TUESDAY January 7, 2014
Not looking ahead
Declaring Disaster
Next Man Up
New England respects Colts’ D
Noble, LaGrange on Pence’s emergency list
Longhorns hire football coach
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Weather Bitter cold, high 5 below, low tonight 6 below. Warmer Wednesday, high 19. Page A8 Serving Noble & LaGrange Counties
Kendallville, Indiana
GOOD MORNING Power outage hits Ligonier area LIGONIER—A substation near Ligonier failed late Monday night for Noble County REMC. A total of 1,107 customers were without power in areas including Perry, York, Sparta and Elkhart townships. Noble County REMC spokesperson Kevin Dreibelbis said crews were on the scene late Monday evening working to restore power, but gave no timeline for restoration.
Auburn goes dark in subzero weather BY AARON ORGAN aorgan@kpcmedia.com
AUBURN — The Auburn electric utility’s entire territory — and its 6,000 customers — went black Monday night, with a power outage occurring at the same time temperatures were plunging to 15 degrees below zero. Mayor Norm Yoder said the city-owned utility’s territory lost power when its feed from regional electric utility I&M was broken somehow. “The whole city’s out of power,” Yoder said. I&M spokesman Tracy Warner said the feed was disrupted at the Auburn substation at 6:35 p.m. Warner said I&M expected to restore its power feed to Auburn by 10 p.m. He cautioned that it might not restore power to Auburn customers if the problem that caused the outage was with Auburn electric’s equipment. At 9 p.m., the cause was uncertain, Warner said. Yoder said typically with outages, I&M will take an hour to mobilize and another hour to troubleshoot the problem. He insisted those are rough estimates, however. Power did not return by 10 p.m. Shortly after the power went out, the DeKalb County Department of Homeland Security said warming shelters were opening at DeKalb Middle School and the DeKalb County Office Building, 215 E. Ninth St., for people who lost power and heat. People could use either the Ninth or Tenth street entrance of the office building, also known as the courthouse annex. The Auburn Police Department was overseeing that shelter. The middle school, on C.R. 427 north of Auburn, had power because it lies in NIPSCO’s electric utility territory.
Info • The News Sun P.O. Box 39, 102 N. Main St. Kendallville, IN 46755 Telephone: (260) 347-0400 Fax: (260) 347-2693 Classifieds: (toll free) (877) 791-7877 Circulation: (260) 347-0400 or (800) 717-4679
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Classifieds......................................A11 Life..................................................... A6 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion ............................................. A5 Sports....................................... A9-A10 Weather............................................ A8 TV/Comics ....................................... A7 Vol. 105 No. 6
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Buried in a deep freeze City comes to stop after 14-inch snow, then subzero temps BY DENNIS NARTKER dnartker@kpcmedia.com
KENDALLVILLE — Travel restrictions in Kendallville remain in place in the wake of a winter storm that struck Sunday. Mayor Suzanne Handshoe announced Monday at 3:45 p.m. that travel on city streets was restricted to authorized vehicles only until noon today. Police officers will stop unauthorized vehicles and advise drivers of the travel restriction, according to Police Chief Rob Wiley. City officials advised residents it is illegal to place snow in streets when removing it from their premises. A statement said parking on snow routes in the city is forbidden. City offices will be closed until noon today. The city’s Main Street business district was nearly deserted at 2 p.m. Monday, with 10-foot-high plowed snow piles lining the travel lanes, after a winter storm dumped approximately 14 inches of snow on Kendallville and the surrounding area Sunday. Sunday’s all-day snowfall was followed by below-zero temperatures and dangerously low windchills. Monday’s low was 14 below, with a 44-below windchill and wind gusts of 30-35 mph causing blowing and drifting snow, according to the National Weather Service. Today’s high was expected to be 5 degrees below zero with windchills 18 to 20 below before a warmup Wednesday. A windchill warning remains in effect until 8 p.m. today. A winter
DENNIS NARTKER
Piles of plowed snow 10 feet high lined the Main Street business district traffic lanes in Kendallville Monday after a storm dumped snow on the
storm warning was lifted at 4 p.m. Monday. Noble County schools were closed Monday and today. Many businesses were closed Monday, and several area industries canceled first and second shifts. Walmart and Scott’s Foods were open Monday. City streets and Noble County roads will remain snow-covered, slick and hazardous today. Kendallville police dispatchers reported several slide-offs, but no major accidents. Sunday at
city Sunday. A warning travel advisory was in effect until 5 p.m. Monday, restricting travel to authorized vehicles only.
about 10 a.m., a 2010 Chrysler Town and Country van, driven by Nicole A. Wetli, 22, of Albion was traveling eastbound on North Street. Wetli attempted to turn into the Community State Bank parking lot when the van slid on the snow-covered road, ran over a curb and struck a bank sign. Wetli was not injured. Most people heeded warnings about the hazardous travel conditions and dangerously low temperatures and windchills and stayed inside.
