A snow man made an appearance in Rockingham Tuesday morning.
According to Kevin Hedrick, District Engineer for the Department of Transportation, the first round of road-clearing began Monday night, with crews switching off on 12-hour shifts to provide the county with continuous coverage.
“Our crews will be out working again tonight (Tuesday), pushing the snow off with plows and putting out salt. We’ve got plows out all over the district - Richmond, Montgomery and Scotland Counties.”
Richmond County 911 Telecommunicator Nancy Austin said that Emergency Response teams were called out for auto accidents due to the bad weather.
“We’ve had things like transfer trucks and cars running off the road, but thankfully no one was hurt. They (emergency responders) have done a great job today.”
Richmond County Schools were closed Tuesday and remain closed today for both students and employees. Associate Superintendent Robert Beck said parents will be notified Wednesday afternoon of the schedule for the rest of the week.
Motorists and road crews alike were booking rooms at the Holiday Inn Express in Rockingham.
“People were scared to be out on the roads last night, and we will probably have some tonight,” said desk clerk Ashley Hughes on Tuesday.
“People who are traveling need to be aware of ice on the roads,” said Phil Sweatt, Chief Deputy of the Richmond County Sheriff’s Department. “If you have to travel, be careful - and if you don’t have to travel, you don’t need to be out there.”
Barrett Smith, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Raleigh, said some areas had reported snow as deep as 4 inches, with most of the region seeing 1 to 3 inches so far.
There were no power outages to report related to the snowstorm in Richmond County as of midday Tuesday, according to officials from Progress Energy and Pee Dee Electric Membership Corporation.
“Snow is not a problem - ice is the problem,” Pee Dee Electric spokesperson Bruce Simmons said. “We’ll be monitoring the situation closely tonight and hoping that we don’t have pine trees snap off in the rural areas of the county.”
“That could change a few hours from now,” Progress spokesperson Jeff Brooks said. “But right now, we’re excited to see that no customers have had their service interrupted, as of 11:30 a.m.”
Local photographer Jimmy McDonald took advantage of Tuesday’s wintry weather.
“I just came out to Hinson Lake, and it is gorgeous. I’ve been taking pictures of trees, pathways and wildlife. I chased a few cardinals this afternoon, but they’re pretty fast.”
For 2-year-old Mikayla English of Ellerbe, Tuesday’s snowflakes were the first that she had ever seen.
“I took her to look out the window this morning,” said her mother Jamie English. “And the first thing she said was ‘Oooo, pretty.’”
(Staff writer Philip Brown contributed to this report)
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