Staff photo by Dan Henry/Chattanooga Times Free Press – December 13, 2010. Josiah Brower, 9, performs an Indi-grab while jumping his snowboard at the Lookout Mountain Golf Club.Pieces of salt and sand blew across the nearly empty roads in Chattanooga during normal rush hours Monday, as the few area residents who braved the weather clung to their scarves and hunched over trying to escape the bone-chilling wind.
Chattanooga area residents largely escaped any serious problems from the blasts of ice and 1 to 4 inches of snow that swept through Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia on Sunday night, closing roads and canceling classes across the area.
But forecasters fear that the Scenic City’s first taste of winter isn’t over as freezing rain moves into the area.
“Freezing rain could be rough until Thursday, especially bridges and overpasses, secondary roads,” said Frank Ferrell, a National Weather Service forecaster in Morristown, Tenn.
A mix of freezing rain and snow is expected to start falling sometime Wednesday night or the early morning Thursday, said WRCB-Channel 3 chief meteorologist Paul Barys.
A night similar to Sunday with dangerous driving conditions could occur, but the difference is that a warm front will be on the way Thursday, Barys said.
The end of a Canadian low pressure system with “extremely cold Arctic air” will sweep through Chattanooga before rain and 50-degree highs are expected Thursday, Ferrell said.
“We’re looking at the same thing in North Georgia,” National Weather Service forecaster Alex Gibbs said from Peachtree City, Ga.
For today, chilly weather should be the main concern with an expected high of only 28, Barys said.
Schools responded to the chilly forecasts by canceling classes today in Grundy, Marion, Monroe, Polk, Rhea and Sequatchie counties, while Hamilton and Catoosa counties planned an hour delay.
Bus systems will be delayed two hours in Walker and Dade counties and in Hamilton County, buses will not be running in the mountain areas, including Sale Creek Mountain, Bakewell Mountain, Signal Mountain and Mowbray Mountain, officials said.
Through Monday afternoon, Chattanooga road crews had dumped more than 450 tons of salt and 450 tons of sand on major city roadways since snow began falling in the city on Sunday, records show.
Salt and sand cost the city more than $45,000 without including overtime money for 35 city employees, and crews planned to continue working on lesser-traveled roads throughout the evening Monday, according to Tony Boyd, assistant director of Chattanooga’s City Wide Services.
“We will continue working around the clock with a higher emphasis on residential streets over the next 24 hours,” Boyd said.
State officials at the Tennessee Department of Transportation did the same on federal highways, according to department spokeswoman Jennifer Flynn, who said crews would be salting major interstates as long as there’s freezing rain in the forecast.
Efforts from the authorities didn’t prevent all roadway sliding and there were 36 accidents in Chattanooga by 11 p.m. Sunday evening. Because of the conditions, police weren’t immediately able to reach all accident scenes.
The powdery snow compacted quickly on the roads, leaving slick ice on the surface, Barys said. Chattanooga and North Georgia saw between 1 to 2 inches of snow, while higher elevations in East Tennessee had 3 to 5 inches, he said.
Several Chattanooga area companies were delayed Monday but expected normal operating hours today. Unum Group spokeswoman Mary Fortune said the downtown Chattanooga insurer opened at 10 a.m. Monday due to weather. Work at the company, which employs about 3,000 people in the city, will be business as usual this morning, though officials planned to monitor conditions, she said.
BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee experienced a two-hour delay Monday morning, said spokeswoman Mary Thompson, while the company’s Knoxville and Johnson City, Tenn., operations were closed Monday.
Thompson said today should be a typical business day in Chattanooga.
Several downtown residents said they made it to work Monday, but had to find other transportation to get there.
John Ollie, of Chattanooga, said Monday that he normally rides his bike to work, but “had to call a cab this morning.”
“I’m hoping it warms up quick,” he said from under his ski-jacket hood.
The Tennessee Valley Authority, with more than 5,000 workers in the region, had no significant problems with employee absenteeism Monday, officials said, and is keeping the lights on during the coldest days so far this winter.
“We do post notices to employees to drive carefully, wear slip-resistent footwear and to not take any unnecessary risks in the cold or snow,” TVA spokesman Mike Bradley said.
But Bradley said TVA expects today to meet its highest wintertime peak loads in nearly two years by operating its nuclear, coal and hydroelectric units throughout its seven-state region.
See a gallery of community-contributed photos:Gallery: Your photos of the snowy weatherContinue reading by following this link to a related story:Article: Icy weather sends homeless to shelters
Meanwhile, the snow and cold weather prompted the McDonald’s restaurant on Signal Mountain to open about two hours later than usual, said manager William Spann.
EPB spokeswoman Lacie Newton said there were no outages as of Monday afternoon.
Hamilton County Criminal Courts closed because of weather conditions, but court workers could not say if courts would reopen today.
Staff writers Dave Flessner and Mike Pare contributed to this story.
Contact staff writer Chris Carroll at ccarroll@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6610. Contact staff writer Joy Lukachick at jlukachick@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659.
