MONDAY November 18, 2013
Home Hit Page A2 Car hits home, catches fire
High School Hoops Page B2 Hamilton boys’ season preview
Weather Partly cloudy skies with a 20 percent chance of rain. High of 48. Low of 28. Page A6
GOOD MORNING Tornadoes, damaging storms sweep across Midwest states WASHINGTON, Ill. (AP) — Dozens of tornadoes and intense thunderstorms swept across the Midwest on Sunday, unleashing powerful winds that flattened entire neighborhoods, flipping over cars, uprooting trees and leaving at least five people dead. Illinois took the brunt of the fury as the string of unusually powerful late-season tornadoes tore across the state, injuring dozens and even prompting officials at Chicago’s Soldier Field to evacuate the stands and delay the Bears game. “The whole neighborhood’s gone. The wall of my fireplace is all that is left of my house,” said Michael Perdun, speaking by cellphone from the hard-hit central Illinois town of Washington, where he said his neighborhood was wiped out in a matter of seconds. “I stepped outside and I heard it coming. My daughter was already in the basement, so I ran downstairs and grabbed her, crouched in the laundry room and all of a sudden I could see daylight up the stairway and my house was gone.” An elderly man and his sister were killed when a tornado hit their home in the rural southern Illinois community of New Minden, said coroner Mark Styninger. A third person died in Washington, while two others perished in Massac county in the far southern part of the state, said Patti Thompson of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. She did not provide details. With communications difficult and many roads impassable, it remained unclear how many people were killed or hurt. The Illinois National Guard said it had dispatched 10 firefighters and three vehicles to Washington to assist with immediate search and recovery operations. In the rural community of 16,000, whole blocks of houses were erased from the landscape and Illinois State Police Trooper Dustin Pierce said the tornado cut a path from one end of town to the other, knocking down power lines, uprooting trees and rupturing gas lines.
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Classifieds.................................B6-B7 Life..................................................... A5 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion .............................................B4 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A6 TV/Comics .......................................B5 Vol. 101 No. 318
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Fire ravages former mushroom farm Dozens of firefighters from more than 30 departments fought blaze BY PATRICK REDMOND predmond@kpcmedia.com
BRIGHTON — A massive fire driven by high winds destroyed a large building Saturday night at the former Brighton Mushroom Farm, 8125 E. C.R. 600N, approximately two miles east of Brighton in northeast LaGrange County. The fire broke out in a large building at the back of the property shortly before 9 p.m. It burned throughout the night and into Sunday morning. A total of 34 fire departments and more than 100 firefighters fought to bring the fire under control. There were no injuries reported. “There’s still fire in there we can’t reach,” Mongo Fire Chief Ike Notestine said, gesturing toward the large structure Sunday morning. “The building is a total loss.” The fire continued to smolder
even as the last Mongo fire truck on the scene packed up and left the property around noon on Sunday. The cause of the fire is still unknown. Notestine said the entire structure was completely engulfed in flames when the first fire truck arrived. Notestine, who was on that truck, quickly called for assistance from other surrounding fire departments. The fire destroyed a 330,000-square-foot building used for storage by the property’s owner, Brighton Properties LLC. Notestine said firefighters were fortunate to keep the fire from spreading to other buildings on the 70-acre property. The facility was built more than 50 years ago by Campbell’s Soup Co. to grow mushrooms for its soups. Other large buildings on the property are now used
PATRICK REDMOND
A large storage building was completely destroyed by fire Saturday night and Sunday morning at the former Brighton Mushroom Farm just east of Brighton. More than 100 firefighters from 34 different fire departments fought throughout the night to bring the fire under control.
