Positive Stories from Winter Storm Ion in Northwest Indiana

2014-snow-picsThe January 2014 Winter Storm Ion was strong enough to shut down most of Northwest Indiana's roads, highways and byways, dumping 15 inches on to Northwest Indiana.

With 29 counties in the state of Indiana in a State of Emergency, many of the plows and crews were focused on clearing primary and emergency routes, with major highways like I-94, I-80, and I-65 shut down from the state line to La Porte County, Gary to Lafayette.

With that, many in Northwest Indiana had positive experiences with local crews and neighbors helping neighbors clear what amounted to feet of snow dumped throughout the region. Here are a few stories that were shared with us on our Facebook page:

Kimberly N Montgomery
I wanna give a thank you to all of Northwest Indiana hospital nursing staff. My husband works at Methodist Hospital & all nursing personnel have been on a code white alert & could not leave d/t staffing shortage & most of them have been at work nonstop since saturday. Thank you all for ur sacrifices, hard work & dedication.

Lesley Glans-Demps
My parents took in a women in her thirties that wa s on her way home from TN to Chesterton. Her car was stuck in front of the house, she knocked on the door and they let her stay the night. Not sure how she made it up to door they live on 700 North and had drifts over five foot in some areas. They deserve a big shout out for opening up their home . Love you guys

Jodie Sheridan Macke
My husband gave the snow plow driver some waters & cans of coke to drink yesterday! He was so appreciative and thanked him several times! I'm sure it was difficult for them to stop anywhere to stay hydrated! Unlike · Reply · 3 · 15 hours ago via mobile

Jason Adams
The plow trucks from the city of Chesterton came down my street a few times in the midst of the storm. Each time they did one pass, then would turn around and do another pass. They did a great job keeping up with the storm.

Angie Grandys
Our neighbor is amazing! He plowed our driveway at least 4 times!

Joy Tucker Brown
Our neighbors got to our driveway several times before we did!! Love our neighbors!

Terri Bogdan
We did!!! Our snowblower died. Then our neighbor Dave came over and snowblowed our driveway!!! Thanks Dave in Highland

Holly 'Hoekstra' Ham
We did! We've been snow blowing for our older neighbors and today he called to thank us. I guess he has some broken ribs and we didn't even know it. I also witnessed a plow truck driver stopping to help a woman who was stuck trying to pull out of her driveway!

Lori Adler
Our great neighbors let us borrow their snow blower to find our driveway again

Brian Ambler
Shout out to Bill Warren for snow blowing the Amblers drive today! Thanks so much, and you saved my lower back also!

Jen Moore Klemczak
My husband blowed out our 89 old neighbor. Plus all of our neighbor take turns doing the walkways. The school is right next to us. Also want to say NWI plows are working hard and doing what they can.

Robert Loomis
I had a great time reading the tips provided on the Indot Facebook page. The posts were informative and upbeat.

Kristy Koranek Schoenling
I went out to try to dig out this morning and along came 2 neighbors with shovels and another with a plow. So thankful for great neighbors!!!

Hannah Keener
We just moved in to Rustic Hills subdivision and don't own a plow or snowblower. My husband was trying to shovel and our neighbor came over with his snowblower yesterday! What a way to feel welcomed in our new neighborhood! Turns out it was a doctor that my husband works with at the hospital have to love small towns!

Sherry Ritter Banic
Larry Kneifel was the hero for the Town of Kingsbury with his kind heart and being neighborly by plowing roads and driveways for the citizen on his ATV! That is why I love where I live! We have some great neighbors!

Hanna Hill
Got snowed in with my ex-husband and now we are back TOGETHER god works in mysterious ways

Katherine Ann
My neighbors plow our driveway every time it snows for nothing, couldn't ask for anything more.

Linda Lukac
Cleaned out and organized a bunch of costume jewelry..

Abby Balich
Made a warm wholesome casserole for my neighbor with lil ones.. the thought of their warm happy bellies fills my heart with joy

Tammy Lidgard
I got to finish my family tree and shredded those past invoices from last yr ready for 2014 bring on spring/summer

Theresa Tonagel-Senne
My neighbor James Lefeber came over with his bobcat and cleaned my driveway....awesome

Evan Potts
My Neighbor has helped me several times along with multiple others in the Heights.

Linda K. Wilson Mills
Forgot to say our neighbors 4 wheel big truck got stuck as he backed it out if his garage. He was so glad too see my husband out. They were able to get it out.

Linda K. Wilson Mills
My husband loves this stuff. He plows our double parking in front of garage, two car spaces next to Barker Road in front of our house, and the three neighbor's driveways in our block. Yesterday he even plowed Barker Road for much of our block. He has a riding lawn mower with a blade in it. I worried about him in the cold yesterday, but he said only his feet were really child. He was dressed well for the weather.

Stephanie Jones
A complete stranger plowed out our drive when he noticed my husbands truck stuck.

