[Tom Burns]

Headline correction: State of emergency declared in LaPorte county due to ice....

Drivers asked to stay off streets and highways.....

......local bus transportation cancelled in Michigan City. However rising temperatures are expected to make travel possible later in day. WEFM has long list of cancellations on air and updates regularly on road conditions.

8:15 a.m. Mayor of Michigan City emphasizes the emergency includes both the city and county.

8:45 a.m. Garbage pickup rescheduled.

[mcstumper]

The ice seems to be gone from most of the roadways and luckily the temps will rise through the night. We just got to my wife's house here in central IN., and the problem now seems to be pea soup fog... Be safe everyone.

[Southsider2k12]

Travel emergency? With the condition of the streets, what is the difference versus the last week or so? The side streets turned into a horrible frozen slush pond that made navigating them nearly impossible up until yesterday's warm temps started to melt them. The main streets are potholing like crazy, especially Ohio Street's southern end up to Highway 20, which needed to be paved this last summer, but wasn't. They are pot holes so big they have put up emergency barriers IN them to keep people from losing tires behind Ruby's Woods. I can't believe that we have wasted so much money since the Casino went in that in the first winter when the economy gets bad Michigan City can't even do basic street maintenance anymore. This is just downright dangerous and embarassing. I shutter to imagine what the streets will look like if we have a real bad event, such as the Christmas Eve blizzard where we got 3 feet of snow a few years back. They will have to shut the whole damned town down.

[Tom Burns]

Travel emergency? With the condition of the streets, what is the difference versus the last week or so? The side streets turned into a horrible frozen slush pond that made navigating them nearly impossible up until yesterday's warm temps started to melt them. The main streets are potholing like crazy, especially Ohio Street's southern end up to Highway 20, which needed to be paved this last summer, but wasn't. They are pot holes so big they have put up emergency barriers IN them to keep people from losing tires behind Ruby's Woods. I can't believe that we have wasted so much money since the Casino went in that in the first winter when the economy gets bad Michigan City can't even do basic street maintenance anymore. This is just downright dangerous and embarassing. I shutter to imagine what the streets will look like if we have a real bad event, such as the Christmas Eve blizzard where we got 3 feet of snow a few years back. They will have to shut the whole damned town down.

In the distance past we had a snowfall overnight so deep Michigan City police picked me up in some kind of 4 wheel open snowmobile at home in Trail Creek and drove me to the radio station over snow drifts because they wanted us to tell people to stay off the streets and the telephones. The local phone exchanges became locked up shortly after as every kid in town got on the phones. There was at that time an agreement among the police, radio stations and other local agencies to refrain from giving any weather information by phone as that impeded police and other agencies from reaching us and each other. I believe credit for that goes to Stu McDonnell, and it was a good idea.

Hopefully I can get to Michigan City tomorrow after trying for days. I will buy a holiday drink for anyone from CitybytheLake still in the mood for one.

[Southsider2k12]

FYI, use EXTREME caution driving on Ohio Street between East Coolspring and HIghway 20. The potholes are horrible. There is one coming out of the laundry mat or old Als just past Coolspring that has tire bits all around it from people having their tires ripped open by it.

[Southsider2k12]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...ArticleID=19912

Icy mess cripples area

Joseph Malan
The News-Dispatch

MICHIGAN CITY - An ice storm left a thin coating of slick ice on everything early Friday, contributing to numerous traffic crashes and slideoffs, while many pedestrians suffered slip and fall injuries on sidewalks so slippery it was difficult to stand or walk.

Many drivers found themselves unable to drive up inclines, and even highway trucks struggled to get out salt spread on the pavement. Hills and curves were particularly difficult, and La Porte County police declared a state of emergency when it became apparent that the hilly highways between La Porte and Michigan City simply couldn't be navigated.

Traffic that did move inched along, with usual work commutes of minutes sometimes taking hours or ending when cars and trucks got stuck.

La Porte County Sheriff's Deputy Cal Reed said he's never seen so much ice on the road before.

"We've got Sheriff's Department vehicles that can't get to places 'cause they're stuck in ice," he said. "In my experience and talking with other services, we've never seen road conditions like this before."

Temperatures today are expected to reach the mid-50s creating a new kind of problem. Melting snow and ice in addition to the threat of thunderstorms and heavy rain could cause widespread flooding around the county. Fortunately for motorists Friday, rising temperatures alleviated icy conditions, but for several hours pavement everywhere was wet and slick.

The La Porte County Sheriff's Department issued a state of emergency early Friday morning because of the ice, and several county roadways were shut down as a result of the slick conditions, including Johnson Road.

"It means that unless there's an absolute life or death necessity to be on the road, everyone is advised to stay home," Reed said Friday morning.

Due to ice conditions, the Michigan City Street Department trucks were removed from the streets Friday morning. "This decision was necessary to protect the drivers as well as others who were out as trucks of this size require longer periods to stop and are difficult to control," Mayor Chuck Oberlie said.

Sidewalks were covered with a sheet of ice as locals slipped and slid around the city.

