Snow pummeled the Vancouver area Tuesday night and into this morning, leading to county-wide closures, large-scale power outages and treacherous driving conditions.
Close to a foot of snow fell Tuesday between 7 p.m. and midnight, accumulating at a rate of just under an inch an hour. The snowfall continued throughout the morning Wednesday, blanketing the region with less than a tenth of an inch of fresh powder.
In an area where a quarter inch of snow can close schools, cancel activities and snarl traffic, the snowfall was epic.
Most school districts in Clark County announced by 10 p.m. Tuesday that they would be closed, as did numerous private schools. Updated closure information will be available online at The Columbian’s school closure page.
City and county government offices are closed today as well as many banks and clinics such as Kaiser Permanente and the Vancouver Clinic.
Wednesday’s edition of The Columbian was delayed in delivery due to the dangerous driving conditions.
Waste Connections canceled garbage collection for Wednesday, though plan to allow customers to put out double the amount of waste on their next scheduled service day one week later.
Road crews plowed city streets, county roads and highways throughout the night and into the morning.
From 4 p.m. Tuesday to 3 p.m. Wednesday, troopers responded to 38 disabled vehicles, 27 injury crashes, 34 roadway-blocking incidents, 17 abandoned and non-blocking vehicles, and seven abandoned and blocking vehicles, according to Washington State Patrol Trooper Will Finn.
“It was madness,” he said.
Multiple jackknifed tractor-trailers and disabled vehicles on Interstate 5, lead officials to close the highway and detour traffic onto Interstate 205 for a couple of hours that night.
Chains are required to drive on highways in the Portland area as well as on state Highway 14 between milepost 19, near Evergreen Boulevard, and milepost 108 near Cliff’s Road.
Emergency responders said they were prepared for the snowfall. Vancouver Fire Department spokesman Kevin Stromberg said their vehicles were fully chained up and that they’d added a few units to Wednesday’s shifts in anticipation for the busy day of weather-related calls.
Heavily laden trees have fallen throughout the area, making travel even more treacherous and knocking out power lines.
Natasha Emmett, who lives near West 34th Street and Thompson Avenue in the Fruit Valley neighborhood, said she was making coffee at about 9:20 a.m. when she heard a crash.
She looked out her window to see an oak tree, which normally stands about 50 feet high, had broken and fallen onto cars parked below.
Emmett called 911 and ran outside to make sure no one was inside and that no one was affected by power lines that were downed. She said she and her neighbors were left without power, a story that has affected many Clark County residents Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
Nearly 10,000 customers in Clark County were left without power at some point, though by 12 p.m., about 400 customers were still in the dark.
Portland International Airport is open, but at least 40 flights were canceled or delayed.
All C-Tran commuter service to Portland is canceled until MAX service resumes, according to C-Tran.
C-Tran routes 2, 9, 19, 32, 47, 157, 177, 190 and connector routes are suspended and C-Van paratransit will provide life sustaining trips only. Local routes will provide service throughout the corridor, but will not be able to follow published times. Vine buses will provide service using 40 buses. Turtle Place is temporarily closed. As an alternative, customers in downtown Vancouver may use stops at Washington and 12th or Broadway and 12th.
Snow stopped snowing in downtown Vancouver at about 11 a.m. today and the chance of snow drops to about 30 percent until 10 p.m. tonight.
The temperature is currently dropping and overnight temperatures are expected to reach into the low 20s and even the teens in some area.
The snowy conditions may persist as the cold weather is expected to linger until the weekend, with temperatures not expected to climb above freezing until Sunday, according to the weather service.
Since ice will remain an issue through the rest of the week, Finn said the state patrol is asking motorists to stay at home if they can, and for those who do take to the roads to make sure they’re prepared and honest about their skills behind the wheel.
“Don’t be overconfident in your driving ability,” he said. “Take a step back and say, ‘Can I do this?'”
Today’s high is forecast as 30 degrees for Vancouver.
