Storm cancels classes causes power outtages

Winter weather returned to parts of northern Indiana with a vengeance Thursday, as an ice storm brought down trees and power lines and forced the cancellation of school for thousands of students.\nAfter snow fell in many areas on Wednesday, it turned to sleet and rain Wednesday night and continued as rain on Thursday. With temperatures hovering near freezing, the water froze on trees and power lines and sent them tumbling, blocking roads in some areas.\n"The trees are just loaded with ice," American Electric spokesman Tom Kratt said. "We have all of our local crews already out working to restore power."\nMore than 93,000 homes in northern Indiana were without power at some point Thursday, most of them in St. Joseph and Elkhart counties, where 70,500 homes and businesses lost power. The power outages stretched all the way from Valparaiso in the west, to Angola in the east, to Wabash in the south.\n"When it was dark you could see blue flashes around my neighborhood because we were without power. And the blue flashes were line breakers or transformers exploding around the neighborhood," Elkhart Mayor Dave Miller said. "It almost looked like blue lightning."\nBy late Thursday afternoon, about 70,000 homes remained without power.\nSnow plows were out in St. Joseph County, but instead of clearing snow from the streets they were moving large limbs from roads. In Elkhart and Goshen and in St. Joseph County, officials declared a state of emergency, meaning that people weren't supposed to be out on the roads unless it was an emergency.\nResidents of northern Indiana, who were basking in spring-like weather earlier in the week, were preparing for more of the same icy weather late Thursday and early Friday.\nAccording to the National Weather Service, rain was expected to begin Thursday evening and temperatures were expected to stay around freezing until colder air moved in Friday morning and turns the freezing rain to snow.\nKendallville's City Hall was without electricity and LaGrange County officials closed the courthouse and other county offices.\nMany school districts in St. Joseph, Elkhart, Kosciusko, LaGrange, Noble and Steuben counties shut down for the day. At the University of Notre Dame, where most students live on campus, classes were held as usual.\nCrews throughout the region were kept busy cleaning debris from roads.\n"We'll clear large limbs from an area and get a call 10 minutes later that treetops are falling in the same location," Jennifer Whitaker, Warsaw's public works administrative assistant said.\nA falling tree limb struck a LaGrange County sheriff's deputy Thursday as he was directing traffic at an accident scene, causing him to fall to the ground, Sheriff Greg Dhaene said. Deputy Ed Flowers was not seriously hurt.\nA driver had to be cut from her car after a tree fell onto it about 7 a.m. south of LaGrange, police said. The driver was not injured.\nState police said there were a few slideoff accidents on the Indiana Toll Road on Thursday but only one injury accident was reported.