All Porter County
government offices were closed today and a travel advisory was in effect
until further notice after a heavy snow began to fall early this morning.
The Duneland
Schools were also closed today and an “inclement weather eLearning day”
declared. Teachers were supposed to post their assignments by 10 a.m. and
students have until 10 a.m. Wednesday to submit them.
At 6:30 a.m. the
Highway Department was reporting heavy drifting in unincorporated
county--exacerbated by winds which were “picking up fallen snow that had
accumulated over the past several days and blowing it back onto the
roads”--and within minutes of being plowed, roadways were covered all over
again.
Chesterton Street
Commissioner John Schnadenberg told the Chesterton Tribune that the
snow began to fall around 2:30 a.m. and a shift of plow drivers was on the
streets by 3 a.m. concentrating on the main roadways. Every two hours the
mains had to be re-plowed, however, and by 9 a.m. they’d been cleared three
times, with a break to make a single pass through the subdivisions.
Schnadenberg estimated that by rush hour a good four to five inches of snow
had already fallen. The Street Department’s full fleet of seven vehicles was
at work, he added, supplemented by a pair of trucks on loan from the
Building Department.
Schnadenberg added
that it was his understanding both Ind. 49 and I-94 were in rough shape
during the morning commute.