Wet snow closes schools, leaves many without power

By Rose Hooper

Wet snow clinging to the roof of this fast food restaurant for feathered friends remained undisturbed Nov. 19 as small wintering birds concentrated on the seeds inside. Sunday's early morning snowfall resulted in accumulations of 2 to 6 inches in Jackson County. - Herald photo by Rose Hooper

Residents of Charleys Creek, Cedar Creek, Caney Fork and upper Kitchens Branch reported almost as much snow, at about 5 inches, while others in Sylva and Webster reported from 2 to 3 inches on their lawns Sunday. Like ice on a frosty mug, the shores of Lake Glenville were rimmed with 3 1/2 white inches, residents there said.

Warmer temperatures Sunday afternoon melted much of the precipitation, but as night fell and folks pulled the covers up on their bed, a blanket of ice began to cover many of the county's secondary roads.

Public schools in Jackson County were closed Monday, with an optional teacher work day. Schools reopened Tuesday, although buses were not permitted to run on icy roads. About 10 percent of Nantahala Power and Light Co.'s 60,000 customers were without power Sunday because of unusually wet, clinging snow.

"Wet snow simply clobbers power lines," said Fred Alexander, NP&L district manager. On Mockingbird Lane in the Webster-Dillsboro area, and in the Greens Creek section, power was off from about 2 to 7:30 p.m.

"This was the strangest storm I've seen in the past 20 years," said Alexander. "It was not forecast until late; the snow was unusually wet and heavy. Outages were widely scattered, increasing the time between repairs."

"The snow was so wet it stuck to everything, especially weighing down tree limbs," Frank Wilkie, manager of the Sylva NP&L office, said. "The power outages really didn't start until afternoon when snow began melting and tree limbs popped back up."

To make conditions worse, NP&L experienced some internal phone system problems, Alexander said. "As a result, the extent of the outages was hard to diagnose at first and some customers were given inaccurate estimates for service restoration," he said. "We appreciate our customers' patience and understanding during this difficult situation. We know the loss of power and phone problems have been very frustrating."

By midnight Sunday the number of customers without power was reduced to about 1,000. About 900 were in Macon County, with the remainder spread over Graham, Swain and Jackson counties.

"The wet snow builds up, causing power lines to sag. As the snow falls off, some lines swing together and short circuit. Many of the affected lines serve only one customer, or relatively few rural customers. Though all available crews worked, restoration was slow because of the sheer volume of outages over our 1,729-square-mile service area of rugged mountains," Alexander said.

For safety's sake, crews were sent home a little after midnight because most of them had been working 12 to 16 hours. They returned to work at 6:30 a.m. Monday, restoring power by mid-afternoon.

N.C. Department of Transportation crews were ready for the snowfall, said Division Engineer Ron Watson.

"Crews were at Balsam, Soco and the higher elevations in anticipation of the snowfall. After they worked the higher elevations, they moved on down to the lower elevations. It was a good little warm-up for us," Watson said.

Back to Archive: 11/23/00.