WISE — With snow still falling and expected to keep falling Wednesday, Southwest Virginians on Tuesday began digging out from the relentless effects of Hurricane Sandy.
Wise and Dickenson counties were among the hardest hit by snowfall Tuesday morning, with snow totals up to 10 inches or more along the higher elevations. The area around the town of Wise had about 5 to 6 inches by dawn on Tuesday.
Virginia Department of Transportation snowplow crews worked around the clock in 12-hour shifts. Wise Residency Administrator Allan Sumpter said road crews had their work cut out for them beginning Monday night.
“We’ve had significant amounts of (snow) accumulations overnight in Wise and Dickenson County areas. Totals in some of the higher elevations have ranged to as much as 10 inches. We’ve been mobilized, really, since Monday morning for what might come, and we have a full complement of contract and VDOT equipment out on the road right now. We presently have close to 115 trucks out on the road,” Sumpter said Tuesday morning.
“As of this morning we are in what we call our ‘full push’ scenario. The primary roads are moderate condition. Same for the secondaries. We are concentrating at this time on the primaries just like any other snowstorm, and when we reach the point when we get those in good condition, then we’ll move over to the secondaries,” he said.
Lee and Scott counties got off light compared to the higher-elevation Wise and Dickenson counties. Sumpter reported the upper northeast sector of Lee County, the Keokee area, had snow-covered roadways, but everywhere else came through the overnight well, all things considered.
“The western areas of Lee County have just a minor dusting at this point, so most of the road conditions we’re dealing with in Lee are in the Keokee area,” he said. “Scott has seen pretty much just a sleeting type of conditions there, and we’ve not seen too many issues. Some areas of Scott County toward High Knob have snow that we’re dealing with there, but along our (U.S. Route) 23 corridor in Scott we have no reports of problems.”
The nature of the snowfall, and its timing with many trees still sporting fall foliage, was beginning to be a problem as well, Sumpter said.
“One other issue we’re starting to come up with as the morning goes along is falling trees and debris. This is a heavy, wet snow, and during regular winter conditions that always makes things difficult. But there is still foliage, so that makes trees even heavier. So we’re having tree issues, and we’re getting contractors in to help deal with it,” he said.
Meanwhile, power outages were primarily affecting American Electric Power customers across the region. AEP outages were widespread and affected thousands across its multi-state service region, including 90,000 customers in West Virginia and 21,000 in Virginia.
On Tuesday morning, AEP’s outage map showed 1,292 Wise County customers without power. Other outage totals were: Washington County, 1,293; Buchanan County, 3,520; and Dickenson County, 4,701. AEP also reported 354 customers without power in Sullivan County, Tenn.
Old Dominion Power reported spotty outages in Wise County, including 29 customers without power in the Norton/Wise area.