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0107a01 cover 1/6/2014 7:16 PM Page 1 SPORTS EIU NO.4 IN FINAL FOOTBALL RANKINGS,B1 JOURNAL GAZETTE & TIMES-COURIER TUESDAY JG-TC 01/07/2014 SERVING CHARLESTON, MATTOON & SURROUNDING AREAS |||||WWW.JG-TC.COM ||||| $1.00 TODAY’S WEATHER Digging out 7/6 Road conditions Bitterly cold. could improve Lowest wind chill readings 25 below to 35 below zero. by this morning See page A4 for the four-day outlook. BY DAVE FOPAY JG-TC Staff Writer CHARLESTON — Expect snow-packed roads if you try traveling Tuesday but they should at least be passable. Nearly a foot of powdery snow combined with windy conditions overnight Sunday to make snow removal near- ly impossible, Coles County Engineer Rick Johnson said. LOCAL Drifting was part of the reason that snow plow crews Neoga church couldn’t complete their hosts motorists work Sunday night and early Monday, Johnson said. Many families stranded by Work ceased overnight in Sunday’s snowstorm took favor of resuming Monday shelter in Neoga. A3 morning, he said. “There’s still some bad drifting out there,” Johnson said Monday morning. TOP THIS! “Right now, the roads are still pretty treacherous.” If the winds decrease as expected, snow removal crews should have better success and most roads, including those in rural locations, should be open Tuesday morning, Johnson said. However, he added that Zoo prepares the extreme cold makes salt Dave Fopay/Staff or chemical treatment inef- This view is of US Route 45 looking north from Mattoon on Monday morning. for panda’s fective so the roads will still have a snowpack cover. public debut The conditions led to sev- eral closings Monday, some WASHINGTON (AP) — of which will continue Tues- Bao Bao, the giant panda Region’s residents work to day. cub at the Smithsonian’s Officials in both the National Zoo, is getting used Charleston and Mattoon to seeing fans outside her school district announced panda house enclosure as there will be no school on she prepares for her public get out from under snowfall Tuesday because of the debut this month. weather conditions and the BY SAMANTHA BILHARZ Bao Bao (bow-bow) had a same was true for most area JG-TC Staff Writer tryout Monday in front of schools as well. CHARLESTON — The cold the media. After waking up Charleston school Super- weather on Sunday and Mon- in her exhibit around 8 a.m., intendent Jim Littleford said day that chilled the city of she spent the morning he checked road conditions Charleston left community crawling, climbing, follow- Monday morning and they members and city workers ing mother Mei Xiang (may- were still bad enough Mon- feeling the aftereffects shong) and poking her head day that he couldn’t reach Although motorists were over rocks to a chorus of the district bus service com- warned to not travel due to camera clicks. pany’s facility on Illinois poor visibility and road condi- For the most part, Bao Route 130 just north of the tions, some didn’t heed the Bao is oblivious to all the city. Drifting that could con- warning, which left 16 people commotion but aware people tinue and make roads haz- stranded in their vehicles in are around, panda curator ardous was part of the rea- Charleston, according to Brandie Smith said. son for cancelling school for Charleston Fire Department “She’s got a great disposi- Tuesday, he said. Chief Pat Goodwin. tion. She doesn’t even seem “When you combine that “This wasn’t your average to notice the folks who are with the wind chills it does- snowstorm,” Goodwin said. watching her, her adoring n’t make a good scenario for “This was a dangerous storm public,” Smith said. “Her going to school,” Littleford with dangerous temperatures. focus is mostly on Mom said. Some roads are still closed right now.” The Coles County Court- and temperatures are still on Bao Bao will make her house will be open Tuesday, a decline.” public debut Jan. 18 and Sheriff Darrell Cox said. Goodwin added that not may be visible inside or out- Some individual offices may only are motorists who decide side, depending on the be closed, so employees and to venture out in the current weather and her mother’s visitors should call to check Ken Trevarthan/Staff Photographer choices for any given day. Eastern Illinois University student Ian LeSueur works to free his car Monday afternoon from the built Zoo members will have an See CONDITIONS, A2 up snow along Jefferson Avenue in Charleston. See SNOWFALL, A2 early preview beginning Sat- urday. By the time she goes on public display, Bao Bao will be nearly 5 months old. More than 170 spend night She’s still a baby, zookeep- ers