Most travel warnings lifted in Indiana counties Thursday evening

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Thursday evening, only two Indiana counties remained in travel warning status.

Owen County emergency management officials downgraded to a watch status at 10 p.m. Thursday, leaving only Greene and Gibson counties.

A travel warning means only emergency vehicles should be out, and asks citizens to stay off the roads.

Plow drivers worked overtime in all counties.

In Owen County, drifting and wet snow was a big problem for drivers trying to get through.

“We’ve actually been here since four yesterday morning,” said Joe Pettijohn, Owen County Highway Superintendent. “I’ve been running 24 hour shifts.”

“The biggest trouble is, the snow was so wet,” he added. “It's hard to push, so it won’t come off the plows. You get stuck, so your roadways won’t be as wide as they normally would be. This is probably the worst snow we’ve seen in 4-5 years, as far as how much we got, over the short period of time. It was wet and hard to deal with.”

Travis Franklin says he’s been plowing for Owen County for the past seven years.

“The drifts this year have been the worst I’ve ever had to plow,” he said. “Three foot high snow drifts.”

Franklin took 24-Hour News 8 to one of the worst roads in the county Thursday afternoon.

Jason McKinney lives along that road.

“We couldn’t get out, we were snowed in,” McKinney said. “Even though we have four-wheel drives, we were snowed in. Yesterday it was impassable, they never got the plows on it till late last night.”

The county plows got some help from neighbors living on the road.

“We had our tractors and we cleared almost all the way to the highway,” said Clay Chesser.

Pettijohn says his drivers will be out until he’s satisfied every road way is cleared.