CALDWELL COUNTY, N.C. — Our neighbors in the North Carolina mountains are used to seeing snow, but they could see even more than normal this weekend as a winter storm will bring the threat of snow and ice to the Carolinas.
Avery County Schools were closed Friday, Jan. 14 with an optional teacher workday.
[ CLICK HERE for the latest forecast updates on the weekend winter storm ]
Channel 9 reporter Dave Faherty saw plows that were on many of the trucks ahead of heavy snow expected this weekend.
Faherty was along Highway 321 in northern Caldwell County and could see crews out treating the roads. They expected to be out most of the day Friday in both Caldwell and Burke counties, where county commissioners have issued declarations of States of Emergency for more than a foot of snow.
Blue Ridge Energy told Channel 9 its crews were on high alert as well. Faherty spotted lineman who were concerned about outages with both heavy snow and ice in the forecast.
“With the ice coming in that we’re expecting, especially the freezing rain, it presents a problem for us,” said Mike Moore with Blue Ridge Energy. “The power lines are on the ground, covered up with snow, covered up with ice, it’s hard to get them up. Plus trees falling all over the place.”
Some of the people Faherty talked with Friday in Caldwell County said the snowfall total could be measured in feet instead of inches, and that could present challenges for power crews just trying to get to downed lines.
Blue Ridge crews are ready to work 16-hour shifts if the area sees widespread outages. They said all of their trucks were equipped with chain saws.
Just last week, the North Carolina High Country saw heavy, wet snow that knocked out power to thousands of customers. Blue Ridge said they are preparing for this weekend’s storm to dump twice that amount of snow, along with ice.
Faherty asked crews about how ice could create problems for them and they said any amount of ice more than a quarter inch high can be a mess. One lineman said he’d rather see a foot and a half of snow than a half inch of ice.
Faherty was in Hickory Thursday and saw preparations underway ahead of the storm -- and the possibility of heavy snow and ice across the foothills.
[ Here’s how the Carolinas are getting ready for our weekend winter storm ]
By 9 a.m. Thursday, Hickory Public Works sent out its first brine truck in northeast Hickory. Workers were busy preparing the salt and water mixture in anticipation of the approaching winter weather.
Department of Transportation crews began putting plows on more than a dozen of their trucks and have notified workers that they’ll be transitioning to 13-hour shifts starting Saturday night. Currently, they’re focusing brining efforts on some of the neighborhoods, bridges, and hills. They hit the main roads and areas around the hospitals on Friday.
(WATCH BELOW: Carolinas getting ready for weekend winter storm)
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