By Jesse Wood
The weather has settled down, and life is almost back to normal for folks in the High Country.
While public schools are closed on Monday, college students were lined up at the AppalCART stops in the morning, eager (or perhaps not) for a.m. classes on the campus of Appalachian State University.
Although the storm didn’t blanket the High Country with as much snow as initially projected (before revised forecasts came in as the storm grew nearer), it was still a storm worthy of staying off the roads – unless there was an emergency or you were dying to go skiing or snowboarding or snow tubing.
The main roads were completely snow covered. The NCDOT – with help from the sun on Sunday – has since cleared many of the roads in the High Country, however gravel roads and secondary roads are still sketchy.
Here are some of the top snow totals that don’t include the 2 to 4 inches that fell on Wednesday – prior to the storm that started on Thursday night and concluded late on Saturday, courtesy RaysWeather.com:
- Sugar Grove – 23 inches
- Todd – 23 inches
- Beech Mountain – 12 to 19 inches
- Boone – 10 to 19 inches
- Elk Park – 18 inches
- Howards Creek – 18 inches
- Seven Devils – 15 to 18 inches
See more totals below:
Watauga County Fire Marshal and Emergency Management Coordinator Steve Sudderth said that weekend went as well as anyone could have hoped and he commended the NCDOT, local fire departments, law enforcement and EMS, and Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation and New River Light & Power for restoring spot outages as quickly as possible.
Sudderth also said that the two Red Cross shelters that opened in Boone and Deep Gap on Friday morning remained on standby throughout the weekend, pre-positioned with supplies just in case issues were to later arise.
“It went exceptionally well,” Sudderth said. “Everybody stepped up their game and it just went very well smoothly.”
He also tipped his cap to the general public for staying off the road for the most part on Friday and Saturday during the storm’s peak.
Now that the storm is over, the National Weather Service has issued a “special weather statement” in the aftermath because o f the potential for black ice on Monday and Tuesday mornings.
“Untreated roads and sidewalks may have a thin layer of ice and be very slippery. When traveling this morning be alert for slick spots. Any surfaces that appear to be wet may be frozen and slick. Temperatures will warm back up above freezing around noon,” the advisory reads.
This warning expires on Tuesday evening.
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