Ball State officials say they won't make the decision to cancel classes until 6 a.m. Wednesday.
Tony Proudfoot, vice president of Marketing and Communication, said if classes are canceled, students will be notified through an emergency text message and mass e-mail. Information will also be available on the Ball State website. While the decision might not be made until 6 a.m, notification could take longer.
Afternoon classes on Tuesday have already been canceled, and a two-hour delay at Burris Laboratory School rolled into a cancelation for the day, Kevin Kenyon, associate vice president of Facilities Planning and Management, said.
Kenyon is getting his crews ready for the next wave of ice and sleet, which could amount to an inch of ice, according to the National Weather Service.
"It's a snow cone with no flavoring," Kenyon said.
He's calling the storm a monster. The low pressure system that started in Texas has reached the southwestern tip of Indiana and is headed this way.
Kenyon said it's not very helpful to use the snow brooms at this point; salt is more effective.
"We'll plow until we get to some point where we get to just ice," he said.
Facilities workers have been out since 4 a.m. brushing and salting the sidewalks.
"I expect them to stay until 8 p.m., then have some sleep time, then they'll come back in the morning and continue."
Elsewhere in Indiana:
Indiana offices close as massive snowstorm nears
The Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana motorists hoping to squeeze in a day of work before one of the strongest storms in decades hit the region were greeted Tuesday by icy roads that caused crashes that seriously injured at least two people.
Two motorists and a state police trooper were injured Tuesday morning when a car slid into them as the trooper investigated an earlier crash on Interstate 74 near Shelbyville in central Indiana, state Trooper Timothy James said. The trooper was not badly hurt, but both motorists suffered serious injuries, James said.
The I-74 crash occurred as roads crews across central Indiana were glazed with a thick coating of ice and road crews prepared for a second, more intense wave of ice and snow expected later Tuesday.
The National Weather Service forecast up to one inch of additional ice would fall through Wednesday along the Interstate 70 corridor that cuts across the state's midsection. More than a foot of snow was expected in northern communities, and blizzard warnings were in effect for more than a dozen counties in northern Indiana.
The weather left about 10,000 homes and businesses without power midday Tuesday as ice brought down power lines and led some schools, businesses and state offices to close for the day.
Duke Energy spokesman Lew Middleton said the utility was bringing in repair crews from the Carolinas to help with power outages.
"As the storm comes and we begin to see outages, then we'll see where damage is and try to direct our resources there," he said.
The inclement weather prompted the family of slain Indianapolis police Officer David Moore to cancel the traditional procession with hundreds of squad cars from his funeral at Conseco Fieldhouse to Crown Hill Cemetery. The 29-year-old officer died Jan. 26 after being shot four times during a traffic stop. He will be buried later in a private ceremony.
Gov. Mitch Daniels and Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman were among the thousands who trekked over the ice to attend Moore's funeral. The Indiana Statehouse was largely quiet after leaders made a rare call to cancel committee meetings and floor sessions in the House and Senate.
Many lawmakers stay in town for the session and wouldn't have had a problem getting to work, but leaders said they were concerned for the safety of staff members and visitors who would have to travel to get to Statehouse hearings. The bills slated for consideration Tuesday will be rescheduled.
The House and Senate chambers were dark and empty at midmorning and hallways normally teeming with lobbyists were mostly barren. Beverly Smith, who runs Beverly's Snack Shack in the Statehouse basement, said her snack stand was doing about half of normal business because the Statehouse was so empty.
Smith, who got to work late because of the weather, said she was putting the slow day to good use.
"I'm just going to stock up and clean up," she said.
Schools from Terre Haute through the Lafayette, Indianapolis, Bloomington and Muncie areas to around Richmond were closed. Purdue, Indiana State, Butler and DePauw universities canceled classes, along with IUPUI and the Indiana University regional campuses in Kokomo and Richmond.
Purdue spokeswoman Jeanne Norberg said the decision to cancel classes at the 37,000-student campus in West Lafayette was made in consultation with local emergency management officials and based on current and projected weather.
Numerous flights in and out of Indianapolis International Airport were canceled Tuesday. The airport has been using just one of its runways since about 9 p.m. Monday in accordance with its emergency procedures but was able to accommodate all flights, airport spokeswoman Susan Sullivan said.
No large numbers of stranded passengers were expected there Tuesday and Wednesday because it is not a major hub for connecting flights, she said.
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