Snowmageddon: 'If you don't have to go out, don't'

Six to 10 inches of snow has fallen throughout Pierce County as of 10:30 a.m., Pierce County Emergency Management reported. All roads have been impacted by the winter weather. The agency reports that some secondary roads might be impassable for two-wheel drive vehicles.

Forty Pierce County vehicles are clearing primary arterial routes today and hope to shift over to secondary arterials and residential roads tonight, said Bruce Wagner of Pierce County Public Works and Utilities.

Schools and colleges throughout Western Washington are closed. All Pierce County school districts, including Bethel, Puyallup and Tacoma canceled classes and activities today.

Government offices, South Sound libraries and many local organizations have announced closures or delays for today. That list continues to grow as the snow keeps falling.

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning that will remain in effect until 8 p.m. Forecasters said 15-25 mph winds will blow the snow around and add to the wind chill. Temperatures should remain about 30 degrees and drop into the 20s at night.

“If you don’t have to go out, don't,” Weather Service meteorologist Dennis D’Amico said. “If you do, slow down and take extra time. This is a big snow event.”

Washington State Patrol troopers responded to several spin-outs this morning on Pierce and Thurston county roadways.

"It is snowy. It is slick. And basically everybody is sliding off in every little place," one State Patrol dispatcher said.

Snowfall depths and road conditions vary greatly. North End Tacoma residents are reporting 5 to 8 inches. The hardest hit area seems to be around Olympia, where more than a foot has fallen.

South of Graham and Eatonville is the hardest hit area in the county with 10 to 20 inches of snow, the county's Bruce Wagner said.

Around 11:40 a.m., the City of Tacoma tweeted that "snow mist or freezing rain is still falling in downtown Tacoma. Not adding to the accumulation total at all though - 5.25 inches."

There are also reports of cars spinning off the roadway and ending up in ditches. Several streets in Tacoma have been closed because of danger from snow and ice. You can read more about this morning's road conditions and closures here.

But folks are getting around -- some without their cars.

Sarah Fletcher, an employee at Metropolitan Market in Tacoma's Proctor District, walked to work from Old Town.

"I wasn't going to do the snow," she said.

But she had to make it in. "It's ad day," she said. And it's her job to make sure all the prices are right.

Although customers were sparse just after 7 a.m. Fletcher was sure the store – in a neighborhood with lots of pedestrians – would be there eventually.

"Once everybody wakes up, it will be full of families," she said.

Robin Culpepper, a teacher at Sumner High School, was enjoying a day off – and a mocha at the market's coffee bar.

Sumner, like many area school districts, called off school based on forecasts last night. Culpepper said it was the first time in his 10 years teaching that he could remember that happening.

He drove about a mile this morning to get his java. His vehicle: a one-ton dual axle pickup. No four-wheel drive, but sand bags in the back. He said roads weren't slippery. But he took it slow.

Cars were spotted in the Proctor District, some with chains on. Main thoroughfares, like Bridgeport Way, 19th Street and North 21st Street, have some traffic on them, but not a lot.

Above Gig Harbor on Peacock Hill Avenue, the main surface street from downtown to the growing north end, the snow was nearly 5 1/2 inches deep at 7:45 a.m. and flakes continued to fall steadily. A plow rumbled up the steep hill and a few vehicles ventured down the hill toward the harbor without skidding out.

So, what's to come?

Pierce County road crews report that the flakes appear to be falling an inch every hour. Forecasters predict that rate will remain fairly steady through midday.

Pierce County opened its Emergency Operations Center at 3:30 a.m. to monitor the storm and provide information to the public.

Meanwhile, the county's 36 plow trucks and five motor graders are removing snow the from the county’s arterial roadways.

“With the current rate of snowfall, the snow plows will need to continue to clear the main arterials and most likely will not get to the secondary roads until the snow subsides,” according to a report from Pierce County.

Heavy snowfall could switch to freezing rain in the afternoon in the South Sound, bringing ice accumulations of up to one-tenth of an inch.

The Cascades should see 18-36 inches of snow through the night. Avalanche-control work is under way on the Snoqualmie and Stevens highway passes, and transportation officials warn that the passes could be impassable at some point.

Crews shut pass travel down for seven hours Tuesday to control for avalanche danger.

For those who are sick of snow, the forecast for Thursday changes to rain with temperatures in the 40s.

Although some of the snow forecasts were scaled back Tuesday, officials said there will still be plenty to cover roads and cause crashes.

Bruce Wagner, director of road operations for Pierce County Public Works, said the Weather Service briefing he sat in on Tuesday afternoon was a “doozy.” He said emergency planners are starting to look back to the floods of 1996 as a reference point for what could happen if the region is hit by a dump of snow followed by sustained rain or freezing rain.

The first act will play out today, as Wagner expects steady snowfall will keep his crews of more than 60 truck drivers and 19 heavy equipment operators working around the clock.

“I would like nothing more than for the weather man to be wrong,” he said, “but I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

The first priority is keeping more than 1,500 lane miles of the county’s highest-volume arterials as clear as possible, from as far west as Key Peninsula and as far east as Crystal Mountain. Twenty-eight plows will run per shift, with a total of 34 available. (Two or three are usually down at a time for repairs or maintenance.)

Wagner said that as the snow piles up late today and into Thursday, he also expects having to deploy teams of “hit trucks” to respond to fallen trees blocking roads and other urgent situations. He said dozens of field staffers, engineers and other employees are getting trained in skills they might not normally use, such as chain saw operation.

The costs will accumulate as quickly as the powder, with salt and sand treatments accounting for the bulk of the expense. Wagner said materials had already come in close to $200,000 between Saturday and Tuesday afternoon, with the worst weather still ahead.

For the first time, the county this year is using salt for all routine road treatments, turning to sand only for “site-specific needs” such as steep hills and extra-slick car-crash locations. Sand is “not cost-effective and has a lot of environmental consequences downstream, literally,” Wagner said.

The City of Tacoma also made the change to 100 percent salt.

“Salt is more effective, and the cleanup afterward isn’t as expensive,” said Rae Bailey, who became the public works division manager a week ago – just in time for Snowmageddon 2012.

City crews have been working around the clock in 12-hour shifts since midnight Sunday to clear city streets. As of Tuesday morning, Tacoma had all 11 of its plows on the road (the 12th plow’s transmission blew up Monday). It also has deployed three de-icer trucks that are spreading saltwater and a sander truck that is spreading salt. The plows and de-icer trucks do double duty, plowing the roads and spreading salt.

The city has an additional three sanding trucks it is keeping in reserve to use once crews can’t keep up with conditions.

Bailey couldn’t say how much the city has spent on overtime. Public works does not have a specific budget to cover overtime costs, so the money will have to be found elsewhere.