On the Road

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Storm Updates, Saturday

Feb. 6, 2010 9:43 am

1:30 p.m. --

Spotsylvania County is opening an emergency shelter. It is located at Thornburg Middle School, which is at 6929 Roxbury Mill Road.

The shelter will be operated by the American Red Cross. Basic food, water and medical assistance will be provided, but county officials ask residents to bring their personal medication, personal hygiene products, and bedding or sleeping bags if possible. No pets can be accomodated.

12:45 p.m. --

Good afternoon! We're still getting lots of reports of downed trees. If you spot a downed tree that affects the road, call the non-emergency police department phone number in your area. If the downed tree is affecting a power line, call your power company.

Those phone numbers again are:

The power company phone numbers are:

Dominion Virginia Power: 888-667-3000

Northern Neck Electric Cooperative: 800-243-2860

Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative: 888-335-0500

Rappahannock Electric Cooperative: 800-552-3904

Also, several power companies maintain online maps of reported power outages. If you have power and can read this, you can visit those maps here:

Dominion Virginia Power

Rappahannock Electric Cooperative

Northern Neck Electric Cooperative

At noon today, the Virginia Department of Transportation reported moderate to severe road conditions in the Fredericksburg and Caroline County area, as well as the northern portion of the Northern Neck.

Your odds of getting a perfectly dry street in time for the Super Bowl: Not good.

“If you’re expecting a lot of folks for your Super Bowl party, they should not expect their road to be cleared by Super Bowl time,” said VDOT spokeswoman Tina Bundy.

Today, with snow still frantically falling across the Fredericksburg area until sunset, VDOT’s focus is keeping Interstate 95 open. VDOT is also plowing the bulk of the snow off primary roads, like State Route 3, U.S. 1 and U.S. 17. “That’s the focus and that’s where we’ll be throughout the day and into the nighttime hours,” Bundy said.

On Interstate 95, salt and sand has been distributed to provide traction, and to turn the snow to slush, which makes it easier to remove.

Plow trains are clearing Interstate 95. Three staggered plows each clear one lane, pushing the excess snow from the travel lanes.

VDOT continues to ask the public to stay home unless it’s an emergency. So far, residents have heeded this advice, Bundy said, giving crews lots of open lane space to work. “I just can’t say enough about how we appreciate that motorists are taking the advice of VDOT and emergency management, VDEM, to stay home if at all possible,” Bundy said.

Once the snow tapers off, and VDOT can make progress keeping I-95 and the primary roads clear, it can move onto secondary roads and neighborhoods.
 
Still, it could take awhile before roads are completely dry and snow-free. “We’ll do what we can to get the surface snow off and put down some abrasives for traction, but it will be several days before they see bare pavement in a subdivision,” Bundy said.

Noon --

The City of Fredericksburg has a shelter stocked and ready to open, if needed, at James Monroe High School.

However, no one has contacted the city yet and expressed a need for shelter, said Fredericksburg Police Department spokeswoman Natatia Bledsoe.

If a city resident needs emergency shelter, they should call the non-emergency police department at 540-372-3122. 

In Stafford, two emergency shelters are open and staffed. One shelter is at North Stafford High School, and the other is at Stafford High School.

So far, Stafford's emergency operations center reports no one is using either shelter yet.

If a Stafford County resident is having trouble reaching one of the shelters, they can call the non-emergency police dispatch number at 658-4440 to arrange transportation.

11 a.m. --

Do you have a downed tree, or a tree that's about to fall?

If the tree is blocking a road, the Virginia Department of Transportation recommends calling the non-emergency phone number of your local sheriff's office or law enforcement agency.

If the tree has crashed into a power line, call your power company's customer service line.

The power company phone numbers are:

Dominion Virginia Power: 888-667-3000

Northern Neck Electric Cooperative: 800-243-2860

Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative: 888-335-0500

Rappahannock Electric Cooperative: 800-552-3904

10:30 a.m. --

The City of Fredericksburg has issued an update on city road conditions and snow removal. I've included it, exactly as written, below:

"Public Works crews continued plowing operations on arterial streets through the night and contractors cleared median crossovers and intersections on these same streets. Main streets still have a layer of snow on them, but are passable. Additional contracted resources have been mobilized. Most collector streets have been plowed at least once, but most low traffic volume residential streets have not yet been plowed. As snowfall moderates and eventually stops, crews will be able to get into the neighborhoods. Efforts later in the day will be focused on getting loose snow off main roads before temperatures drop this evening.

Several calls have been received related to downed trees and power outages and these types of calls are expected to continue to increase throughout the day. Fredericksburg Fire Department crews are responding to these calls.

