Catching Winter’S Drift Relentless Snowfall Piles Up Fun For Some, Problems For Others As Schools Close, Roads Become Hazardous

Winter finally hit North Idaho with a vengeance, closing schools, causing power outages and turning normal commutes into dangerous adventures.

The National Weather Service reported about seven inches of snow falling Tuesday morning between Coeur d’Alene and Sandpoint, which taxed already busy road crews trying to keep snow off highways and city streets.

“At 3 a.m. (Tuesday), we hit it with everything we had,” Coeur d’Alene street superintendent Jon Ingalls said.

The snow closed most area schools, including those in Bonner, Boundary and Kootenai counties. Priest River schools were open.

The snow also caused power outages to more than 500 households from the east side of Hayden Lake to Spirit Lake and around Kidd Island Bay from about 5 to 9 a.m., said Jane Baker, spokeswoman for Kootenai Electric Cooperative.

Crews were out working all morning to restore power to those areas where trees had fallen on lines, she said.

“In the early morning hours it started to warm up and the snow got heavy,” Baker said.

That caused trees to bend with the extra weight of the snow, taking some power lines down with them, she said.

Idaho State Police had responded to 64 calls for help from motorists since a storm began dropping a blanket of slush Monday afternoon.

Fourteen of the calls were crashes that involved injuries or damage. The other 50 were vehicles that slid off the road and needed some help, ISP Capt. Willis Brownlee said.

Kootenai County sheriff’s deputies responded to 18 accidents and Coeur d’Alene police nine.

Even with full road crews from the city and state responding, many motorists found problems on the way to work.

It took Connie Collins an hour to get to work at the Kootenai County courthouse Tuesday morning from her home outside Bayview.

Traveling only 35 mph on slushy highways, the security guard said she was happy she had four-wheel drive even in the Coeur d’Alene city limits.

“I didn’t see a plow anywhere,” she said. “I think everybody was overwhelmed and then when it rained it made it worse.”

Warmer temperatures Tuesday morning actually caused more problems, Ingalls said.

“This is almost a worst-case scenario,” Ingalls said. “Not all the plows bite down and take it all off. So you are riding on a layer of packed snow.”

As that layer melted and turned to slush, it required crews to plow major city streets a second time.

The city street department received 14 complaints Tuesday morning, ranging from emergency dispatchers calling about trouble areas to residents complaining about snow piling in their driveways.

“The city snow removal shouldn’t be above criticism and we welcome input, but we ask people to realize that we operate under priorities,” Ingalls said.

Emergency routes, major thoroughfares, hills, curves, bus routes and then residential areas are plowed in order of importance.

Barbara Babic, spokeswoman for the Idaho Transportation Department, said state crews, which didn’t have Northwest Boulevard clear until about 9:30 a.m., operate under similar priorities.

In heavy storms, they first plow Interstate 90, then U.S. 95, and then state highways 41 and 53.

Ingalls praised his crews, who work 12-hour shifts and eat their meals on the run.

City crews use snow removal equipment that averages 14-1/2 years old to plow 181 miles of city streets.

That includes 41 miles of hills and tough-to-plow culdesacs that have been added in the past 10 years.

“These folks are super dedicated,” Ingalls said of the city crews. “People want to hold the line on resources, but people are working together and we need people’s patience.”