The snow and sleet mixture was expected to accumulate to several increases in area communities by this morning and it’s not expected to disappear for several days, according to the National Weather Service in Wilmington.
“I think the snow will gradually taper off into the morning hours and conditions should improve,” Meteorologist Jim Lott said. “It still will be cold (Friday).”
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
He said it was expected to be about 15 degrees outside at 8 a.m.
Most schools and universities cancelled school today early on Thursday due to the expected snow fall and frigid temperatures.
City and county officials said snow crews were having a tough time keeping ahead of the weather mixture later Thursday and it made for treacherous conditions on highways and roadways.
There were crashes on I-75 and I-70 that closed lanes for several hours. Also, the weather damaged a utility pole in Kettering which resulted in more than 1,000 customers losing power for part of the day.
“Most of the roads including the state highways are covered in snow,” Montgomery County Engineer Paul Gruner said late Thursday afternoon. “We hope we can get it pretty well cleaned up by tomorrow during the day. Depending on how much snow we get.”
The engineer’s office had 20 crews clearing the roads.
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
Officials continued to warn residents to stay home and off the roads Friday unless absolutely necessary. They asked if anyone has to drive, that they use caution and give plenty of space for plow trucks to operate
Dayton Public Works Director Fred Stovall said his office had trucks out plowing roads starting at 3 a.m.
“Right now we plan to work around the clock through Saturday, maybe even Sunday depending on what the snowfall is going to bring,” he said.
He said a primary concern was to break up sleet and lay down treatment before the snow fell to prevent issues in the future. The city described most of the major roads in Dayton as “passable.”
Stovall said clearing the roads is an important task for a lot of reasons including public safety.
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
“We want to get treatment down especially for our emergency vehicles and people who really really need to get out,” he said.
While crews worked on the roads, AES crews worked on a utility pole that was damaged because of the winter weather.
Nearly 1,300 AES Ohio customers were without power in Kettering Thursday afternoon after the company announced a scheduled outage to fix a damaged utility pole.
Icing and freezing from the winter storm damaged a cross-arm on a utility pole that is associated with two main power lines, a spokeswoman said. The impacted areas were between Dorothy Lane and Stroop Road and east of Ackerman Boulevard to Shroyer Road, according to the City of Kettering.
The outage was expected to last about 2 hours.
AES Ohio was reporting 2,504 total outages as of 3:30 p.m. Thursday. In addition to Montgomery County, there were 531 in Darke County and 357 in Greene County.
How to help with snow removal
With snow and ice anticipated in the forecast, salt truck drivers do require the public’s assistance to help crews be more efficient.
Here are some ways to help keep the salt truck drivers and motorists safe:
- Move all vehicles from the street if possible to ensure drivers can clear the snow from the roads more efficiently.
- When using a snowblower or shoveling a driveway, DO NOT put the snow into the street, especially after a salt truck has plowed the road.
- The snow has to go off to the side of the road or into the right of way area, which includes driveway aprons. To save some work, wait until the driver has finished plowing the street. Then shovel the driveway apron. (NOTE: the goal is to clear the street from curb to curb.)
- Do not try to pass a snowplow or salt truck. Motorists should stay 100 feet back from salt trucks.
- Every truck has blind spots, so don’t assume the driver can see all vehicles behind them. Do not pull up behind a salt truck, and stay 100 feet back.
- Roads are plowed by priority. Requests are not taken for specific streets to be plowed.
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