Tribune staff reports

The first winter storm of the year left a mixture of ice and snow on the ground in southern Indiana, causing issues for motorists and leaving some rural residents without power.

It also led to all four public school districts and parochial schools canceling classes Monday.

The snow that fell across the area Sunday was less than an inch in most areas but came after rain that fell Saturday evening turned to ice. The National Weather Service was forecasting more snow would start falling in the area early this morning. Winds also were expected to pick up.

A tree reported in the roadway in the Crothersville area was the first sign of any problems in Jackson County early Sunday.

Jackson County officers went on to investigate at least eight additional reports of weather-related issues, including one involving utility lines arcing up and down in the Bethany Road area west of Crothersville.

Jackson County REMC reported widespread outages caused by wind and ice on lines in six of the 10 counties served by the utility.

At 8:30 a.m. Sunday, 2,681 customers, or nearly 11 percent of 24,419 customers, were without power. That number included 558 of the utility’s 6,820 customers in Jackson County.

Most of the Jackson County outages were reported in Washington Township (167), Vernon Township (160), Hamilton Township (88) and Grassy Fork Township (78). Most of the power was restored by mid-morning.

County officers investigated seven reports of property-damage wrecks involving vehicles that had slid off the road between 6:28 a.m. and 6:31 p.m. Sunday. None of those incidents appeared to be serious, although a Jeep that left the road in the 12200 block of U.S. 31 North wound up in water. The driver was able to get out of that vehicle.

Several inches of snow and high winds created problems for motorists and others across the state, according to The Associated Press reports.

The National Weather Service said snowfall totals Sunday morning included 4 inches in Ellettsville in south central Indiana and about 2½ inches at Evansville Regional Airport.