Firefighters were busy responding to medical emergencies with Noble County EMS, but no fires were reported. No power outages were reported in Kendallville Monday. Parkview Noble Hospital had not treated any cases of frostbite or hypothermia emergency as of Monday afternoon, according to emergency department director Dr. Terry Gaff. The fire department requested property owners to clear snow from fire hydrants.
Senate confirms Yellen
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED
Cold, but still proud These snow sculptors created a patriotic display Sunday in the 900 block of South Main Street,
Kendallville. From left are Devin Bolen, Adolfo Resendiz and Dion Urbina, all of Kendallville.
Cleaning up snow tough battle BY BOB BRALEY bbraley@kpcmedia.com
ALBION — Cleanup from what some are calling the “Winter Blast” Sunday is proceeding slowly due to the sheer volume of snow, a Noble County official said Monday. “The highway department is making some progress, but there’s still a lot of work,” said Noble County Emergency Management Agency executive director Michael Newton. The National Weather Service had no final storm snowfall total available for Noble County, but did show Kendallville as having received 14.0 inches at 9:35 p.m. Sunday and southwest Noble County with a total of 9.8 inches at 7 p.m. Sunday. Newton said most of Noble County received about a foot of snow during the storm, with numbers varying a bit.
Noble snowfall County’s Red Level Area totals 1 Warning advisory, Below aresnow snowfall totals for restricting travel on roads communities in thecounty four-county to area emergency vehicles only, of northeast Indiana with continued Newton said. weather overnight, observers reporting to TheNational commissioners the Weather ordered Service. allThe county ce buildings closed dataoffi is snowfall for the to 24-hour the public Tuesday afternoon. period ending Monday They briefly Wednesday at 9will a.m.meet The Kendallville total at is10from a.m.WANE-TV. to address claims and payroll, and deal with all other Town items from their agendaTotal from Angola . canceled . . . . . . . . .meeting . . 11.5 Jan. Monday’s 13.Auburn . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.0 Fremont . . . .County . . . . . . .Highway 10.1 The Noble Hamilton . . . work . . . . . .clearing . . 11.0 the Department’s Hudson . . . . .complicated . . . . . . 9.1 by roads has .been Kendallville . . . . . . . said, . . 14.0 high winds, Newton adding, LaGrange . . .of. . drifting . 13.1 out “There’s still. . a. .lot there.” Another problem crews have to deal with is cars that have become stuck in the bad conditions, Newton said. Crews were encoun-
tering “a lot” of them Monday afternoon. Noble County E-911 dispatch records showed dozens of slide-offs and cars stuck in snow on the roads causing obstructions, starting Sunday afternoon and continuing until the report ended at 6:17 p.m. Monday. Newton warned travelers that it’s still best to stay off the roads unless necessary, since temperatures were forecast to be below zero with high winds through Wednesday morning. “It’s still dangerous,” he said. All Ligonier city offices will be closed today for the second consecutive day because of the winter storm, Mayor Patty Fisel said. Fisel offered high praise for city employees who worked through the night, from Sunday to Monday, plowing virtually every SEE CLEANING UP, PAGE A8
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate confirmed Janet Yellen on Monday as the first woman to lead the Federal Reserve, elevating an advocate of fighting unemployment and a backer of the central bank’s efforts to spur the economy with low interest rates and massive bond purchases. Yellen, 67, will replace Ben Bernanke, who is stepping down after serving as chairman for eight years dominated by the Great Recession and the Fed’s efforts to combat it. Senators confirmed her by 56-26, with numerous absences caused by airline flight delays forced by arctic temperatures around much of the country. All 45 voting Democrats were joined by 11 Republicans in supporting Yellen, while 26 Republicans voted “no.” Vice chair of Yellen the Fed since 2010, Yellen begins her four-year term as leader of the century-old bank on Feb. 1. With the economy rebounding from the depths of the recession but only modestly so far, many economists expect her to focus on how to nurture growth without putting it into overdrive, which could risk fueling inflation. “The big debate will be when the Fed should tighten and how much, rather than when to step on the gas pedal and how hard,” predicted Bill Cheney, chief economist for John Hancock Financial Services, who envisions a growing economy this year. Under Bernanke, the Fed has driven short-term interest rates down to near zero and flushed money into the economy with huge bond purchases, which it has just SEE YELLEN, PAGE A8