to store seed corn, sawdust and used coffee grounds. The grounds surrounding the buildings are used by the Brighton Corn Cob Co. to store millions of corn cobs in mounds that are nearly as long as
a football field almost 50-foot tall. Notestine said he was particularly worried that the fire would reach one of the corn cob mounds. “If that happened, we would SEE FIRE, PAGE A6
Winds whip area
BY BOB BRALEY bbraley@kpcmedia.com
that can propel sleds at speeds of some 40 mph. It is all a controlled system. “I can make ice on this thing at 70 degrees,” Glasper said, but when the sun is shining, it is tough to keep the track in shape on the coldest of days. “We finally have that system over there pretty well perfected. We put a ton of money in it this year,” Glasper said. That includes two new chillers, replacing much of the infrastructure of the tower and a general spruce-up of the structure, which has been in place since the 1970s. There was a big push this year with getting Trine State Recreation Area open Nov. 2, when a soft opening was done, with the grand opening coming next spring. Work has been going on at the nearly 200-acre property since about 2008, on top of taking care of the 1,200 acres at Pokagon. “Now there’s going to be those bugs we have to work out,”
HUDSON — Wind storms whipped through northeast Indiana Sunday afternoon, damaging homes and vehicles and taking down numerous trees and power lines. While damage in other parts of the state was greater, there were reports of heavy damage in some areas, especially in the vicinity of southern Steuben and LaGrange counties. No injuries were reported in the four-county area of northeast Indiana. “It hit us pretty hard,” said Hudson Town Marshal Mark Thrasher. “The wind didn’t last very long, but it was pretty intense.” Power outages also were widespread, scattered throughout Noble, DeKalb, LaGrange and Steuben counties as fallen trees and high winds downed power lines. Heavy rain was also reported in most areas. Indiana Michigan Power reported 72,000 customers without power in Indiana and Michigan due to high winds as of Sunday evening. Gusts of up to 84 mph were reported in the area, a press release said. “Numerous poles were down in areas throughout the service area. Residents of the area should use extreme caution and stay away from fallen poles and power lines,” the press release said. Of the customers without power, about 8,400 were in I&M’s Fort Wayne area, which includes its customers in the northeast corner counties. “Because damage is still being assessed, estimated times that power will be restored is uncertain,” the press release said. A contingent of I&M crews was to work through the night to isolate and remove hazards and respond to emergency situations. A full force of I&M crews, aided by employees of other electric companies and outside contractors, will work on assessing damage and restoring power beginning this morning, the company said. As of 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Noble REMC reported 1,600 residences in its service area without power, said Noble County Emergency Management Agency executive director Michael Newton. Residents also reported power
SEE POKAGON, PAGE A6
SEE WINDS, PAGE A6
MIKE MARTURELLO
Pokagon State Park maintenance foreman Tim Glasper stands in front of the chillers used to refrigerate the park’s quarter-mile, two-track toboggan slide. The mechanical equipment for
the slide, which is maintained by Glasper and his crew, is in a building the size of about a single-car garage adjacent to the track.
Glasper keeps Pokagon working Duties include facilities, grounds and toboggan slide BY MIKE MARTURELLO mmarturello@kpcnews.net
LAKE JAMES — Pokagon State Park, with all of its mechanical devices, vast property and just shy of 1 million visitors a year, is like taking care of a small town. The man who makes sure it all works is Tim Glasper, the resident maintenance foreman. “It really is like running a small town,” said Ted Bohman, Pokagon property manager. Glasper is in charge of it all. He’s like the department head of the water, sewer, streets and grounds departments — the park superintendent, so to speak. “Basically my responsibilities are all of the facilities and the grounds,” Glasper said, “as well as Trine State Recreation Area.” (Trine is Pokagon’s sister property.) There’s a sewer plant that handles waste from Potawatomi Inn and a variety of facilities. There are three water plants to provide drinking water to the campgrounds and Potawatomi and another two in TSRA. There are roads to be maintained. There’s lots of grass to cut. Trails have to be kept clear for hikers. If you think it’s work putting your dock out in the spring and taking it in in the fall, consider all of the slips just in front of Potawatomi Inn alone. Glasper is quick to point out he has a full-time crew of seven who, he says, make him look pretty good. In peak times, as many as 35-40 work in Pokagon. “There are no I’s out here. It’s
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all we,” said Glasper. One of the biggest challenges Glasper faces comes when Pokagon’s refrigerated toboggan slide opens and treats guests to thrilling rides on a quarter-mile refrigerated track. For Glasper and the crew that will work for him this winter, operating the toboggan slide, keeping the ice just right on the track, cleaning off the track and making repairs when necessary is one of the toughest assignments for the entire year. “To me, and I’ve said this for years, the winter season is always the toughest because it’s always cold,” Glasper said. “The toboggan slide is a great draw, but it’s a maintenance nightmare because everything you do over there is by hand,” Glasper said. “You can’t get a piece of equipment to do anything over there, so everything is a job.” Glasper and crew will start making the ice layer on the track for its Thanksgiving opening this week. At some time during the season, the track — which has a boiler system in addition to a refrigeration system to help regulate the temperature — will be warmed up and melted to remove the ice and replace it with a fresh, smooth layer. Since the 1970s the track has been refrigerated to create the ice
See inside the slide Tim Glasper talks more about his job and shows some of the machinery that makes Pokagon’s toboggan run work in video at kpcnews.com. Scan the QR code to watch it on your tablet or smartphone.