Billie and John Pappas, owners of B&J's American Cafe in La Porte, were busy de-icing and shoveling off part of the sidewalk in front of the business, where Billie said a man had been taken to the hospital earlier.

"It's really dangerous out there," she said. "[John and I] saw four cars off the road coming in this morning."

Vehicles off the road were a common sight Friday morning. Deputy Reed said a 10 to 15-car pileup occurred early Friday at Forrester Road and Indiana 2. He estimated he was taking at least 10 to 15 accident calls per minute at about 8:45 a.m.

According to the Associated Press, the Indiana Toll Road was shut down at 6:30 a.m. by Indiana State Police. It reopened two hours later.

State Trooper William Jones called the 157-mile highway "an entire sheet of ice."

The Associated Press also reported six people were killed across Northern Indiana Friday in car crashes. Two crashes killed four people near Lafayette, while two died in a crash on Ind. 37 near Indianapolis.

A 10:08 a.m. Indiana Road Report by the Indiana State Police showed nearly all major roadways in District 13, Michigan City and La Porte's region, were ice covered. That included Interstate 94 from Michigan City to Portage and east of Michigan City to Michigan.

Nick Meyer, communications manager for NIPSCO, said 136 power outages were reported around the region early Friday, the majority of which were in the Gary and Crown Point areas. One outage was reported in the La Porte area. Meyer said, however, he was unsure whether the outages could be attributed to ice.

The National Weather Service issued a Freezing Rain Advisory until 9 a.m. Friday, but issued a Flood Warning at 10:30 a.m. due to ice melting and heavy rain expected today.

[Southsider2k12]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...ArticleID=19905

Salt the roads
Roads a sheet of ice Friday

Editorial

Motorists in northern Indiana probably have no reason to hold high expectations of their highway departments. This winter, like the last one, is shaping up as an extremely challenging one for street and highway crews, and whether it's snow plowing or pothole patching, in many cases over these last two winters the roads are not being maintained as well as we would like them to be.

Particularly with all that Major Moves money the state got for leasing the Indiana Toll Road.

However, people also have a valid expectation that the state and local highway department supervisors are seeing the same weather forecasts and radar images everyone else can get nowadays on cable TV or the Internet. That's what makes it hard to understand why trucks weren't salting the roads before and as ice began accumulating on pavement early Friday, instead of after roads became nearly impassible.

Yes, it was the day after Christmas, and no one really wants to get up and get going early the day after a holiday, but that should never be an excuse for highway and street departments, on whom we depend for our safety. Nor do we want to fault the drivers and crews who have tough jobs to perform often under very difficult conditions.

Fortunately for motorists, it was a light travel day, which made the very slippery roads just slightly less dangerous.

Nevertheless, the roads were exceedingly dangerous, and drivers were lucky that temperatures rose later in the day Friday and melted the ice.

But icy conditions need to be addressed immediately and quickly by street and highway department supervisors. A greater sense of anticipation must be employed by these public servants.

Our Opinion:
The Issue:

Roads were being salted after the ice coated everything.

Our Opinion::

Street and highway supervisors must act with a greater sense of anticipation when snow and ice are forecast.

[kharris]

FYI, use EXTREME caution driving on Ohio Street between East Coolspring and HIghway 20. The potholes are horrible. There is one coming out of the laundry mat or old Als just past Coolspring that has tire bits all around it from people having their tires ripped open by it.

Lafayette Street between Barker Ave and 11th Street is in pretty bad shape as well. I did see one crew out this morning on Barker Ave just east of Franklin starting to fill in some potholes.

[Southsider2k12]

The pot hole crew did hit Ohio Street yesterday. Glad to see Streets and Sans was very quick on the job.

[Southsider2k12]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...ArticleID=20082

The rest of the season
Winter may have milder temperatures

Joseph Malan
The News-Dispatch

MICHIGAN CITY - After a December of icy roads, flooding and below and above normal temperatures, some Michigan City residents may be wondering what kind of weather the city will experience in 2009.

According to National Weather Service Forecaster Sara Weisser, residents can expect relatively mild temperatures for the remainder of the season.

"There is a 40 percent chance of above normal temperatures through March," said Weisser, a forecaster for the Northern Indiana office.

Although that doesn't guarantee a warm winter, that means there's a better chance of relatively warm temperatures than there is normal or below normal temperatures.

A warmer winter also does not guarantee the city will not see sizeable temperature swings on the thermometer.

"I know from past winters from being around here, we had some instances where we started out with December being really [bad], we would have some major snow events. In January, there would be some outbreaks that led to severe flooding," Weisser said. "One or two days it seems like we'll be well above normal temperatures and it will get into the sixties."

According to a one-month outlook by the National Weather Service, there is a good chance for above normal precipitation in the Michigan City area through March, along with the expected above normal temperatures.

December 2008 turned out to be a relatively cold month for Michigan City, with temperatures 2.5 to 3 degrees below normal on average. However, that's a far cry from The Old Farmer's Almanac prediction of the region experiencing temperatures 8 degrees below normal.

"Compared to previous Decembers, it turned out to be rather cold this year," Weisser said.