Wheatfield resident Larry McKelvey left his work in a Chicago suburb in the early afternoon Wednesday and as of Thursday morning he still hadn’t made it home.
McKelvey joined about 30 other travelers who spent the night at the Indiana State Police post in Lowell after a snowstorm with blizzard-like conditions hit Northwest Indiana.
“Not many of us slept,” McKelvey said. “I haven’t slept at all.”
McKelvey, who works in Alsip, Ill., was able to get to the Lowell exit off of Interstate 65. However, just a little east of the exit on Indiana 2 he came upon several cars and a semitrailer that had slid off the road. Cars behind McKelvey then got stuck as they tried to turn around. McKelvey said a police officer and a tow truck tried to help him turn but his car ended up getting stuck perpendicular to the road.
The road condition was so bad that two police officers also got stuck, McKelvey said.
He and other travelers then sat in their cars for the next six hours before a state worker was able to rescue them.
McKelvey said was lucky to have enough gas but that he still tried to conserve it by running his car for 15 minutes and then letting it sit for another 15 minutes.
By the time he was rescued, McKelvey said, a snow drift had formed up to his car window.
He and other stuck travelers were taken to the nearby Indiana State Police Lowell post on the west side of the I-65.
Lenisha Johnson and Cory Mathewson, of Lake Station, joined the group around 10 p.m. after trying to drive to Mathewson’s parents’ place in Schneider. The two said they were fortunate to not get stuck in the snow, but felt it was best to seek refuge at the station after a police officer told them they couldn’t go any farther west on Indiana 2. The state road was closed west of I-65 Wednesday afternoon and didn’t reopen until Thursday afternoon.
Mathewson said that southbound I-65 was down to one lane by that point and that that northbound lanes had turned into a parking lot, with vehicles not moving at all. They also saw a number of cars lining the side of the roads that had slidden off.
“It was pretty crazy,” he said.
The two did get some sleep, Johnson said, by laying underneath a table in the conference room where everyone was gathered.
Despite the less-than-ideal circumstances, McKelvey said that troopers made it better by welcoming everyone to the Lowell post.
“I was very pleased and impressed with how they handled it,” he said, adding that he also appreciated local businesses that donated food for the stranded travelers.
The gathered travelers also tried to make the best of it by chatting with each other throughout the night, he said.
Not everyone gathered at the post Thursday morning had to stay there overnight.
Donna Summers, who lives about a mile east of the post, said she decided to head over Thursday morning after spending the night without any power, which went out around noon Wednesday.
Summers said she made it through the night by sleeping under a layer of blankets. She finally had enough by the morning, though, and remembered hearing that the police post helped house people during other emergencies.
“I kept thinking it’s going to kick back on any minute,” she said.
Most people had left by Thursday morning, but about a handful remained as they waited for crews to reopen Ind. 2.
McKelvey, who was able to make use of the station’s wi-fi to do some work on his laptop Thursday, said he had heard his car might be one of the last ones to be freed and said he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to go home even then.
