UPDATE: Snow plows still digging out Lynchburg's neighborhood roads

UPDATE 2:49 p.m.

Since early today, about 40 snow plows have been digging out neighborhood roads across the city. While most of the major arteries are plowed and passable, some side streets will remain blanketed in snow until tomorrow, said Lynchburg Public Works Director Dave Owens just after 2 p.m.

“We’ve been making slow progress,” Owens said.

“We’ll continue working on residentials until we get them all, but realistically it will be at least tomorrow until we get to them all.”

With temperatures expected to drop below freezing tonight, Owens cautions motorists to slow down and expect icy conditions tonight and Monday morning.

Road conditions varied throughout Lynchburg, Chesterfield Road was plowed for the second time, for example, around 2 p.m. However, Graves Mill Road and U.S. 501 North toward Boonsboro, as well as portions of Boonsboro Road, remained caked with ice and snow this afternoon.

While these roads had apparently been plowed several times, the heavy traffic late Friday as the snow was falling likely packed the snow, making it difficult to remove and slower to melt.

One driver, who apparently abandoned a car during the heavy snow late Friday on U.S. 501 North, took the precaution of raising the windshield wipers. Stuck wipers will be the least of the problems when the driver returns, because the entire car is now nearly submerged beneath plowed snow and ice.

South of the city, heading toward Altavista on U.S. 29, the lesser amounts of snowfall were obvious and south of Altavista, the road was not only clear but also dry by noon Sunday.

Traffic was heavy on Wards Road near the Wards Crossing shopping areas as city residents apparently made up for lost shopping time on Saturday.

Bedford is showing signs of thawing.

The Wal-Mart on U.S. 460 was crowded this afternoon with huge mounds of snow piled within the parking lot.

The Huddle House, a diner that serves breakfast within the shopping center, was fully packed with cars.

Conditions on Burks Hill Road - a connector of National D-Day Memorial and Smith Mountain Lake-bound traffic - were much improved from Saturday night.

Winds were causing snow to blow off the tops of gas tanks visible from U.S. 460 in Montvale about 10 miles west of the city.

Though some cars were abandoned, there were no major signs of wrecks from the city west to the county line on U.S. 460 heading to Roanoke.

And U.S. 29 has been reopened in both directions from the Nelson County line to the Interstate 64 interchange in Albemarle County, VDOT announced at 2:30 p.m.

Crews contended with about 200 vehicles abandoned at the height of the storm and cautioned that some areas remain slick and that ice patches still are being plowed and sprayed with salt.

As of 2:30 PM, Central Virginia Electric Cooperative crews had restored service to all but 64 homes and businesses in Nelson County, from a total of 1,958 customers at the height of the storm.

UPDATE:2:00 p.m.

U.S. 29 remains closed in both directions from the Nelson County line to the Intertate 64 interchange in Albemarle County, said VDOT spokeswoman Britt Drewes.

About 200 vehicles, ranging from big rigs to passenger cars, were abandoned at the height of the storm, she said.

As of this afternoon, workers did not know when the road would be clear, Drewes said.

Road conditions had improved significantly by this afternoon.

"This was the best of the three days so far," she said. "Everybody's tired, but things are going smoothly and conditions are improving."

UPDATE:1:30 p.m.

According to a press release from Lynchburg City Schools, school will be closed for all staff except custodial and grounds staff Monday.

Custodial and grounds staffs are to report to their buildings to clear sidewalks and parking lots.

UPDATE:12:40 p.m.
A major water line break occurred on the water system which supplies water to the City of Bedford. Although the break was repaired early today, water tanks and lines were drained. This has resulted in the continued low water pressure that most customers are experiencing.

The water levels in the tanks should reach normal levels by late afternoon Sunday which will provide a gradual improvement in water pressure.

UPDATE:11 a.m

AAA Mid-Atlantic had temporarily suspended residential roadside assistance calls, but announced at 11 a.m. that it had resumed service, but only under certain conditions.

Drivers will use their discretion when attempting to reach calls. Service will be provided only if the roads leading to the call have been plowed, and the caller's driveway must be clear to receive service.

Service will not be provided for vehicles stuck in driveways that aren't plowed or cleared. Priority still is being given to calls from motorists on major or primary roads.

