Klamath Falls Herald and News
 |
|
||
November 29, 2005
Snow falls, drivers skid, shovelers pile, workers ache
By DYLAN DARLING
Heavy snowfall throughout the Klamath Basin Monday made travel difficult for
many and work an added chore for some.
“There have been numerous crashes around the
area,” said Julianne Repman, spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of
Transportation.
Most of the accidents were fender benders and spinouts caused by slippery,
packed snow, she said. Doak Mountain on Highway 140 West was particularly
slippery, and thus particularly slow for travelers. Repman said spinouts
blocked the highway to Medford for 20 minutes to two hours.
Traffic was also slow on Highway 97 through Chiloquin and Chemult as well as
around Klamath Falls.
As cars slipped off Crater Lake Parkway at Washburn Way around noon, police
officers closed the road between Washburn and Shasta Way for a couple of
hours. Police officers waved motorists through a detour.
While the snowy, slow driving day made getting to work more difficult than
usual for many, some had to work through the snow. The snow started at 7 a.m.
and lasted throughout much of the day.
“It makes everything a lot harder to do,” said Greg Gibson, a delivery
truck driver for TP Freight Lines of Klamath Falls.
He and fellow driver Dan Supenia were putting tire chains on their trucks late Monday morning on a snow-covered Spring Street that looked nothing like its name.
Supenia said he's usually done with his route by 2
p.m. but expected an extra two hours.
Janet Krueger also had chains on her little rig, a U.S. Postal Service
delivery truck. She came in an hour early to get a head start on her route
through parts of the hilly Pacific Terrace neighborhood.
She said she has had better days. Snow clung to her jacket and blew into her
open door.
“It's not much fun, trying to keep everything
dry,” she said.
Even with her head start, she said her day would run longer than normal.
|
|
||
Some got to call it a day early. The commissioners closed Klamath County
offices at 3:30 p.m.
Monday's snowfall was unexpected.
As of 5 p.m. Sunday, the National Weather
Service was calling for a 70 percent of rain, not snow, for Klamath Falls.
“We were thinking the snow level would be a bit higher,” said Mike Stavish,
a meteorologist at the Weather Service's Medford office.
The expectation was the snow level would be at
4,500 feet above sea level, 400 feet higher than Klamath Falls.
Although four inches were recorded at the Kingsley Field weather station
Monday evening, an unofficial ruler measuring of 7 inches was made at the Joe
Caraher Memorial Park next to the Herald and News parking lot.
Two to four more inches of snow was expected to fall throughout Monday night,
according to the Weather Service. There's a 50 percent chance of rain or snow
today and a chance of rain or snow Wednesday night and Thursday.
The snow is being pushed in by a low pressure system hanging off the coast of
Oregon, with the moisture having come from the tropics, Stavish said.
