State and County Highway Gangs Fight
Valiantly in Snow and Wind to Open Roads
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RURAL SCHOOLS OUT
Steuben county was caught in the tight grip of Old Man Winter Sunday night, and throughout Monday and a greater part of Tuesday, local and through traffic was paralyzed. Following a mild Sunday, a fifty mile an hour gale and heavy snow swept over the county during the night. the temperature was not extremely low, dropping Tuesday morning to the lowest point reached during the storm to 11 degrees above zero.Seven inches of snow fell, according to weather reporter John B. Parsell, which produced .8 inches of water. MOnday morning the highways througout the county were completely blocked and rural schools were closed for two days. Two Pleasant township school busses were able to make their routes both days, and the Angola schools continued in session with depleted attendance rolls.
Mail and bus service was badly crippled. The morning mail truck from the south reached Angola after noon on MOnday. Rural mail service was abandoned for the day and partial service was given Tuesday. Bus service to Fort Wayne was limited to one round trip and a singe trip on Monday. Greyhound bus service east and west was reduced to one bus each way during Monday.
A single one of the double rear wheels on a Greyhound bus came off a west bound bus a short distance east of Angola, Monday noon, and the passengers were brought into Angola to await a special bus. Twelve passengers were marooned here until evening, when a special bus arrived and tool the passengers on the journey west bound.
Freight traffic was brought to a complete standstill as the large trucks became stalled in the drifts or their wheels spun on the heavy layer of snow on the pavements. These did much to block the traffic, One truck was reported abandoned north of Angola, almost completely hidden beneath the snow which drifted over it at the roadside. The stat and county highway forces worked steadily to open the roads and did everything in their power to aid traffic through to cantral points.
The storm to be general through the central and western states. Chicago suffered the most severely of any storm in recent years, as streets and elevated transportation was halted.
In Fort Wayne a school janitor died in the school house of heart failure after spending an hour in strenuous work of shoveling snow.
In Steuben county the blockade of traffic was the severest since the storm at Christmas time three years ago when bus traffic was paralyzed and passengers were obliged to remain three or four days at hotels and in farm houses until he highways could be opened.
Steuben Republican February 1, 1939
