out, no vehicles were being pulled over for ignoring the travel warning, he said.

“But I think the majority of drivers are staying in,” Lane said. “We didn’t have too many slide-offs this morning.”

Indiana State Police worked an accident early Thursday morning near the 76 mile marker of Interstate 65 and other slideoffs and road closings were reported on I-74 in Decatur County and I-65 in Jackson County.

On the county roads, an accident occurred Thursday morning shortly before 5 a.m. on Lowell Road, just east of the Lowell Bridge. It happened when a truck hauling a trailer slid off the road, Lane said. There were no injuries, and the road was reopened at 6:37 a.m., he said.

“There was so much notice that this was coming that I think people had prepared themselves,” Lane said.

“But the driving conditions are only going to get worse as the day goes on,” Cooke said.

While some Bartholomew County Highway Department crews took care of some trouble spots overnight, most did not start work until about 7 a.m. Thursday, county highway engineer Danny Hollander said.

Safety for employees is the top priority for the county highway workers, and since the department has workers of all ages, each person on a plow is allowed to decide for themselves how long they can be out without suffering from exhaustion.

“Some of them will go home after 12 hours, while others may go for 18,” Hollander said.

Crews were putting down salt and sand to provide a level of traction, but since the wintry mix has been falling continuously since Wednesday night, the salt hasn’t been given much of an opportunity to melt the frozen ice, Hollander said.

While the snow is falling, the highway engineer says crews are going to be hitting the main roads first, such as East 25th St. from the Columbus city limits to State Road 9. If the snow is coming down fast, the crews will likely have to do the main roads multiple times before they consider moving to the smaller county roads, Hollander said.

“If that’s the situation, we may not be able to get off the main roads,” he said.

But if the snow is falling at a slower rate, crews may be able to get some of the less-travelled roads plowed at least once before they return to the main thoroughfares, Hollander said.

“We’re just going to have to see what happens, and decide what we are going to do from there,” he said.

Shortly after heavy snow and strong winds moved into the area, three slide-offs were reported in northern Bartholomew County at about 2 p.m. Thursday, Lane said. There were no reports of injuries, Lane added.

Extra dispatchers have been brought in to the E911 Center to handle an anticipated rise in emergency calls, Noblitt said. The additional staff will remain until today, said Emergency Operations Center Director Todd Noblitt.

Duke Energy warned that the freezing rain accompanied by heavy snow could cause widespread power outages throughout Indiana. The utility staged nearly 1,500 workers – power line technicians, damage assessors and vegetation workers – across its service area.

Those workers include Duke Energy crews normally based in North Carolina and South Carolina who traveled to Indiana to assist locally based crews.

“We brought in extra crews before the storm to ensure we had ample resources to restore our customers’ power as quickly as possible,” said Kevin Morgan, Duke Energy’s general manager for emergency preparedness. “These crews more than doubled the number of workers we normally have available. Our teams are ready to restore power as soon as weather conditions safely allow.”

The storm’s severity and hazardous road conditions could delay crews’ ability to begin power restoration in the hardest-hit areas, extending the duration of power outages for some customers.

Heavy, wet snow of 6 inches or more can cause trees and branches to fall on power lines, as can ice-buildup due to freezing rain – both resulting in power outages, Duke officials said.