Snowstorm slams Mountain Empire

BRISTOL, Va. – Terry Addison has watched snow storms drift across the Tri-Cities in recent years, but until Friday he never felt the need for a snow shovel.

Shopping in advance of a fierce winter storm that dumped heavy snow across much of the Mountain Empire, Addison and many others descended on the Lowe’s home improvement store near Interstate 81’s Exit 7.

The Abingdon, Va., resident used his lunch break to purchase the shovel and he marveled at the customers who flocked around the display for gas-powered heaters.
“This is the first real bad snow they’ve reported in a long time,” Addison said.

Forecasts called for as much as 8 inches of snow to blanket the Tri-Cities through tonight, with up to a foot of snow in the higher elevations.

The storm that dumped about 4 to 6 inches of snow on the Tri-Cities Friday afternoon and evening is expected to generate an additional 1 to 2 inches before moving eastward, according to forecaster Tim Doyle with the National Weather Service office in Morristown, Tenn.

“East of us, in the mountains and the Interstate 81 corridor, it’s going to be really bad,” 11 Connects Chief Meteorologist Mark Reynolds said. “I wouldn’t recommend anyone going anywhere through I-81.”

Reynolds said the snow, expected to fall non-stop until tonight, will be the wet and heavy kind that weighs down trees and power lines.

Appalachian Power Vice President Phil Wright said in a news release Friday that such snow is dangerous to any power grid.

“Wet, heavy snow is one of the most damaging weather events for our electric system, because its weight brings down trees and power lines, and covered or closed roads slow our ability to get to the damaged poles, transformers and wires,” he said in the statement.

Dire predictions convinced Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine to declare a state of emergency by mid-afternoon Friday, just as the snowstorm hit the Tri-Cities region.

“The snowfall amounts, along with strong winds, could cause serious problems, including power outages, throughout much of Virginia,” Kaine said. “Virginians need to pay attentions to their local weather forecasters, avoid travel and prepare to be on their own for up to 72 hours.”

Though the snowfall is expected to end tonight, another storm is predicted to cross into the region early Sunday and bring light snow.

Initially, the storm blew in from the south late Friday morning with cold rain showers that turned to snow just before 2 p.m. An hour later, flakes began to pile up on cars and roads.

Before 3 p.m., Virginia State Police emergency dispatchers reported more than a dozen accidents along the stretch of I-81 between Abingdon and Bristol.

“We’ve got wrecks, we’ve got people pulled over on the sides of the road, we’ve got people calling in for help,” said a dispatcher too busy to provide her name.

In the first two hours of snowfall, Virginia State Police troopers responded to more than 160 crashes throughout Southwest Virginia and around Roanoke, the Associated Press reported. Most wrecks included vehicle damage, but no injuries.

A day before the storm arrived, news of its approach jolted Tennessee Department of Transportation crews into overdrive, spokesman Travis Brickey said Friday.

“We pretreated the entire [East Tennessee] system Thursday because they were forecasting possible icy spots Friday morning,” Brickey said. “Our crews are working and will continue working until the event is over.”

Work began Friday morning along Interstate 26 in Unicoi County. The route will receive extra attention because of higher traffic volumes since Interstate 40 remains closed near the Tennessee-North Carolina line.

Last week, maintenance crews with the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office began inspecting the department’s 10 four-wheel-drive vehicles, which usually remain parked and out of service until bad weather hits.

“As we receive these winter weather advisories we start to double-check,” Capt. Keith Elton said.

Across the state border, Virginia Department of Transportation crews experimented with a pretreatment process on U.S. Highways 23 and 58 in Wise County, spokeswoman Michelle Earl said. Usually, VDOT does not pretreat roads, but waits until after snow has landed to salt and plow the byways.

VDOT trucks were seen scraping roads and spreading salt Friday afternoon.

“We have a full staff and are working 12-hour shifts until the storm is over,” Earl said. “Our plan is to have all routes cleared within 48 hours of the storm ending.”
Just as road crews began to prepare for the worst, so did TriCities residents.

On Thursday night, customers began snapping up milk, flour and canned vegetables at the Food Country USA store on state Route 394 near Blountville, Tenn., Manager Charles May said.

“We’ve sold about a ton of canned vegetables, literally,” he said. “We’ve literally sold pallets of them.”

About the same time – at the Lowe’s in Bristol, Va. – customers focused on the display of snow shovels, Human Resources Manager Rhonda Montgomery said.
By Friday morning, quickly vanishing supplies of shovels and bags of salt forced store managers to call in more stock from local vendors.

“Customers went through a case of snow shovels before we got the snow shovel display set up,” Montgomery said.

By noon, customers milled around a fresh stock of snow shovels, ergonomic snow shovels, 40-pound bags of salt, power generators and gas-powered space heaters.

With the recent wind storm in mind, Marion, Va., couple Brenda and T.J. Rowland were at Lowe’s comparing prices on a power generator for their son, who lives in Chilhowie, Va.

“Our son lives in a neighborhood that, for some reason, is often without power,” Brenda Rowland said.

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