Officials warn of terrible road conditions, tighten restrictions

Bartholomew County has joined other area communities in moving to a red travel warning, the highest level of local travel restrictions.

Under a red travel warning, you should refrain from all travel, comply with emergency measures, cooperate with officials executing emergency operations plans and obey directions from officers.

Sheriff Matt Myers says that local roads are in terrible condition and completely iced over. Highway crews should be out soon treating the roads soon, but they could not pre-treat due to the heavy rain ahead of this storm.

INDOT’s Southeast District issued a full call out yesterday of its plow trucks. That includes 29 trucks each from the Columbus, Aurora and Bloomington sub districts. Plus 32 from Madison and 27 from Falls City.

Crews will be working 12 hour shifts through at least tomorrow morning to try to clear the state highways. State highway officials say that you should avoid any unnecessary travel. Highways are snow and ice covered.

The National Guard will help stranded drivers during this winter storm. Officials say 240 soldiers will be organized into 60 teams. They will be positioned at armories around the state. Emergency responses may still take time because of the large amount of snow falling on the Hoosier state.

A Winter Storm Warning remains in effect for our area until 1 a.m. Friday morning. The winter storm warning extends south to Seymour, south of that an ice storm warning is in place until 7 a.m. Friday morning.

INDOT snow plow working in Columbus in Feb. 2021. Photo courtesy of Bartholomew County Emergency Management