By Mark Wineka, Steve Huffman and Deirdre Parker-Smith
mwineka@salisburypost.com
Rowan County residents pushed against, drove over, sloshed through and frolicked in 4 to 6 inches of snow today, but as nightfall neared the question became what would Tuesday morning bring.
Would schools be delayed or closed again?
What condition would roads be in?
Would most residents have their power restored?
Late this afternoon Duke Energy said restoration of power would continue through Wednesday with some Rowan County customers not getting their electricity back until 11 Wednesday night.
Duke Energy is encouraging customers with medical conditions and special needs to make appropriate plans if they donít have power.
The company estimates that all Cabarrus County outages will be addressed by 11 tonight; Davidson County, by 11 a.m. Wednesday; Davie County, 11 p.m. Wednesday; Stanly County, 11 p.m. Tuesday; and Iredell County, 5 p.m. Tuesday.
In all, more than 4,400 workers are responding to the storm, including roughly 750 personnel from other Midwest service areas and neighboring utilities.
The snow, which started Sunday night and continued into Monday morning, represented the most accumulation Rowan County has seen in five years.
It led to countless closings and delays and some isolated vehicle accidents.
As the sun melted plenty of the snow and ice today, it left rivers and pools of water that could present a problem to motorists Tuesday morning.
ěEverything thatís wet and has enough moisture on it ó it is going to refreeze tonight,î Salisbury Street Division Manager Steve Weatherford predicted this morning with confidence.
National Weather Service Meteorologist Rodney Hinson said the temperature tonight and Tuesday morning will fall to 16 degrees ó bad news for school buses, Tuesday commuters and many residents who have been without power since late Sunday or early today.
ěIf we donít keep our house warm enough, we could get pipes in our house,î said Ken Deal, a China Grove resident whose home lost power late Sunday night. ěWeíll just have to do the best we can. Hopefully, that wonít happen.î
At 3 p.m. today, Duke Energy still had 9,251 customers without power in Rowan County, one of the harder hit areas in the Duke system. An area between China Grove and Rockwell in the N.C. 152 area had several thousand outages.
Otherwise, power losses were scattered throughout the county.
ěRight now, I donít know where weíll be at the end of the day,î District Manager Randy Welch said of restoration efforts.
Duke Energy linemen were out making repairs, while engineers were conducting assessments.
Duke Energy had close to 185,000 outages over its Carolinas service region early Monday.
By mid-afternoon, Duke Energy reported that Cabarrus County had only 263 outages; Davie County, 1,747; Davidson County, 758; Iredell County, 2,725; and Stanly County, 477.
Most of the outages in Davie County were located in and around Cooleemee.
The power loses resulted mainly from limbs, burdened by the wet snow, falling on lines. In several areas, whole trees crashed onto lines and/or across roads, sometimes blocking traffic temporarily.
Wet soil caused by several inches of weekend rain, combined with wind and snow, led to much of the tree damage, Welch said.
ěOne of the key things is, treat all downed lines as though they are energized,î Welch added. Customers should not touch the lines or try to remove any trees or limbs off lines, he warned.
ěWeíll get out as soon as possible,î he said.
On the good news front, warmer weather is coming by the end of the week.
Hinson, the National Weather Service metrologist, said the forecast is for the temperature to climb into the upper 60s by Friday.
ěWeíve got a cold air mass thatís being forced out and warmer air coming in,î Hinson said.
The National Weather Service put Rowanís snowfall at 5 inches.
Lee Goodnight at L.L. Goodnight & Sons off Saw Road near Enochville measured 4 inches of snow.
The Piedmont Research Station in western Rowan County off Sherrills Ford Road measured 6 inches of snow, which followed more than 2 inches of rain Saturday and Sunday.
ěThat was the perfect way to saturate the soil,î said Station Manager Joe Hampton. He said at least people wonít be talking about a drought for the next week or so.
Rowan County has seen normal rainfall amounts in the fall but had been hit by another dry spell since December.
Public and private schools, colleges and universities across the region closed for classes Monday. Most school officials made their decisions Sunday night as meteorologists were dead-on with their forecasts.
Salisbury buses did not run today, and they will operate under a two-hour delay Tuesday morning, meaning the three city routes will start at 8:15 a.m.
