‘Non-event’ On The Roads; Beauty Across The Lawns

BY SUSAN DICKERSON
SALISBURY POST

Sending gardeners to worry about their opening camellia bushes and other flowering plants that got a jump start on spring, the clouds moved in Friday afternoon and dropped anywhere from one to two inches of snow on lawns and flowers.

Meanwhile, the roads stayed pretty clear. Some salt trucks headed out to the more rural areas, but here in Salisbury, crews watched bridge icing and found none.

‘‘We had a non-event, basically,’’ said Vernon Sherill, public services director for the city. ‘‘What we had is white rain, and we don’t mind those at all.’’

Sherrill said the ground temperature worked in his favor. With so much warm weather recently, some of the white stuff melted when it hit the ground, ‘‘so we didn’t have to do anything extraordinary. We didn’t have a problem at all yesterday.’’

Because the snow started accumulating during peak traffic hours on a Friday, the N.C. Highway Patrol officers scattered around the county on secondary roads to help motorists after they slipped off the roads.

‘‘We had above average accidents,’’ said Highway Patrol Sgt. V.F. Mellone, ‘‘but it came at that critical period – rush hour, peak traffic, when people were leaving work.’’

Motorists managed to avoid major collisions, but drivers weren’t slowing down enough or they were following too closely, Mellone said.

However, Interstate 85 and other major thoroughfares had no problems.

And the National Weather Service predicts the rest of the snow will melt by the afternoon as temperatures are supposed to rise to the 40s.

But that could mean complications for people out and about in the morning. As temperatures are supposed to drop tonight to near 30, the chances of black ice increase. But by later Sunday, the ‘‘non-event’’ should have disappeared as temperatures reach into the 40 to 45 degree mark.