It was too good to last.

After a relatively snow-free season, Old Man Winter favored Duneland on Tuesday with something on the order of 10 inches.

The timing of the fall—early afternoon to late evening—made Tuesday’s late rush-hour a bit of an adventure, but it also gave municipal plow crews the whole of early Wednesday morning to make things right. And while classes in the Duneland School Corporation were on a two-hour delay today, the main roads and many of the side streets too were in pretty decent condition when folks started heading for work.

As of 8 a.m. today, the Indiana State Police had responded to 63 property-damage crashes, seven personal-injury crashes, and 61 slide-offs.

Sgt. Larry LaFlower of the Porter County Sheriff’s Police put the number of crashes and slide-offs countywide at 50-plus. But he also noted that “once people got off work, they went home and stayed home,” so that by 7 p.m. Tuesday the county roads were pretty quiet.

LaFlower did say that Ind. 49—in particular around the Sheriff’s Department—was in poor shape this morning.

Here in Chesterton the snow fell heavily until around 10 p.m., Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg said. By that time, though, crews had cleared main streets and begun to make passes in the subdivisions. A fresh midnight crew then worked on cleanup and side streets and this morning—with help from the Utility Department—crews were getting into the cul-de-sacs and alleys.

Schnadenberg estimated total snowfall at between eight and 10 inches.

Although there wasn’t a great deal of blowing and drifting, he added, the snow is wet and heavy, “so it takes a little longer to clean it up.”

In Porter—where the fall was measured in three different locations at 10.5 inches—crews were making good progress this morning, Public Works Director Brenda Brueckheimer told the Chesterton Tribune. “We’re doing good,” she said. “All main roads are clear and passable. Now we’re working in subdivisions and side streets. There were no issues of any sort.”

Posted 3/6/2013