HANCOCK COUNTY — It was mornings like Tuesday’s that make Shannon Berry glad he bought a four-wheeler with a snow blade.
He put it to good use clearing about a foot of snow from his driveway and the driveway of a neighbor whose car was stuck.
“It’s nuts out here,” said Berry as he drove back from his neighbor’s house in the Meadows of Springhurst neighborhood in Greenfield.
Berry’s equipment was part of an arsenal of snowblowers, plows and shovels that saw their heaviest use in several years as the county began recovering from the large storm that dropped a record amount of snow throughout the area.
Many city streets and county roads were still in poor condition, and the county remained under an “orange” travel alert, which means only essential travel is recommended. Government offices were closed Tuesday, including the county health department and its COVID-19 vaccine clinic. (Likewise, Hancock Regional Hospital’s COVID-19 vaccination center was closed as well.)
County commissioner John Jessup said the county government is watching the weather and the clearing operations and is hoping to lift the travel advisory by the end of the day today (Wednesday, Feb. 16).
Snowfall amounts were tricky to gauge because of drifting, but individual measurements taken by Daily Reporter staffers ranged from 9 inches in New Palestine to nearly a foot in Greenfield. The snowfall set a record for Monday before the storm was even finished, and the total amount will make it one of the biggest storms in memory in terms of accumulation.
While many people were able to hunker down, others didn’t have that luxury. One of Berry’s neighbors, Jared Roberts, fired up his snowblower to clear the way for his wife, a nurse in the Geist area who had to be at work at 10 a.m.
The snow on their street still measured 5 inches deep, even though a city plow had been through to clear away the snow that fell steadily through the night into Tuesday morning.
At Greenfield Village Apartments, a snowblower rumbled in the distance as shovels scraped against the parking lot.
“I wish I was stationed in California,” said Kyle Parker, who served in the U.S. Marines for nine years.
Now he works on cellphone towers. Work was called off Tuesday, but he figured he’d clear off his family’s vehicles.
His wife, Lauren, is from upstate New York and is used to far more extreme winter weather. She brought their 14-month-old daughter, Athena, out to enjoy her first big snowfall.
Nearby, James Everett shoveled snow out from in front of his vehicle. He didn’t have to work next until Wednesday, but figured he’d get the task out of the way.
“I’ll do it when I get the time, instead of dealing with it in the morning,” Everett said.
With a hood pulled over his head, Collin Stewart braved the cold to take out his border collie mix, Cinch, on the freshly plowed sidewalk.
“I was just waiting for the snow to get cleared, so I didn’t have to (trample) through the snow,” Stewart said.
He didn’t have to be at work until noon. His vehicle was blocked somewhat by snow, but he wasn’t too worried about getting out.
“It handles snow just fine,” he said.
It was all hands on deck for the Greenfield Street Department, including some extra hands from outside the department, as crews labored to clear streets.
To give his drivers some relief, street commissioner Tyler Rankins recruited city workers with commercial drivers’ licenses from the city’s water, sewer, power and light, and parks departments to help clear the streets. All told, about 30 city employees participated in clearing the streets.
“We still have a lot of cleanup to do, but so far, so good,” Rankins said.
He was thankful that few serious problems were reported.
“I think most people are staying home and clearing their driveways and sidewalks, which is what they should be doing right now,” he said.
Hancock County engineer Gary Pool said the county highway department has been making progress with clearing county roads, although it is beginning to run low on salt.
“I’m optimistic that things will continue to improve,” Pool said.
Still, he said, drivers can expect streets and roads to remain snow-covered, especially smaller ones in neighborhoods, for the next few days. He advised those venturing out to drive slowly and stick to main roads if possible.
Capt. Chuck McMichael, public information officer for the Greenfield Police Department, said some city streets were still in poor condition.
“As (plows) go through intersections, some snow piles up in those areas until they can come back and clear it,” he said, noting it was the same problem for Indiana Department of Transportation plow trucks. While most city streets were passable, they are still snow covered and slick, McMichael added.
Capt. Robert Harris, public information officer for the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department, said while some minor accidents and numerous slide-offs occurred, there were no injuries from the mishaps.
During the heaviest snowfall, three cars were stuck at once in a section of Carroll Road in western Hancock County. Another driver told police they couldn’t tell where the road was anymore.
Officials asked for county residents to stay home and off the roads until snow plow workers could get them cleared.
Fire departments also reported no problems. Corey Breese, public information officer with the Greenfield Fire Territory, noted the department kept extra personnel at the stations to man a plow truck they sent on all medical runs.
Tuesday marked almost two days of non-stop work for New Palestine town manager Jim Robinson and crew members Kyle Connor and Mark Dresser. They were first out prepping then plowing the streets Sunday. Among the three of them, they worked around the clock from Monday to Tuesday.
While the area wasn’t hit with as much snow as was predicted, Robinson said the accumulation — at least 6 inches — still caused issues.
“The problem with this storm was it was so dry and with the wind we got some pretty big drifts,” Robinson said. “When that wind was blowing it made plowing pretty difficult.”
Shelley Swift, Mitchell Kirk, Kristy Deer and Jessica Karins of the Daily Reporter staff contributed to this story.
