Friday’s weather forces school, government and business closings throughout Clay and surrounding counties
Like many young people in Clay County Audrey Moore waste no time looking for snowball targets.
By Lorrie Ross
Staff Writer
From a few inches of snow to several inches of the white stuff, Winter Storm Blair brought Clay County residents a snowfall on Friday, Jan. 10, which lingered well into the next week in many places. According to historical data found at: www.localconditions.com, at least one area of Clay County had 13.5 inches of snow. The data does not indicate where in the county that amount fell.
Because air temps had been below freezing for several days prior, the snow began accumulating right away once it started early Friday and temperatures began falling early in the day, as well. The same website said the high temperature for the day was 32 degrees which fell quickly to a low of 21 degrees, followed by some even colder nights.
Meanwhile, media messages were shared encouraging people to stay off roads due to hazardous conditions. Lieutenant Bruce Moore, of the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, said their office had some road-related calls. “The sheriff's office did respond to some traffic related problems and assisted the North Carolina State Highway Patrol with traffic control during the winter weather we experienced,” Moore explained. “Our main goal during the storm was to stay in a centralized location so we could respond to any calls for service as quickly as possible without having to unnecessarily put our vehicles on back roads. We never want to create a new issue for someone else to have to deal with since you never know when someone else will need help.”
Moore added, “Anytime roads conditions are poor, response times will be dramatically increased.”
In addition, the county issued several warnings asking people not to call 911 for road conditions. 911 is only to be used for emergency calls, the reminder said, which echoed what Moore said about response times already being slower. When people call 911 for road conditions, it decreases the response time for emergency calls. Instead, people should call 511 or check snow, ice and other road conditions at: https://drivenc.gov.
For many people, the snow provided an opportunity to have some outdoor fun. Social media was filled with pictures of snowmen, snow angels, kids and pets in the snow and grownups playing. As of Wednesday, Jan. 15, Clay County Schools were still closed due to snow and ice on many secondary roads.
At least families at home have power. BRMEMC’s Manager of Media and Communications, Kelly Crawford, said there were few problems for the company, which has customers in five counties across western North Carolina and north Georgia.
“BRMEMC had minimal outages for a weather event like we had this past weekend. We were very lucky. We had less than 150 members out of power during the entire winter event of Friday and Saturday,” she said. “The snow was lighter than if it were a heavier and wetter snow and therefore didn’t sit so heavy on tree branches that would cause snapping of limbs and breaking of trees.”
Crawford did not have a report on total power used during the storm, but felt it was not as much as some cold weather events. “The winter snow event itself was less impactful than the colder days prior to and after the event,” she added. “Some of the larger businesses, industries and schools were closed and that reduces the demand.”
Crawford said the power cooperative has been working to decrease local power outage issues. “We continue making improvements in the rights of way throughout our system,” she said.
She ended with this advice. “Just a reminder that storm preparedness ahead of time from our members is always encouraged and eases the burden if the power does go out. Here is an article for reference: https://www.brmemc.com/power-outage-preparedness/”
At press time, frigid temps were predicted for the start of the Martin Luther King holiday week, with a possibility of more snow.