Plows keep pushing snow; Bedford County opens shelter

Updated 4:30 p.m.

Bedford County has opened a shelter at Bedford Elementary School for people who’ve lost power.

No pets are allowed and people should bring their own medications, pillow, and blankets.

The shelter will have food, but people should bring snacks if they want them.

The shelter will remain open day to day as necessary.

UPDATED 11:39 A.M.

Lynchburg Public Works crews are beginning the process of plowing neighborhood streets, but many are still covered in hard packed ice with a top coating of fluffy snow.

It's difficult to walk without slipping and nearly impossible to drive on without spinning and sliding.

Main roads, like Timberlake, are mostly clear and drivers have made their way out of residential streets.

Neighbors are starting to venture out of their houses, shoveling drives and helping each other push stuck cars down unplowed roads.

Businesses like McDonalds and the Apple Market on Timberlake are open for those who decided venture out.

The night was relatively quiet in Amherst County, with few weather-related crashes, said Amherst Public Safety Director Gary Roakes.

“We are doing fine,” Roakes said. “Nothing major – just a few minor accidents. Our call volume yesterday was down a little bit.”

A tractor-trailer got stuck on Virginia 60 last night, but otherwise Roakes said people seemed to have stayed home.

Roakes encourages drivers to stay home if at all possible. What little melts today is expected to refreeze overnight and will create black ice on major roadways.

“Try to stay in if possible, but if you do venture out be careful,” Roakes said. “Take it easy and slow.”

UPDATED 10:15 A.M.

Many main roads and streets in Lynchburg had been plowed by 9:30 a.m. this morning as the snow continued to fall.

For example, the Lynchburg Expressway and Timberlake Road were mostly clear. The temperature was hovering around 31 degrees, helping to keep ice from forming in the slush, although temperatures were predicted to drop later this evening.

Along Old Forest Road, private contractors were busy clearing wet snow from parking lots at stores and businesses.

One modern problem: The heavy snow on satellite dishes meant they had to be kept clear too, not only for communication businesses like The News & Advance but also for homeowners who rely on satellite reception for their television service.

UPDATED 8:15 A.M.

Snow is expected to continue to fall lazily over the area throughout the day today with another one to three inches expected before it tapers off around 7 p.m.

The chunky flakes started falling again at 8 a.m. are adding to last week’s snow and Friday's mixture of snow, sleet and freezing rain and turning yards into thick and deep piles of snow.

A few SUVs have ventured out to Timberlake Road by 8 a.m., but many neighborhood streets remain unplowed in the area.

Appalachian Power is reporting outages throughout the Lynchburg area this morning. In Lynchburg, 620 customers are without power, 641 in Amherst County, 1,326 in Bedford County, 1,184 in Campbell County and 168 in Nelson County. Central Virginia Electric Cooperative, which also services Nelson County, reported hundreds of outages there.

About an inch of crunchy snow and ice had fallen since 6 p.m. last night in the area near the Lynchburg airport, on top of what fell earlier Friday and what was left from last weekend's snow.

As of 12:47 a.m., Lynchburg had six inches of accumulation, according to the National Weather Service's latest unofficial figures.

Snow removal crews with the Virginia Department of Transportation worked overnight to clean snow and ice covered primary roads.

The primary and interstates were plowed and treated yesterday, but needed further attention as the temperatures plummeted overnight, according to a VDOT release.

Little progress has been made to clear the secondary roads and neighborhood streets -- most have not been plowed and some still have ice and compacted snow “bonded to the road surface,” the release said.

Complicating matters for VDOT officials are the trees that have snapped and fallen under the weight of the snow and ice.

VDOT officials expect to have many of the secondary roads plowed today, but the continued snowfall may mean they must turn their attentions back to the main roads.

“Motorists are advised to avoid travel if possible Saturday. If travel is absolutely necessary drivers should use extreme caution and allow extra time to reach their destination,” the release advises.

North of Lynchburg, the snowfall has caused more power outages, knocking out 11,000 meters within the Central Virginia Electric Cooperative, an increase of about 6,000 since Friday night.

The outage has affected one in three CVEC-serviced homes and businesses, according to CVEC spokesman Greg Kelly.

Snow and wind continue to drop trees that are rooted in very saturated soil, according to CVEC.

