Tuesday’s icy storm forces cancellations, troublesome cleanup
1
2
3
4
5
6
The difference between last week's snowstorm that dumped record amounts across the Valley and Tuesday's storm - besides sheer volume of snow - is the ice. And that makes all the difference.
It is the threat of the slippery substance that brings people out of their homes to stock up on supplies, said Big E's Supermarket owner Michael Superson, who was himself out shoveling the parking lot throughout the day Tuesday.
"People are more wary of ice than snow," said Superson, who was wearing a light blue fleece hat and winter gloves and bracing himself against the cold outside his store. "This is a tough storm because of the sleet."
The mix of snow in the morning - about 4 inches fell, according to the National Weather Service - followed by sleet and freezing rain throughout the afternoon and evening created treacherous road conditions and slow driving. But police throughout Hampshire County reported few evening accidents as people stayed off the slick roadways. Those who did have to drive kept to slow speeds.
In addition to schools, the nasty road conditions spurred the closure at midday of the University of Massachusetts, while Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton closed some of its outpatient services in Amherst, Easthampton, Hadley, South Hadley, South Deerfield and Northampton.
Easthampton's Mountain Road was closed. Town offices in Amherst closed at 1 p.m. and public meetings scheduled for Tuesday night were postponed.
Officials said the cancellations made for relatively light traffic, which helped ease the cleanup effort.
"A lot of people stayed home. That helped us a lot," said Trooper William Loiselle of the state police in Northampton.
By 8 p.m., Loiselle said, Interstate 91 was mostly wet from rain, although he and other officers cautioned that side roads remained icy and tough to drive on.
"The roads are covered in ice, but so far people are driving all right," said Trooper John Lione of the Belchertown barracks.
Earlier in the day, however, troopers responded to five accidents and several cars off the road along I-91 in both directions near the Northampton and Hatfield exits. No injuries were associated with the accidents, police said.
Northampton, Hadley and Granby police each reported a few minor incidents of cars sliding off the road, but traffic was otherwise minimal. Police in other communities reported no incidents in the evening, with two giving credit to public works officials for keeping on top of the storm.
Tuesday's icy blast also closed hundreds of schools and delayed or canceled flights throughout the region.
More than 400 flights were canceled at New York's three main airports, most of them at Newark (N.J.) Liberty International, where Continental Airlines halted flights because of freezing rain and snow. New York's LaGuardia Airport reported hour-and-a-half delays on arriving flights in the late morning.
Boston's Logan International kept its runways clear and open, but outgoing flights to several other cities affected by the storm were delayed.
Residents looking for a break in the weather won't get much of one, as another batch of snow is expected to arrive on Friday. That snow will be followed by frigid temperatures over the weekend, with nighttime lows below zero.
On Tuesday, rain, sleet, and ice made roads and sidewalks difficult for commuters and pedestrians, and no easy feat for road crews clearing the streets around the region.
Leverett Police Chief Gary Billings had one word for road conditions: "treacherous." The strategy in many communities was to stay ahead of the weather.
"We're trying to keep on top of it because we're supposed to get freezing rain tonight," Goshen Highway Superintendent Joel Lagergren said at noon Tuesday.
While the service warned that heavy snow and ice could bring down large tree limbs and possibly cause power outages, few people lost power in Hampshire County Tuesday night, according to the two power companies that serve the area.
National Grid and Western Massachusetts Electric Co. geared up in advance for the storm, bringing in additional crews to key areas of its service territories including the western part of the state.
National Grid had 350 crews on duty throughout the state.
Following the ice storm of December 2008 - which knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of Bay State residents - WMECO reviewed and updated its communications protocols, for towns and residents alike, spokeswoman Sandra Ahearn said.
"There were lessons learned," Ahearn said. "We now have automatic messages that go out, alerting them to the fact that we have opened our storm rooms. And, there's a number that the municipalities can call and get specific updates on their situation."
She said WMECO is now using Twitter and Facebook accounts to get outbound messages to customers on outages, safety tips and power restoration projections.
As Easthampton's sole supermarket, Big E's saw a heavy rush Monday night as residents prepared to be snowed or iced in Tuesday and possibly even today.
Superson said the supermarket sold large quantities of milk, eggs, juice and other types of foods.
It was a similar rush to the one that occurred before last week's notable snowstorm, but not quite as busy.
"It wasn't quite as crazy as last week's storm," Superson said.
Tuesday's snow and ice mix meant also meant steady business for Manchester Hardware on Union Street, store manager Casey Wright reported Tuesday.
Wright said the ice and snow mix meant his customers would have greater need of products they did not need last week.
"We plan for it," Wright said. "We started thinking about this storm last week."
Items packed on the store's shelves Tuesday included various types of rock salt and ice melt, roof rakes and "Stabilicizers" - special rubber shoes with metal spikes that slip over boot soles to provide more traction when walking on ice.
Roof rakes, which are 16 to 21 feet in length, are important for this type of storm, Wright said, because ice weighs down the snow on roofs, creating the potential for damage.
In front of the store, leaned against the window, 10 different kinds of shovels, some with steel edges to deal with the ice, awaited customers. Wright said the store has sold several snowblowers since last week.
"There's been significant volume," he said. "With the season ending lightly last year, people are really starting to take it serious."
Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.
