LAPORTE, Ind. — More than 70 motorists were stuck for hours Monday in biting temperatures on snow-covered highways in northwestern Indiana as strong winds hampered snow plow drivers’ efforts to free them. By Monday afternoon, most had been rescued safely, but a few were still trapped by drifts.
Authorities said strong winds with gusts up to 30 mph were delaying rescue efforts.
“As soon as the plows go through an area, the wind is blowing fresh snow right back into the roads,” state highway department spokesman Jim Pinkerton said. “It is just really difficult for us to keep up against that wind and snow.”
The wind and heavy lake-effect snow were part of a slow-moving storm that has been crawling across the Midwest since Friday night. At least 15 deaths have been attributed to the storm, which dumped nearly 2 feet of snow in parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin before moving into Michigan and Indiana. Monday, it stretched further east, with snow in parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.
Northwestern Indiana was hardest hit Monday, with up to 16 inches of snow in some areas around LaPorte. Lake-effect snow develops when cold air rushes over the warmer water of Lake Michigan.
The strong wind made the storm one of the worst to hit the area in the past few years, said Beth West, the assistant director of LaPorte County 911. The blowing snow caused white out conditions at times, making even a giant inflatable Santa Claus sitting on the corner outside the county courthouse partially obscured.
About 70 vehicles were trapped by snow drifts Monday morning on a section of Indiana 2 in the Valparaiso area.
Others were trapped overnight on U.S. 30, some for more than 12 hours, LaPorte County sheriff’s Deputy Andy Hynek said. Crews used front-end loaders to remove the drifts, but West said a few vehicles remained stuck Monday afternoon. Plows were trying to get to them.
At least 15 deaths in five states have been attributed to the storm. Eight people died in traffic accidents, and a 79-year-old man using a snowblower at the end of his driveway in western Wisconsin was killed when a plow truck backed into him. Four men in Michigan and one in Minnesota died after shoveling show or using snowblowers, and Kennenth Swanson, 58, of River Falls, Wis., died when a metal shed collapsed from the heavy snow, pinning him under debris and about 3 feet of snow.
High and dry
