Nelson County, Virginia
For the second time in just a little over a month Nelson County and much of Virginia has been slammed again with a significant snowfall. As of 1PM Saturday, a Winter Storm Warning continued and heavy snow was falling all across the area.
Roads conditions across the area are described as slick and hazardous with snow pack on all roads. VDOT is plowing highways and interstates, but continued heavy snow makes it difficult to stay clear. Cheryl Tompkins, owner of Stoney Creek Pharmacy in Nellysford, told us around 1PM I-64 was in decent shape toward Waynesboro, but in Waynesboro proper roads were a mess.
The snow is expected to continue throughout the afternoon , but will begin tapering off as we approach dusk. Light snow may fall in the early evening hours before ending altogether. Sunday will be sunny, but cold with highs in the mid 30’s valley and upper 30’s on the mountains.
Just drove in from DC. When I came through I-64 between Cville and Crozet was in awful shape. 20 mph max west of Ivy with a lot of trucks creeping along (wisely). 250 and 151 were passable although all-wheel-drive or 4 wheel drive are a good idea to keep moving. If you take it slow, Rt 664 from Ski Barn to Techtonics is passable. A lot of sand and chemicals are down on the road approaching Wintergreen Gatehouse on 664 – that part was easy.
Uncharacteristically, on Wintergreen Mountain, the approach to the gate house and up to Fortunes Ridge is impassible with 2 wheel drive. 4 wheel drive is marginal but there are numerous stuck vehicles to dance around on blind curves. Above Fortunes Ridge to the Wintergarden, Wintergreen Drive had been plowed but there did not seem to be any chemicals or sand down. The trip is treacherous and is marginal even in most 4 wheel drives. Unfortunately, it looks like someone forgot about that stretch. Once off Wintergreen Drive and into the neighborhoods, the roads seem to be pretty well plowed. Again, little evidence of chemicals or sand, so tiptoe!!
When the local new and the big signs that our tax dollars paid for above the interstate say “Snow Possible, Expect Delays” or “Stay at home unless you absolutely need to be on the road (i.e. an emergency) and people don’t heed the warnings it results in chaos. People have lost their jobs so taxes aren’t getting paid, this caused V-DOT to lay off their employees. The earlier mentioned employees were the one who operated plow trucks. Since two tiers of people are now unemployed and the people who are still employed don’t want to pay higher taxes you get sub-par snow removal.
Another thing that causes problems is when people in two wheel drive vehicles decide to go up the side of a mountain in a snow storm. This act causes them to run off the road repeatedly because if they can they get out and push the car back in the road. While the two wheel drivers are acting like a Nascar pit crew traffic is backing up for miles. This is the part where people in four wheel drive vehicles go into the other lane and slam the gas pedal to the floor. Actions of the SUV’s and/or Trucks then cause either head-on/ rear-end collisions or they are traveling so fast they slide completely off the road. After enough of this has compounded the snow plows can’t get down the road if they want to, not to mention the jaunt bus going up 664 for god knows what reason given the weather. In closing I think since we didn’t learn this after the first snow we should now try to grasp the concept when the governor has declared a state of emergency and the local news says to stay home we should probably do just that and let V-DOT do their job rather than impeding then and complaining about it later.
If you are still reading at this point I thank you for your time.