said. She sleeps about half the day and plays while she’s awake, rolling and at local Red Cross shelter tumbling on her head, gnaw- ing on bamboo and poking BY DAVE FOPAY was able to give a ride to one at the church included travel- at her mother. JG-TC Staff Writer stranded motorist before he ers from Texas, Louisiana, That routine will continue MATTOON — Interstate got stuck as well. Tennessee, Kentucky, Alaba- when people are allowed to travel was bad enough Sunday The Red Cross office ma, Wisconsin, Minnesota, stream through the panda night but even getting from opened the shelter around 6:30 several from the Chicago area house. Smith said they won’t Mattoon to Charleston was p.m. Sunday at the request of and some other parts of Illi- make Bao Bao or her moth- just about impossible as well. Mattoon emergency response nois. er do anything they don’t Jake Davis of Charleston agencies, Red Cross Manager Robbie Bryant and his fami- want to do. was one of the 173 people who Valerie Goodwin said. She ly were on their way home to spent the night at the storm said the church has been used Pensacola, Fla., from a holi- Dave Fopay/Staff shelter the local American before when weather condi- day trip to visit family in Mil- Motorists who were stranded Sunday night in the snowstorm that COME BACK Red Cross office opened at the tions led to stranded motorists waukee when they had to hit the area congregate Monday morning at the First Presbyterian TOMORROW First Presbyterian Church in on Interstate 57. leave the interstate about 5 Church in Mattoon, where the Red Cross opened a shelter. Mattoon. He said he got stuck “The church is wonderful,” p.m. Sunday, he said. See what’s happening on Illinois Route 16 just west she said. “These people have been in agriculture via the would likely remain open shelter at the church was in of Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Many people who stayed at great,” Bryant said of the weekly JG-TC Farm page most of Monday. It might December 2010, Goodwin also Center about 8:30 p.m. Sun- church were diverted off the shelter organizers. “There remain open if power outages said. The Red Cross will open day. interstate then directed to the were probably 100 people in in some areas mean others an emergency shelter whenev- INSIDE TODAY “I stopped to help people shelter, Goodwin said. Others the ditch.” need shelter until it’s er 15 or more families are and ended up in the ditch had to be brought to the shel- The shelter was able to restored, she said. affected, whether that’s Advice . A7 myself,” Davis said. ter by emergency responders, accommodate Bryant along “We knew going into this it because of the weather, a fire Classifieds . B6-7 The conditions from the and that included the 30 peo- with his wife, their two daugh- was going to be a two-phase or other situation, she added. Comics . B5 winter storm were so bad ple who were on a bus on its ters plus their two dachs- scenario,” she said. Community . A7 “you couldn’t see in front of way to Chicago, she said. hunds. The last time the weather Contact Fopay at dfopay@jg- Horoscopes . A4 you,” Davis added. He said he People who spent the night Goodwin said the shelter led the Red Cross to open a tc.com or 217-238-6858. Local . A3 Lottery . A4 Markets . B3 Obituaries . B8 Opinions . .A5 136th Year, Number 294 ● BREAKING NEWS, COMMENTARY, MULTIMEDIA AND MORE: WWW.JG-TC.COM ● 217-235-5656 0107a02 1/6/2014 7:14 PM Page 1 A2 LOCAL & FROM PAGE ONE ● TUESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2014 JG-TC | www.jg-tc.com Dave Fopay/Staff Dave Fopay/Staff A vehicle remains stuck in deep snow at Swords Drive and Charleston Avenue on the east side of A snow plow passes a Coles-Moultrie sign showing the frigid temperature Monday morning in Mat- Mattoon on Monday morning. toon. CONDITIONS 6 semis, 375 vehicles trapped in snow From page A1 EFFINGHAM (AP) — A state emergency management before coming to the court- official says “the worst possible combination of circum- house. stances” caused six semis and about 375 vehicles to get stuck Dial-A-Ride bus service was along a snowy stretch of interstate in southern Illinois. canceled for the second day Jonathon Monken is director of the Illinois Emergency and the Coles County Council Management Agency. He says a few semis jackknifed near on Aging’s LifeSpan Center the intersections of interstates 57 and 70 in Effingham Sun- will also be closed for a sec- day night, setting off a nasty chain reaction. ond day Tuesday. Snow drifts as high as 8 feet piled up against the semis, Johnson said he couldn’t preventing cars from getting through.