Dr. Rob leaves Ada Just Just in Time

An ice storm caused ONU to close from Thursday, January 6, through at least 8 a.m. Monday, January 10. The ice took out electric and water service. ONU moved to evacuate all students from campus.

Here's my story. Not too exciting, but part of the mesh:

Wednesday, January 5

Anticipating a major winter storm, all schools in Bowling Green closed for the day. Kelsey and Emily were thrilled to have a "no school" day. I Passated down to Ada.

12:19 Gina emailed to say that because of deteriorating weather, she was staying in Lima and would miss 351.

4:15 p.m. I left campus with the thermometer in my Passat registered 30 deg. F. The sky was crapping ice droplets. Trees and bushes were ice-loading. Route 335 northbound out of Ada was OK: wet, but not slippery. That changed once I crossed the intersection with US 30. Road conditions deteriorated steadily from there. Route 235 was decidedly slushy. I-75 northbound was distinctly snow-covered crawling at 35 to 40 mph. Heavy traffic complicated matters. It was a relief to exit at Cygnet and switch to very snowy, but abandoned, RT 25 for the last 10 miles to home. With relief, I parked the ice-encrusted Passat in the garage and grabbed a Sam Adams as I headed into the house.

7 p.m. IM from a student enquiring whether I was planning to have class Thursday. I hadn't considered otherwise. Replied that I'd assess the situation in the morning. Hmm ... is there more to this storm than I've sensed so far?

10 p.m. Another IM. Another student. Same question. Diane expressed skepticism about the possibility of Thursday classes. "Downed power lines and fires in Findlay," she reported. "Oh, my ... trees are falling outside my house ..." Diane's screen name dropped from active to Offline. Hmm....