West Side moving again after snow

SEATTLE – Crowds of stranded travelers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport were drastically reduced, Amtrak trains and Greyhound buses were running, and motorists found easier going Tuesday in a lull between snowstorms.

Many surface streets remained snowpacked, icy, and rutted with treacherous gray slush across the Pacific Northwest from weekend storms that brought 8 to 12 inches of snow to Seattle and nearby cities. In the Seattle area, King County Metro transit bus service was still limited to half the normal routes, although traffic was light on the Tuesday morning commute.

Few difficulties were reported, though. Arterial streets were largely passable and the pavement was bare on most freeways and major highways statewide. No highway closures were reported.

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm watch for much of Washington state, with another 1 to 3 inches of snow forecast in Seattle and as much as 6 inches in the suburbs by early today, to be followed by slightly warmer temperatures and rain across Western Washington later on Christmas Eve.

Occasional showers, overnight freezing and slight daytime thawing were forecast Thursday and Friday in the Puget Sound area before warmer weather and Western Washington’s traditional snow removal system – rain – arrives over the weekend.

Three to 7 inches were forecast for the eastern foothills of the Cascades, 2 to 5 inches in Wenatchee and lesser amounts in other areas.

Sea-Tac airport was jammed with thousands of stranded travelers Sunday night and Monday morning, but the number of people sleeping in the terminal early Tuesday was down to “a hundred, if that,” and lines at ticket counters were also greatly reduced, said Perry Cooper, an airport spokesman.

Alaska and Horizon airlines, which account for about half the 900 daily flights and 90,000 passengers at the airport in the days before Christmas, were working to restore normal operations after hundreds of flights were canceled during the weekend and on Monday.

“The lines that we saw this morning were at the (security) checkpoints, which is good,” Cooper said.

Dave Taylor, of Oroville, Wash., said he and his wife stayed with a son in Seattle after their flight to San Diego to visit other children and grandchildren was canceled.

Their daughter rebooked them on a flight leaving Tuesday afternoon.

“We got to play out in the snow … dodging snowmobiles, having a great time,” Taylor said.

“We don’t get a whole lot (of snow) in Oroville. If we see 6 inches on the ground at one time, it’s a lot.”

Cooper said he didn’t anticipate any renewed problems from the next storm because the forecast accumulations “are well within the capacity of our snow removal crews and equipment.”

Amtrak’s long-haul trains, the east-west Empire Builder and north-south Coast Starlight, continued operating through the storms but with major delays.

Greyhound buses began leaving Seattle at midday Tuesday after service was halted over the weekend, stranding some passengers at the station and at homeless shelters.

Heavy snow collapsed a roof on a wooden barn containing 40 cows Monday near Clearlake, east of Mount Vernon.

One calf died and two cows were injured in the barn, but no injuries to humans were reported.