Motorists are urged to avoid non-essential travel. Those who must travel on City streets are urged to allow significant additional time to reach their destination, to give snow plows and other snow removal equipment significant room to maneuver and to watch for pedestrians walking in the street.

Residents clearing their driveways and on street parking spaces are urged to throw the snow away from the street rather than into it and to place snow “downstream” related to traffic flow, so that the same snow will not be plowed back into the parking space or driveway entrance.

The next update will be issued and posted on the City’s website (www.fredericksburgva.gov ) at approximately 8:00 PM today (Saturday)."

10:10 a.m. --

Doug Boggs, Spotsylvania County Fire and Rescue Division Chief, and the county's emergency services coordinator, reported about 4,000 Rappahannock Electric Cooperative customers are without power in Spotsylvania. “They’re looking to have them back on by tomorrow,” Boggs said.

Any vehicle accidents in Spotsylvania have been minor, he said, and emergency vehicles have been able to navigate the roads without difficulty.
“Luckily, the bulk of the snow missed us. It went more north,” Boggs said. “It looks like Northern Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley’s up in the 20-inches. They’re looking at maybe another 4 to 6 here, ending by 7 p.m.”

Spotsylvania County has made preparations to open an emergency shelter, if needed, at a local middle school. “It’s already set and ready to go,” Boggs said.

Boggs echoed VDOT’s call for motorists to stay home today. “If you don’t have to go out, don’t. Let VDOT get the roads open, and that way you’re not endangering yourself and others.”

9 a.m. --

The National Weather Service had only one snowfall total for the Fredericksburg area when I called this morning for a report: 11 inches near Heflin Road in Stafford, as of 6 a.m. today.
“It’s not over yet,” said National Weather Service spokesman Calvin Meadows.
Today, blowing snow will bring another 4 to 8 inches of accumulation, Meadows said. The high temperature will be near 29 degrees with wind gusts of 17 to 20 mph.

The Virginia Department of Transportation asks the public to stay off the roads again Saturday. Heavy snow, low driver visibility, and the danger of falling trees and tree limbs will combine to make travel hazardous, the agency said in a statement.

Road conditions are severe to moderate on Interstate 95, primary roads, secondary roads and subdivision streets in the Fredericksburg, Caroline County and Northern Neck areas, according to a VDOT statement issued at 5 a.m. Saturday. “Severe” and “moderate” road conditions mean “that there is a significant amount of accumulated snow on the roadway and conditions are hazardous,” the statement read.

Power outages were reported across the Fredericksburg area this morning.
In Stafford, about 3,000 customers lost power for 30 minutes overnight, but service was quickly restored, said Andrew Milliken, Stafford County Fire and Rescue division chief, and this weekend’s planning director.
Several hundred Stafford customers still lacked power around 8:30 a.m. Saturday.
In the Widewater area, about 125 customers are without power, and 142 customers lack power in the Falmouth area, Milliken said.
The rest are scattered county-wide. “Not more than five or so in one general spot,” Milliken said.
But as the snow keeps falling, there could be new outages, he said.
“There is significant potential for an increase in outages throughout the day,  with the increase in wind and weight on the trees. We feel it’s just a matter of time here before we get some more,” Milliken said.

Rappahannock Electric Cooperative reported about 17,000 outages, with the majority west of Interstate 95 in Culpeper, Madison, Fauquier, Louisa, Orange and Spotsylvania counties.
Also, according to a Dominion Virginia Power online map of outages, there were multiple clusters of 1-50 households without power in Fredericksburg, King George and Spotsylvania.
Northern Neck Electric Cooperative reported one outage in King George, and six outages in Westmoreland.

Overnight and early morning reports of traffic crashes were minimal in the Fredericksburg area.
In Stafford, between midnight and 8 a.m. Saturday, rescue officials responded to around a dozen calls for vehicle crashes, all minor, Milliken said.
“It’s been a very light call load in general. Most people since midnight have been home and have not been out and about. That’s been very helpful, helpful to VDOT as well as our crews,” he said. 
In Fredericksburg, city police responded to six vehicle crashes during the day Friday, but after that, there were no reported accidents from 9 p.m. Friday through Saturday morning at 9, said Fredericksburg Police Department spokeswoman Natatia Bledsoe. “What that means is people are staying off the road, which is great. That’s what we want them to do,” Bledsoe said.
City police encourage people to continue the trend. “We want people to stay inside today,” Bledsoe said.

The Virginia State Police are fielding quite a few calls statewide. Between midnight and 10 p.m. Friday. they responded to 2,286 calls for service. Of those calls, 1,076 were for traffic crashes, and another 766 were for disabled vehicles. Two men were killed Friday morning in a weather-related crash on Interstate 81.