Roadside assistance calls in the Virginia and Washington, D.C., region are running 49 percent above normal. As of 9 p.m. Saturday, AAA had taken 12,700 calls compared to an average of about 8,500 for this time of year. The higher call volume is expected to continue today and into the work week in the final days before Christmas.

Earlier
By 7 a.m. Saturday, this weekend’s snow already was one for the record books. The National Weather Service reported 11.6 inches of snow at Lynchburg Regional Airport in the 24 hours from 7 a.m. Friday — enough to make it the snowiest 24-hour total in December ever in the Hill City.

And the snow kept falling past midday; at 7 p.m. Saturday, the weather service in Blacksburg reported 12.5 inches of total snowfall in Lynchburg. Other areas saw even more snow, up to 17 inches in Amherst and 16 inches in Forest, from the storm that is barreling up the East Coast dumping snow from North Carolina to New York.

While plows were out in force across Central Virginia, they had trouble keeping the roads clear.

By Saturday evening, most primary roads were passable, but secondary roads were less vehicle-friendly, while neighborhood streets in most areas hadn’t seen a plow all day.

Officials urged extreme caution for this morning, when roads were expected to be icy from overnight lows in the low 20s. Most churches canceled services for today.

State police said that despite the hundreds of crashes to which troopers had responded since Friday afternoon, only one had been fatal — a wreck in Carroll County on U.S. 664.

Around Lynchburg, most drivers heeded officials’ advice to stay off the roads on Saturday, and many of the vehicles that could be seen traversing the slippery roads were SUVs and pickup trucks.

By 2 p.m., SUVs were braving Rivermont Avenue, but snowplows still hadn’t cleared the deeply piled side streets in the city.

That didn’t keep Bob Armock and Alice Austin off the roads in their Rivermont neighborhood.

The Lansing, Mich., natives strapped on cross-country skis and shushed through the streets with their ice-crusted dog in tow.

After 10 years in Lynchburg, the two said they were surprised to see so much snowfall.

“This is more than I’ve seen at home, actually,” Armock said.

Others found enterprise in the weather. Robert Decker, who lives on Bethel Church Road in Campbell County, was making his way down the streets of the nearby Wildwood subdivision on his Kawasaki four-wheeler on Saturday morning, with a snow blade attached to the front, enjoying the weather and looking for some driveway-plowing business.

He said he had been out on U.S. 460 at about 9:30 or so that morning. “It was just me and the snow plows,“ he said, noting that the highway still had plenty of snow on it, too.

At River Ridge mall, despite the holiday shopping season being in full swing, many of the stores opted not to open on Saturday.

Around 1 p.m., the parking lots were largely empty, though snow plows continued to clear the lots and the road around them.

Only a handful of customers trickled through the mall, visiting the shops that had opted to open, and perusing whatever kiosks were manned.

Randy Farnsworth came with his children, 5-year-old Jason and 2-year-old Rachel, who gave their Christmas wishes to Santa Claus as Farnsworth waited to finish his Christmas shopping.

“We lived in Cleveland for 10 years, so this is nothing,” Farnsworth said.

“There, if you didn’t go out when it snowed, you wouldn’t go out six months out of the year.”

Farnsworth, who lives in the Waterlick Road area, said he didn’t have any difficulty making it across the roads that proved a hassle for plenty of drivers.

“Push the four-wheel-drive button, then you go,” he said.

Despite the heavy snow, most areas around Lynchburg did not experience power outages. In Amherst County, amid the higher snowfalls, more than 1,000 were without power at 6 p.m. Saturday, Appalachian Power reported. Another 138 outages where reported in Bedford County.

Lynchburg Public Works Director Dave Owen said by Saturday afternoon, crews had been able to plow all the city’s primary and secondary roads, but said he had no timetable as to when neighborhood roads would get plowed.

“Right now the primaries and secondaries are passable,” he said.

“We started on residentials around four this afternoon, but it’s going to take a long process to get to all of them.”

Owen urged those who did not need to leave their houses to stay put, rather than risking vehicle damage or injuries in attempting to navigate the snow drifts.

“We’re working around the clock to get all the residential streets open,” he said.