Editor’s note: This article was updated Jan. 15, 2025.
The year’s first weather challenge, a days-long snow and ice storm, has ended, but life isn’t quite back to normal for Evansville-area residents.
An estimated three inches of snow, laden with up to an inch of ice, impacted Evansville and the surrounding area starting Jan. 5, according to a preliminary estimate from the Evansville Vanderburgh County Emergency Management Agency.
At the storm’s peak, more than 61,000 CenterPoint Energy customers in the Evansville region were without power. The utility — which has headquarters in Houston, Texas, as well as Evansville — called in crews from outside the region so that more than 1,000 personnel were working to restore power. Nearly all CenterPoint customers had electricity restored by 10 p.m. Jan. 10; the remaining 137 customers saw their lights come back on by noon Jan. 11.
“We recognize the hardship these outages have caused our friends and neighbors in the Southwestern Indiana community, and we appreciate the patience and resilience of our customers,” Shane Bradford, CenterPoint’s vice president of Indiana Electric, said Jan. 9 in a statement released by the utility. “We’ve made incredible progress the last few days, but we know our work is not yet done, and our crews remain focused on working safely and quickly for the remaining customers still waiting to be restored.”
Residents without power sought refuge at warming centers throughout the area. Because Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation officials kept campuses closed all week, schools such as Central High and Lincoln and the Catholic Diocese of Evansville’s St. Benedict Cathedral School were turning into makeshift warming centers in addition to shelters at Young & Established, Crossroads Christian Church, Ruth’s House, Ozanam Family Shelter, Albion Fellows Bacon Center, House of Bread and Peace, YWCA Evansville, C.K. Newsome Community Center, and several Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library locations.
Evansville Fire Department deployed its dive team for a water rescue. An SUV slid into a pond in the 600 block of North Royal Avenue on Jan. 8. The driver managed to escape before the vehicle submerged, and EFD divers helped with towing the vehicle from the ice-covered water. EFD’s dive team took advantage of the cold temperatures and winter weather conditions and arranged a day of ice training.
Patches of freezing fog — in which below-freezing temperatures cause moisture from fog to freeze on contact — also clouded the skies Jan. 9 and 11.
Another four inches of powdery snow fell Jan. 10, leading schools to cancel classes and the Civic Center and Vanderburgh County Courthouse to close at 1:30 p.m. Warmer temps and sunshine melted much of last week’s ice and the latest snow over the weekend, but EVSC schools still instituted a two-hour delay on Jan. 13. The winter storm warning officially was canceled the evening of Jan. 10.
As road works crews continue scraping snow and ice off streets around the area, city and county officials are opening a temporary drop-off site for storm-related tree and shrub debris at the Vanderburgh 4-H Center, 201 E. Boonville-New Harmony Road. Debris will be accepted 9 a.m.- 4 p.m. Jan. 17, Jan. 24, and Jan. 31, and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Jan. 18 and Feb. 1. Proof of Vanderburgh County residency must be shown to access the drop-off site.
Vanderburgh and Warrick County residents who need assistance with property damage or other storm-related issues can connect with need-based initiative Indiana 211 by dialing 211, calling 866-211-9966 or filling out an online form.