Every time, Jason Novak warns his team and every time they never listen.
It took about 10 minutes and a lull in the action before the 10 East Chicago Central High School Cardinal football players out Friday afternnon as part of North Township’s Disaster Response volunteers started winging snow at each other with their shovels. The boys hollered and laughed as Novak shook his head.
“I tell them they’re going to be cold and wet the whole time, but there they are,” Novak said. “And I’ve been telling them this every year since 2012. It happened at Clark and now these guys.”
In its 10th year, North Township Trustee Frank J. Mrvan said his office created the disaster response effort after another heavy snowstorms. The original plan called for helping out North Township residents aged 65 and over and those who’re homebound to help with snow removal when at least 4 inches of snow falls. The office then set out to find volunteers to make the snow-shoveling happen.
The volunteers come from area high schools. Mrvan said Hammond High ROTC; the East Chicago Central, Morton and Whiting football teams; Munster High’s philanthropic club, Project X; and the Humane Society Calumet Area were on the job Friday with shovels and a helping hand for the people in their communities.
Mrvan said 20-30 people signed up in advance to help.
“Once the accumulation hits 4 inches, we mobilize and distribute the addresses to the various teams,” Mrvan said. “The volunteers then shovel walkways, porches and driveways.”
If the snow accumulations get worse as they’re expected to this weekend — Jamie Enderlan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said Northwest Indiana was expected to get more snow overnight — the township office will robocall all the residents in the North Township with a message that will allow people aged 55 and older to press a number and get in touch with people who’ll add them to the list for help.
“The robocall works twofold: It helps us add to our database, but more importantly, it gives a sense of comfort to those who need help the most during a slight natural disaster,” Mrvan said.
Terri Smith, of East Chicago, was certainly grateful for the helpful Cardinals team. Her daughter, Ateria Allen, saw the boys working at a residence on Ivy Street and approached them Friday afternoon about helping out her grandmother, Ruth Smith, 79.
Within minutes, the boys charged up the street, assistant football coach Hector Palacios and his snowblower in tow. They had a clear path in Ruth Smith’s driveway in 10 minutes.
Her neighbor, Rudy Ramirez, was impressed.
“I’ve cleaned out her drive twice today,” Ramirez said.
Another neighbor, Renata Chlopecki, gave Novak the name of another elderly woman a little further up the street. He took her address and said they’d be back Monday to continue their work.
“They’re fast,” Chlopecki said. “It’s so nice these young gentlemen came out and did what they did.”
Cardinals tackle Jaron Holden, 18, didn’t mind being out in the heavy, wet snow. In fact, he welcomed it.
“I want to help out my community,” Holden said.
In Porter County, battling the snow meant keeping the trucks moving.
Andy McKay, Porter County’s highway superintendent, said the county’s 33 trucks hit the road around 5 a.m. Friday.
“We went over the main roads and started going into subdivisions and got another inch on the main roads,” and had to leave the subdivisions in favor of the main roads, he said.
Subdivisions are time consuming and it’s hard to do those and the main roads at the same time, and trucks have to cater to the main arteries with higher traffic counts, McKay added.
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He hoped the county’s plows would get to all of the roads by the end of Friday, adding it’s been “a rough week,” with snow every day.
Drivers, working in shifts, would be out until midnight Friday, McKay said, and would be back at it early Saturday, taking another pass at all of the county’s roads.
The lack of wind was helpful, he said, since blowing snow can be worse than falling snow, but the wet, heavy nature of the snow was not helpful.
“Hopefully Sunday we can salt everything real nice and get everything cleaned up,” he said.
Michelle L. Quinn and Amy Lavalley are freelance reporters for the Post-Tribune.