Many outages occurred along the eastern side of the Blue Ridge Mountains from Whitehall south to Nellysford in Nelson County. As of 5 a.m., that total includes 600 meters in the Schuyler substation in Nelson County, according to Kelly.

“While the projected accumulation figures have not been realized in many areas, what has arrived is a heavy, wet snow that adds considerable weight to tree branches, producing significant power outages from downed trees that fall into power lines,” Kelly said in an e-mail.

Restoration will require a “concerted” effort today, he said.

Included in the total number, 1,600 meter outages have occurred in the Whitehall substation in western Albemarle County. More than 3,400 outages are reported in the Cunningham substation in Fluvanna County and 1,500 more in the Kidds Store substation in southern Fluvanna County.

The nonprofit CVEC, based in Colleen in southern Nelson County, has 35,000 members and plans to provide updates all day.

With at least eight inches on the ground in Nelson County, the roads are slick and treacherous, said Ray Uttaro, the county’s emergency services coordinator.

“We had a lot of freezing rain and rain throughout the night which packed everything down overnight," Uttaro said.

Despite the slick conditions, Uttaro said there were only six crashes in the county and all of those were minor.

“I think people were smarter this time than since the last even in December,” he said. “Last night there were very few people traveling."

-- Carrie J. Sidener & Scott Marshall

A car drives down US 221 in the early morning hours of Saturday.

EARLIER:

Winter’s icy fingers tightened their grip on Central Virginia on Friday, as the season’s third major winter storm dumped snow and ice onto roads barely free of last week’s accumulation.

The snow hit Lynchburg about 6 a.m. Friday, part of a system that the National Weather Service in Blacksburg estimated could pile nearly a foot of snow on the Hill City and more on surrounding counties.

The National Weather Service said by early evening Friday, Lynchburg had received about 5 inches of snow. Up to 6 inches more is forecast to fall through today.

In Bedford County, Forest reported 5.5 inches, while Stewartsville reported 8.

Amherst reported 5.5 inches, Appomattox reported 4, and Campbell County had 5.3 inches at Woodlawn.

If snowfall totals reach 9 inches overnight, the 2009-2010 winter would make it into the top 10 snowiest winters in Lynchburg’s recorded history.

Counties to the north prepared for significantly more precipitation, emergency services officials said.

Nelson County Emergency Services Coordinator Ray Uttaro said some areas there could see as much as 28 inches of snow.

“We could be in a little bit of trouble here,” Uttaro said.

Central Virginia drivers suffered a high number of accidents.

Of 557 crashes statewide as of 4:30 p.m., police reported that 123 of those had come from the Appomattox Division, which includes much of the area around Lynchburg.

Towing companies reported a high call volume, related both to accidents and to vehicles sliding off the roads.

Jane Rigney Trent, with Glenn A. Trent towing company, said the majority of the company’s calls for service had been related more to vehicles sliding off the roads rather than for wrecks.

“They’re actually traveling slow enough that they’re not having collisions, but they’re getting stuck in curves and ditches and such,” Trent said.

“It does seem to be more traffic than I had noticed for the last snow,” she said.

Lynchburg Public Works Director Dave Owen said he felt his crews were able to do a good job of clearing city roads through Friday afternoon, but he said Friday evening that sleet and freezing rain were starting to cause problems.

He estimated that by this morning, travel on most city roads would be difficult, and advised not traveling unless absolutely necessary.

GLTC general manager Mike Carroll said Friday afternoon that there would be no bus service today, because of the expected condition of the roads.

At 6:30 p.m. Friday, AEP reported 354 without power in Campbell County and 232 in the dark in Lynchburg.

Greg Kelly, with Central Virginia Electric Cooperative, said Friday evening that about 400 people were without power in Nelson County.

The cold and snowy weather usually leads to more people seeking shelter at the Salvation Army Center of Hope, said Wayne Wade, and administrative assistant.

“As of right now we do see some people who are coming in and getting out of the elements,” he said Friday morning, when snow had been falling for a few hours. “We’re going to have a flux of people coming in once the weather gets bad and the snow gets deeper.”

If the area loses power, the Salvation Army’s building, powered by a generator, could be used as a shelter, he said.

-- Dave Thompson. Staff writer Bryan Gentry contributed to this report.