By DAVID DUPONT and
JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Bowling Green woke this morning in a deep freeze with sub-zero temperatures, and even worse the sound of a stiff breeze. Temperatures are expected to drop to -10 by mid-day with wind gusts up to 38 miles per hour. The wind chill will be about -40. That arctic blast is expected to last through Thursday with low temperatures tonight expected to drop to -14.
The National Weather Service has issued a wind chill warning through Thursday at 4 p.m.
Already city schools have been canceled through Thursday with a two-hour delay on Friday.
“We have to make sure they’re safe,” Superintendent Francis Scruci said of students.
At 10 a.m., Denise Niese, executive director of the Wood County Committee on Aging, said the site in Bowling Green as well as other sites are quiet. All seven sites are open normal hours. “Staff are saying it’s too quiet,” she said.
Vehicles are out now to bring folks into the center, but so far, she said, it seems like people are heeding the advice to stay indoors.
The agency sent extra meals home with people who came in for lunch on Wednesday, and with home delivery of meals now canceled through Thursday, it delivered 460 extra meals Wednesday. Clients were also given two shelf-stable meals in October for just such emergencies. All home delivered meal participants will receive a phone call from agency staff on Thursday morning to verify their safety and wellness.
So far, Niese said, no calls of people with frozen pipes have been received.
Also, Niese said, the menus for Friday and next week have been adjusted so all perishable food that would have been sent out today and Thursday will get used up, and not wasted.
The arctic freeze has meant brisk business for some local companies.
Sherry LeVeck at United Home Comfort said their crews are out making emergency installations of new systems for folks whose furnaces have failed. The company’s workers are also responding to other heating problems.
At this point, she said, the company is able to keep up, though she said she expects the calls to continue through tomorrow.
Scott Newman at Newman’s Marathon said while the service station has had calls for dead batteries and tire problems, the biggest demand has been for propane.
Some customers are coming in to fill tanks because their furnaces are down, and they are relying on propane to heat their homes. Others have frozen pipes that need to be thawed out.
Chelsea Lockwood, a dispatcher at Wright Tire and Auto, said the towing operation is “busy, busy, busy.”
A lot of the calls are coming for their larger, flat bed units that are needed for tractor-trailers.
The calls range from north of Toledo to Unity, with plenty from the local area.
Many are fuel issues, including gelling fuel, and air lines. “Some units don’t even want to start,” she said.
Lockwood has no doubt that the demand will continue through Thursday.
There’s not much road crews can do in these extreme temperatures, so Wood County Assistant Road Superintendent Terry Hummel is keeping most of the county drivers inside working in the shop today.
“Salt doesn’t work in these temperatures. We can put stone down in bad spots,” Hummel said. “But when you get down to this cold, the trucks don’t even like to work.”
Luckily, the county road crews had time earlier this week to clean off the snow from most roads. So for now, the crews will just wait out the frigid temperatures.
“There ain’t much going on when it’s this cold,” Hummel said.
That doesn’t apply to mail carriers in Bowling Green – who are out making deliveries today. Postal deliveries in Toledo were canceled today – but not in Bowling Green.
“We’re special,” said Jerry Sniadecki, a city carrier who was helping answer phones at the post office this morning.
In many cases, the carriers will just be delivering packages today, though some may also deliver mail. Even those on walking routes will be out.
“They’re all bundled up,” Sniadecki said.
Several businesses throughout the city have “warming stations” for carriers – supplying them with hot coffee, cocoa and chicken soup, he said. That helps thaw out the carriers as they go about their routes.
Bowling Green Fire Chief Bill Moorman was out this morning checking on city road conditions – knowing his crews will be out responding to calls today.
“Fortunately we haven’t had any fire runs,” he said. However, there have been several calls for people falling on ice.
“I would highly advise anyone who doesn’t have to be out to stay inside,” Moorman said.
The temperature was down to -9 degrees as the chief drove the streets this morning.
“That’s horribly cold,” he said. And it can make it incredibly difficult to fight fires, he added. The fire division can take steps to prevent trucks from freezing up. However, any water that they spray on a fire will freeze instantly – on the structure, on the firefighters, and on the ground – making it hard to even walk around a fire scene.
“It certainly makes a difficult job even more difficult,” Moorman said.
At mid-morning, it appeared that most Bowling Green residents were staying inside, out of the cold.
“We’re not real busy right now,” said Bowling Green Police Lt. Dan Mancuso. The police responded to a few calls about disabled vehicles overnight. But overall, people are avoiding going outside if they can, and some businesses have closed for the day.
“We expect there will be a little less activity,” Mancuso said. “I think people are using good judgment.”
Despite the frigid conditions, refuse and recycling collection in Bowling Green is running on schedule today.
“As long as our equipment holds, there will be no delay in service today or tomorrow,” stated the city’s sustainability coordinator, Amanda Gamby.
However, windy conditions are blowing open lids and knocking over containers, and drivers are not permitted to get out of their trucks for safety reasons, and they won’t dump containers if the lid is open because the plastic is so brittle from the extreme temperatures that it could cause damage to the container.
All BG school events have been cancelled. The drama club’s one-act plays will be presented Friday at 7 p.m. with another performance set for Thursday, Feb. 7 at 7 p.m.
Though classes were canceled at BGSU, most other campus operations are working though because of staffing issues many including the library and student recreation center have shorter hours. Several dining facilities in the student union are closed.
Other campus events have been canceled including a faculty recital by trombonist Brittany Lasch and the women’s basketball game with Central Michigan University. That game is now set to be played on Feb. 20.
A spokesperson for the Wood County Hospital said that the emergency has not seen any uptick in patients because of the cold weather, and they were hoping that will continued.
Ohio Highway Patrol also had little to report beyond a few disabled vehicles.
Wood County Park District has also closed its facilities through Thursday.