Salisbury garbage trucks waited until 9 a.m. today to start their routes and reported no major problems.
Workers with the N.C. Department of Transportation labored through the wee hours today to try and make roads passable and were largely successful.
John Thomason, transportation supervisor with the DOT, said all primary roads were passable by mid-morning.
ěWeíre starting work on the secondary roads now,î he said about 10:30 a.m.
Thomason said wintry weather always increases the workload of DOT employees, and said the snow that started falling late Sunday was no exception. He said his truck operators started work about 6 p.m. Sunday and continued to spread salt brine and scrape roads throughout the night.
Most would stay on the job until about 6 p.m. today, Thomason said. He said forecasters were predicting a deep freeze tonight and Tuesday morning, and agreed the result will be plenty of ice on roadways.
Thereís little that can be done about such conditions, Thomason said, and he recommended that people stay off the roads.
He said a skeleton crew of truck drivers would be working tonight in the event of road emergencies. Thomason said the crux of his crew would return to work at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday to begin clearing roads again.
Motorists probably found traveling on the roads this morning a little safer because the snow created a crust for traction.
ěThe sun is helping out greatly even though weíre not yet above freezing,î Weatherford, the cityís street division head, said about 10:30 a.m.
Weatherford put his crews on two 12-hour shifts, starting Sunday night. All the city equipment was ready by Friday afternoon. ěMy days are running together,î a tired Weatherford said this morning. ěMy coffee potís just about empty.î
The city crews addressed main arteries and emergency routes first, then pushed into side streets this morning.
ěThe bulk already received one round (from the snow plows),î Weatherford said. ěThe snow seems to be turning loose pretty good.î
Weatherford said he also measured about 4 inches of snow outside his office.
Most of the Street Division calls from citizens and police involved downed trees, Weatherford said.
He predicted shady spots that freeze over and bridges and overpasses will be the slick spots tonight and Tuesday morning.
The N.C. Highway Patrol reported 74 weather related wrecks from Sunday through 12:26 p.m. today.
ěThe biggest thing when they called off school it would have made it a worse situation,î said First Sgt. B.E. Hower.
More cars on the road would have meant more collisions, he said.
ěWe didnít have as much traffic as we normally would with few drivers heading to work,î Hower said.
Salisbury Police reported 18 wrecks from 6 p.m. Sunday through 12:30 p.m. today.
ěIt is an increase above the normal,î Police Chief Mark Wilhelm said.
Rowan-Salisbury, Cabarrus County and Kannapolis City schools closed today, as well as the VA Medical Center clinics here and in Charlotte and Winston-Salem.
Rowan-Cabarrus Community College canceled classes; staff reported at noon.
Catawba College is closed. The cafeteria continued to operate under normal hours in the Student Center. The college anticipates reopening at 8 a.m. Tuesday.
All locations of Pfeiffer University were closed.
Rowan County offices are open, including the Rowan Public Library. The library will close at 6 p.m. today.
The Salisbury, South Rowan and East Rowan YMCAs are closed today
EnergyUnited crews are working to restore outages. Freezing rain and snow caused outages throughout the companyís 19-county territory, with the most hard-hit counties being Davidson, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln, Mecklenburg, Rowan and Stokes.
At the peak of the storm overnight, approximately 21,000 members were without power. As of 7 a.m. today, just over 8,200 EnergyUnited customers were without power, with 3,500 of those in Mecklenburg; 1,000 in Davidson; 1,500 in Iredell and the remaining scattered in other counties.
Garbage collection in Kannapolis will be delayed one day this week. Collection will occur beginning tomorrow and run through Saturday.
Because of inclement weather and dangerous road conditions, Cabarrus County offices are closed today. Cabarrus County Transportation Services (CCTS) will operate on a limited schedule. CCTS will offer its door-to-door van service only to those clients requiring life-sustaining medical trips. County emergency operations, including the Sheriffís Office and Emergency Medical Services, will maintain regular schedules.
Cabarrus County offices that are closed today include Cabarrus County Governmental Center, Department of Social Services, Senior Centers, Board of Elections office, Cabarrus County Public Library branches, Cabarrus County Parks, Cabarrus County Solid Waste.
Shavonne Potts contributed to this story.