Melissa Barker
Someone plowed my driveway while I was stuck at work..nice to come home to after 16 hours because no one could make in to relieve me

Sunsaerae Budimier
We moved into our home a year ago this March, our neighbors are elderly in their late 70's and 80's. We have worked together shoveling and snowblowing eachothers walkways and drives. We shovel and they snowblow. Our neighbor was arguing with my husband Sunday over who was going to clean our walkway. Well the neighbor won and he did the whole block and the alley behind us from his drive to the street.

Carol Estes
My employee had a severe driveway issue just before the pending storm. I had him call Zach at Custom Landscaping in Michigan City. They have been plowing my drive for years. Zach was nice enough to open things up so they could safely get to the house before the storm. They are great people!

Sandra Watt Trueblood
My husband was able to snowblow most of the driveway, but his snowblower was not powerful enough to clean out the area by the street. Our neighbor, Harry, brought his industrial-sized snowblower and finished the job. Thanks, Harry!

Kim A. Glassley
The guys who work for the town of Westville and especially Bubba did a terrific job of keeping the streets in town cleared off. Thanks guys for the great job.

Marc Brannon
The street dept. did a great job with the roads.

Gail McDonald
I was cleaning my drive on Friday, and a truck stopped, guy got out, said he was on his way too do his grandmothers, and helped me. Random act or kindness, much appreciated !! I'm a grandma too.

Sara Lynn
My neighbors helped us get into our driveway then had me over for some shots! Thanks Greg Hyatt and Eileen Hyatt

Jennifer Wszolek Chandler
The Portage Fire Dept came out and dug out the hydrant in front of my house!

Cathy Brown Brown
It's positive that Nipsco was able to keep the power on. I mean, without heat, we'd all be hurting. There is nothing to complain about if you have heat. Period.

Lori Hogan
My daughter-in-law works at the hospital and has a two month old baby. She wound up working for 26 hours because of the code white there. She couldn't leave to home to nurse her baby and Daddy was running out of the pumped milk in the freezer. A wonderful friend of a friend delivered the milk she pumped at the hospital and delivered to the baby. What a nice thing to do!

Denise Koebcke
We have two wonderful neighborhood men who bundle up, break out their snowblowers, and make sure our whole street is well taken care of. They do driveways for those who cannot do their own, make sure all mailboxes are accessible to mailmen, and just generally serve their neighbors with kind-hearted compassion and efficiency. They are the best!

Denissa Dowell
Mika I got stuck in a code white at whispering pines for 2 days! The nursing staff ( kitchen, housekeeping and laundry all stayed too) pulled together with a skeleton crew to take care of our beloved geriatric patients! Tired, smelly and a little hungry. I'm so very proud of how we all kept our cool during this nasty storm!

Shelley Schmidt
I struggled to snow blow my driveway on Sunday due to some health concerns. A neighbor who watched me that day came over and cleared it for me on Monday! Nearly brought me to tears!!! There are good people in the world!

Kathy Garza
The lovely lady on the corner from us used her snowblower to clear sidewalks all the way down our block on both sides! Being really shovel-wary from the past two days trying to keep our cars unburied, what a blessing!

Lindsey Asher
The fun family time! A few cabin fever moments, but it was fun making the most of it, playing games and watching movies. It was fun seeing all the funny pictures/memes on facebook too and seeing how bad it was out there through other peoples windows and reading their stories.

Wendy Minniear Masters
Electricity did not go out!!!! thanks REMC

Laurie Custer
My husband and I are in our late 70's and we shoveled until it got out of control. Our neighbor on the right of us snow blowed our driveway twice and the neighbor on the left finished it off Monday afternoon. Bless you John and Kerry.

Pat Kearby
Bonding with my wonderful co-workers in the emergency department at Porter during our 25 hours together! I work the most dedicated funny intelligent loving amazing crazy group of men and women!! and proud to announce it to everyone

Charles D Stokes
Thanks family express for being open during this harsh weather.

Linda S Camp
Street department rocked keeping up with plowing!!!

Polly Schroeder-Murphy
The staff at St. Mary Medical Center ER was required to stay in order to care for those who needed. They did so with grace, and good spirits. They each would rather have been home caring for their own families, yet, they never portrayed to the patients in the ER that they were "stuck". Those are the thank you's that get overlooked, yet are critical to all of our peace of mind when we need them. Great job SMMC ER!

Karen Thiele Turner
Our neighbor is fantastic! He came over and plowed our driveway 4 different times over Sunday and Monday because my husband I had the flu and weren't able to do it ourselves. He also did a few of the other neighbor's drives and sidewalks. In addition, my cousin's husband drove out in the awful weather with his truck and plow to clear out driveways (ours included). Both are very good men!

Sarah Chester
Neighbors pulled together on Hastings and helped each other out whose husbands were stranded at work. As well as taking groceries to each other that they couldn't get to the store for.

Michelle Bush
This is Mother Nature telling us all to slow down. We have been all together and although there has been some annoying times, I am going to this later when it's back to go, go, go...

Pam Kutch Dolson
Some unknown angel came with a snowblower and cleared my dad's wheelchair ramp - may God bless you! And a friend of my dad's came with his truck and plowed the end of the driveway cuz there was way too much for me to do with just a shovel