Saint Ignace Shelter

For one night last night Saint Ignace, Michigan had an overnight shelter set up at the Little Bear Arena. All over the state the weather was crappy and dangerously vicious. The Mackinac Bridge was closed due to hazardous driving conditions. Thus anyone who was in Saint Ignace over the weekend or those who had been in other towns ending up in Saint Ignace to get across the bridge to leave for downstate could not get to the Lower Peninsula. Nor could people drive on US-2 towards Marquette. Traffic in Saint Ignace had a bottleneck effect. There were people stuck in town late at night needing places to stay. Hotels in town had to turn away potential guests, due to the fact that each hotel was full. The city had to set up a shelter for people who could not get a room.
To read more about yesterday's Michigan weather check out some of this article in the FREEP.

• STATEWIDE: 1 fatality, Mackinac Bridge closed due to wind

• February 10, 2008
• ASSOCIATED PRESS
• Bitter cold weather moving across Michigan was accompanied by high winds and snow, creating hazardous driving conditions Sunday and forcing road closures, and was blamed in at least one death.
• The weather also led to the cancellation of church services and outdoor events. And Michigan State Police said the Mackinac Bridge, a five-mile span that links Michigan’s two peninsulas, was closed due to high winds and white-out conditions.

• In Leland, about 20 miles northwest of Traverse City, the body of a missing 87-year-old man with Alzheimer’s disease was found Sunday morning about five blocks from his home. The man, whose name wasn’t immediately released, died of exposure to the cold, the Leelanau County sheriff’s department said.

This part is just sad. My heart and prayers go out to the family.

• In the Upper Peninsula near St. Ignace, state police said part of U.S. 2 was closed because of snow drifts along Lake Michigan. Along Lake Superior, state Route 28 was closed between Marquette and Munising because of white-out conditions. And I-75 between the International Bridge in Sault Ste. Marie and state Route 28 was closed.

• The forecast was so cold that Sunday’s Lansing Polar Plunge charity benefit, where people were to jump into the cold waters at Hawk Island County Park, was postponed. The event was reset for Feb. 24, the Lansing State Journal reported. [more here]
  

I have never understood why people would do this in the first place.