Indiana Disasters: The Northern Indiana Blizzard

By R. C.

Snow seems to be one of those elements that, even in modern times, that people haphazardly fear. There are the warnings and everyone goes out to buy their bread and milk and talks about how bad it’s going to get, then you have the skeptics who say everyone is just over reacting and nothing is going to happen. No matter which side people fall on before the storm when the snow hits the ground there seems to always be the people that like to venture out. Either for a job that that refuses to close down, a school that wants to tough it out, or it could even be just a personal choice there are people braving the snow. Snow seems almost like a challenge to some, that with enough salt, enough plows, or big enough trucks that snow can be bypassed. It is an annoyance to us something we can push out of the way and melt it down, it’s what children like but as adults we are supposed to hate. When the snow hits the ground he elders always bring out the tales of how it was much worse when they were kids and how this is nothing, how they walked to school in three feet of snow.

We all know, minus the hearsay, that snow presents many unique challenges. Snow falls in many different forms from small icy flakes that barley coat the road but cause slick messy conditions to cars to big wet flakes that simply melt due to the heat of the road. Snow isn’t the only factor that goes into it. Air temperature and temperature leading up to the time it snows both effect it. If it’s warm leading up to the snow the ground temperature might be too high and the snow might not even stick to the roads, and if the air temperature is to high it will also melt. All towns and cities take their own approach to the snow based on all the different factors that go into the snow whether it be salt, snow, plows or some combination of both they try to eliminate the challenges and dangers of getting out in the snow. What happens when the right conditions line up and dump large amounts of snow on cities and towns throughout the Midwest? What happens when the emolument of extreme cold? How will people react? What happens when you mix in a national holiday and on top of that holiday shopping?

Elkhart Indiana is known as the “RV Capitol of The World” and also “The Band Instrument Capitol world” because of the large production of recreation vehicles and musical instruments. It is located on the very North border of Indiana in Elkhart county where it is the county seat. It also is fairly close to south bend. Elkhart was originally founded as the Village of Pulaski. It was originally founded as a post office, a mill, and a few houses. In 1839 Dr. Havilah Beardsley moved from Ohio to found the town of Elkhart and purchased the Pulaski post office and changes the name to Elkhart officially starting the town. Toward the end of the 19^th century was the founding of the music instrument industry in Elkhart. In 1934 the first recreational vehicle factory was started in Elkhart.[1]

The current population in Elkhart is estimated to be around 51,000 people when compared to the population in 1920 being around 24,000 people you can see the population has a steady growth rate. The period between 1920 and 1930 saw a huge 35% jump from 24,000 to around 33,000 people. [2]The major industry during this time wasn’t only the band instrument industry but was also tied to the automobile industry. With its close proximity to South Bend, Indiana a lot of works commuted to work in the car factories. Elkhart is considered s suburb of Southbend being only fifteen miles away and industry and economics closely tied to each other. A lot of Elkhart’s workers relied on the high ways between it and south bend. It is also around.

South Bend Indiana is also located in the northern most part of Indiana in St. Joseph County. The first permanent settlement in the South Bend was a fur trapper’s trading post around 1820. In 1829 the growing community applied for a post office and in 1830 the town name was changed to South Bend. In 1831 the town became the county seat. The 1830s to the 1850s was the big development of South Bends Industries.[3]

In 1852 the Studebaker brothers founded the world’s largest wagon company in South Bend. In 1895 the company looked into make horseless carriages and from 1902 to 1911 built their electric cars and also joined with other companies to manufacture gasoline vehicles. By the 1920s the Studebaker manufacturing plants had become very large and development in three different locations. The original South Bend location was used to manufacture different small pieces for the cars. Over the next three years South Bend added over a million feet of plant space. The second plant in South bend manufactured chaises for the larger cars. This was a very prosperous and successful time for Studebaker. They created many jobs by building and expanding existing manufacturing plants. [4]

By 1929 the crash of the stock market had already affected a lot of big businesses and Studebaker was no different. They saw The Depression as a time to come out with a smaller more economic model but this idea proved not to work. Times where to tough and people didn’t have the money to buy cars. 1930 saw big pay cuts and layoffs for the company. Times seemed bad for Studebaker. Even though bad time had fallen of the company the management refused to give up and within three years the company had turned around and began to turn out profits.[5]

Friday November 28, 1930 the day after Thanksgiving. Temperature hangs around the zero mark for much of the Midwest including Northern Indiana for towns like South bend and Elkhart. Not only has the cold set in but the snow has fallen. Six to fourteen inches have snow have fallen through out Chicago and Northern Indiana. This is a storm that caused many deaths in other parts of the Midwest. This storm proves to challenge this area in many different ways.[6]

One problem is the “unemployed” that have nowhere to stay. The Depression has created hard times for the entire country and northern Indiana was no different. Hard times had fallen on local industries and many people had lost their jobs and maybe even their homes. These homeless people have the fear of frostbite or even freezing to death.[7]

Another problem was the snow drifts that cut off drivers and towns entirely. Cities like Chicago had hundreds of workers out plowing roads just to keep Christmas shopping going compared to towns in northern Indiana where people were stranded in their cars. One example was school buses going to school but getting cut off by the snow drifts and had to be dug out by plows because they got stuck on the way back. Even more dangerous than stranded motorist cut off from utilities for some of these towns caused many problems. Water shortages where feared in many of these towns and downed electricity lines cut off power for some. In Chicago the over use of stoves started huge fires forcing many into the freezing cold and the snow. [8]

This storm created a multitude of problems for many diverse communities throughout the northern part of the Midwest. Snow and cold created a interesting problem for them to solve. Plows and man power seemed to be how these communities responded to the bad weather. From stranded motorist to Christmas shoppers the heroes of the day where the city plow workers that got everyone where they needed to go. Most of the deaths during this storm were related to people falling and elderly health problems exacerbated by the conditions, so overall not a very threatening storm.[9]

As we can see people during that storm reacted much like people do today they saw the snow and went out haphazardly. Schools didn’t close, people tried to drive, and businesses stayed open. People where out and about and got stuck in all the snow. Storms like this really don’t change communities. Snow comes and it goes and the cold is part of every winter. There were no political sides to this issue a blizzard is a pretty clean cut issues that effects everyone in a very similar way. Snow makes driving conditions bad, it also makes being out side on foot very hazardous and the cold adds to that hazard. We have had similar storms this year alone and its every ones goal just to stay safe and continue with life. This level of snow seems to low to really change a community. The communities would probably just learn how to plan for snow and cold better maybe get more plows, develop warning system, and a better way to deal with the homeless.