Rain, ice bring hail of wrecks
Rain met freezing temperatures at ground level Monday, forming a layer of ice over everything in Eastern Washington and North Idaho.
The slick conditions closed Snoqualmie Pass for six hours and contributed to more than 320 crashes in the Coeur d’Alene-Spokane region.
Rain that freezes on contact is expected to continue today, especially in areas north of Deer Park and Rathdrum, Idaho, said Robin Fox, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. It issued a winter storm warning for those regions until this afternoon.
“They will see either snow or sleet, then changing to freezing rain into the morning hours,” Fox said of the northern areas. “And they will remain in that warning all the way through (today).”
What Spokane and Coeur d’Alene receive today will depend on south winds, Fox said.
“If we can get southerly winds to continue to push into the region, it will keep the temperature up,” she said. “But some sheltered areas may still freeze. There still might be some icy patches” this morning.
Arterials that have been plowed should be fine. However, any side streets that still have snow will be extremely slick, Fox said.
The Washington State Patrol responded to 186 crashes in the Spokane district, which includes Whitman, Adams, Ferry, Pend Oreille, Stevens and Spokane counties, trooper Jim Hays said.
Most crashes had no or minor injuries, “but lots of damage to guardrails and Jersey barriers,” he said.
In Idaho, two tractor-trailer rigs crashed on Interstate 90 just east of the Sherman Avenue exit into Coeur d’Alene, Idaho State Police trooper Rick Yeend said.
At 12:43 p.m. Monday, a westbound tractor-trailer carrying paper products was trying to pass another vehicle on a curve. The truck crashed and rolled off the side of the roadway, Yeend said. The driver, Herbert Muellner, 64, of Burtrum, Minn., was not injured but he was cited for inattentive driving.
A westbound log truck swerved to avoid the first truck and also crashed. That driver, Dennis Donnenwirth, 62, of Cataldo, Idaho, suffered cuts and was treated and released from Kootenai Medical Center Monday afternoon.
The crash closed down one westbound lane all day Monday and had not been cleared by late Monday. The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality was called to the scene because of diesel fuel leaking from one of the tractor-trailer’s saddle tanks, Yeend said.
Spokane County sheriff’s deputies responded to about 50 crashes, Spokane Police responded to more than 20, Kootenai County had more than a dozen crashes and the ISP had at least 54 more crashes, other than the tractor-trailer rollover, according to area dispatchers.
The conditions had tow-truck dispatchers working overtime.
“Game on,” said Tori Durham, towing manager at Divine’s Towing in Spokane.
She said one of her tow trucks got stuck trying to pull one motorist out and others had to wait for sanders before they could respond to addresses on the South Hill. “Way north, up past Deer Park, is not looking good at all.”
The slick roads also prompted about half a dozen outlying school districts to either cancel or delay the start of classes today. Parents should check with their children’s school for any possible schedule changes.
Before freezing Spokane, the storm caused flood watches in eight Western Washington counties and caused several accidents on Snoqualmie Pass.
The “very extreme” ice conditions prompted state officials to close the pass at 2 a.m. It wasn’t reopened until 8:30 a.m. and even then WSP troopers required that motorists use chains, even on four-wheel drive vehicles.
Fox said Spokane and Coeur d’Alene can expect to see warmer temperatures this evening and into Wednesday morning.
“When the front pushes northward, we will see highs in the mid-40s” on Wednesday, she said. “But as we get into Thursday night, we have another cold front coming through. Temperatures will go back below freezing.”