Chattanooga-area businesses struggled to maintain staffing levels Tuesday, with many opening late and allowing employees to leave early to compensate for snow and slush-covered roads in residential areas.
Companies encouraged workers to come in if they were able to safely drive, though many employees were still unable to do so.
BlueCross BlueShield, Cigna and Unum pushed back the start of business to 10 a.m., the companies said, and many employees were still unable to make it to work despite the fact that interstate highways and arterial roads were mostly clear.
"We're guessing 30 percent to 40 percent of our folks made it in today, and we are planning another check of the roads very early tomorrow morning to see what the weather brings for the Wednesday commute," said Unum spokeswoman Mary Fortune on Tuesday.
Unum's call center released employees three hours early so they could get home before roads froze, Fortune added.
Cigna spokeswoman Judy Hartling said Tuesday the company was redirecting calls to other Cigna locations and to employees who work from home. Cigna added personnel to call centers in other locations to handle the increase in traffic, Hartling said.
A number of flights at the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport were canceled Tuesday, some were delayed and a few arrived with only minimal delays, yielding a mixed bag of good news and bad news for travelers, according to Christina Siebold, airport spokeswoman.
"It can partially be explained by the movement of the weather system," Siebold said. "As the storm system continues to move, it will hit other cities, and that will cause delays."
The Volkswagen plant was not operating at full capacity Monday, officials said. But the plant continued to operate normally on Tuesday with a reduced work force, officials said.
Everything was back to normal at U.S. Xpress, spokesman Greg Thompson said Tuesday, though some employees stayed in hotels, and the company continued to use four-wheel drive vehicles to fetch some employees for work.