By Mark Wineka, Steve Huffman and Deirdre Parker-Smith
mwineka@salisburypost.com
An overnight snow of 4 to 6 inches in Rowan County weighed heavy on the landscape bringing down numerous trees and causing power outages Monday for thousands.
The snow, the most accumulation Rowan has seen in five years, caused countless closings and delays and some isolated vehicle accidents.
But it weighed heavier on something else ó the minds of motorists faced with commuting to work Tuesday.
“Everything that’s wet and has enough moisture on it ó it is going to refreeze tonight,” Salisbury Street Division Manager Steve Weatherford predicted today with confidence.
A spokesman for the National Weather Service said Rowan County’s snowfall total was 5 inches, which was typical of surrounding counties where anywhere from 4 to 6 inches fell.
Meteorologist Rodney Hinson said the temperature Monday night and Tuesday morning will fall to 16 degrees, but said much warmer weather won’t be far behind.
Hinson said the forecast is for the temperature to climb into the upper 60s by Friday.
“We’ve got a cold air mass that’s being forced out and warmer air coming in,” Hinson said.
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.
More than 10,000 Duke Energy customers in Rowan County lost their power due mainly to tree 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.
By 10:47 a.m., Duke Energy still had 9,444 customers without power in Rowan County, one of the harder hit areas in the Duke system.
The pockets of outages were scattered throughout the county. Duke Energy had close to 200,000 outages over its Carolinas service region early Monday.
Davie County, particularly the Cooleemee area, had numerous outages ó 2,338 late Monday morning.
As of 10:47 a.m., Cabarrus County still had 708 outages among Duke customers; Davidson, 775; Iredell, 7,635 and Stanly, 891.
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.
“That was the perfect way to saturate the soil,” said Station Manager Joe Hampton. He said at least people won’t 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.
Lee Goodnight at L.L. Goodnight & Sons off Saw Road near Enochville measured 4 inches of snow.
Workers with the N.C. Department of Transportation labored through the wee hours Monday 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 Monday.
“We’re starting work on the secondary roads now,” 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. Monday, Thomason said. He said forecasters were predicting a deep freeze Monday night and Tuesday morning, and agreed the result will be plenty of ice on roadways.
There’s 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 Monday night 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.
“The sun is helping out greatly even though we’re not yet above freezing,” Weatherford, the city’s 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. “My days are running together,” a tired Weatherford said Monday morning. “My coffee pot’s just about empty.”
The city crews addressed main arteries and emergency routes first, then pushed into side streets Monday morning.
“The bulk already received one round (from the snow plows),” Weatherford said. “The snow seems to be turning loose pretty good.”
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.
Rowan-Salisbury, Cabarrus County and Kannapolis City schools are closed, as well as the VA Medical Center clinics here and in Charlotte and Winston-Salem.
Few wrecks have been reported, but a tractor-trailer was blocking exit 81, the Spencer exit on I-85. Other incidents seemed to be minor, mostly cars running off the side of the road.
Rowan-Cabarrus Community College canceled classes; staff reports at noon.
Catawba College is closed. The cafeteria will continue to operate under normal hours in the Student Center. The college anticipates reopening at 8 a.m. Tuesday.
All locations of Pfeiffer University are 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 company’s 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 Sheriff’s 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.