Hunkering down, day one

The biggest storm yet of this winter started last night and people are hunkering down for a few days. My son wrote from Indianapolis this morning:

I was feeling antsy and decided to head to Meijer to fill up the gas tank (maximize liquid volume, minimize air + water) in preparation for negative F temperatures.  Walked into the store at ten p.m. and the parking lot was unusually full for that hour.  Here's what I found...

No meat.
No bread in the usual section (did find a stash in the opposite part of the store).
No pre-made salad, broccoli, or carrots.

What I learned from the adventure tonight:
People will hoard at the hint of the possibility of near-future scarcity.
Milk will not run out, there is a rampant oversupply of it.
Meat is treasured and valued - even the chipped meats and deli style meats that are heavily processed; all were gone.
Salad is valued.
Nobody stocks up on green bananas or live lobster.

Looked like the store was going out of business.  Even the re-stockers were a bit stunned.

I have not checked out the stores in Rensselaer--it is too hard to get to them right now--to see if anything similar is happening here.

Today the temperature was just below freezing but the wind was blowing. Walking into the wind was painful at times. There will be a lot of drifting in the country. (Coming back to Rensselaer on Saturday after a few days away, I was impressed with how much snow had blown on US 231 south of town. The roads tomorrow will be much worse.)

 There were some cars out and about and there were some snowplows on the roads, but they were not making a lot of difference. The County Commissioners declared a snow emergency earlier today and that means that travel on county roads is prohibited except for emergencies. (The pdf file for the emergency was upside down when I looked at it.)

 There was not a lot going on downtown, though there were some people exercising in 24/7 Club Fitness and the BP station was open. The roads had slick spots and, as you can see, visibility was limited.

 The forecast is that tonight and tomorrow temperatures will drop dramatically so that the high tomorrow will be sub zero. It will be dangerous to be out if you do not dress properly. It is a bit ironic that this is happening just a few days after perihelion.

The river had little ice in it as it flowed under the Bicentennial Park bridge. In a couple days this scene should look quite different.

I noticed a new sign downtown in the Town Mall.

 Traditionally the Feast of the Epiphany was celebrated tomorrow on the 6th, twelve days after Christmas, but the church readings today (Sunday) were for the Epiphany. Now you can take down your Christmas trees because Christmas is over.

Update: Sunday evening the state shut down I-65 in both directions between Gary and Lafayette. Just about everything in the area will be closed tomorrow. This is a big storm/blizzard, one that people will remember for a while.