A persistent, blizzardlike storm dumped about a foot of snow on the North Olympic Peninsula on Monday, leaving numerous wrecks, road closures, cancellations and altered routines.
Law enforcement officials said none of the wrecks caused serious injuries as of Monday evening.
“It’s all cars in the ditch, jackknifed semis, things like that,” Clallam County Undersheriff Ron Peregrin said.
“I haven’t heard anything major, other than just a lot of cars.
“We’re advising people to stay home unless they have an absolute emergency. . . . People need to just hunker down and stay off the roads.”
Blowing snow resulted in near whiteout conditions as cold arctic air from British Columbia slammed into the Olympic Mountains.
A winter weather advisory was in effect until 10 p.m. Monday
Total accumulation was expected to reach 18 inches in parts of the region.
Although the sun is expected to break through today, Carl Cerniglia, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle, said cold temperatures and icy conditions will persist through Thanksgiving Day.
“The cold outflow is really kicking in,” Cerniglia said.
Outflow from the Fraser River Valley bolstered accumulations on the North Olympic Peninsula, which Cerniglia described as “the top of the list” for snowfall in the state.
Exactly how much snow fell varied widely from one place to another.
The Weather Service reported accumulations as low as 4 to 5 inches in East Jefferson County and eastern Clallam County, and as much as 12 to 13 inches on the West End as of Monday afternoon.
Cerniglia described the weather system as “dynamic.”
“It’s banded and kind of variable,” he said.
Cerniglia said the snow will subside today with highs expected to crest in the low 20s.
“On Wednesday morning, we will likely be in the single digits,” Cerniglia added.
Sunny skies may add to the treacherous driving conditions, Cerniglia said, by melting surface snow with a rapid refreeze at night.
He said the snow accumulations were “more than anticipated” by forecasters.
The winterlike storm also gave students a surprise holiday as many school classes across the Peninsula were canceled, including those in Port Angeles.
“If this continues, we probably will not have school tomorrow, either,” Port Angeles School District Superintendent Jane Pryne told Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce members at a sparsely attended noon luncheon.
City officials in Port Angeles closed Hill Street shortly before noon.
Port Angeles Public Works Director Glenn Cutler said there is a “good chance” that Hill Street will be closed today.
“We are working very closely with the Fire Department, so if they need assets, we can deploy assets to clear a path for them,” Cutler said.
“Unfortunately, because of our hilly terrain around here, it will be necessary to close certain roads,” Port Angeles City Manager Kent Myers said.
“I would encourage everybody, if you can, to get home and stay home.”
The state Department of Transportation closed Tumwater Truck Route in Port Angeles at 1:20 p.m., with crews there reporting 10 inches of snow.
State highway crews reopened the truck route, state Highway 117, at 5:20 p.m.
Port Townsend Police Sgt. Ed Green reported that city police received 31 calls for assistance between 8 a.m. and noon, consisting of single-car collisions, multiple collisions and blocked roads.
One particularly dangerous spot was on Lawrence Street near the intersection of Walker Street.
At around 10 a.m., a snowplow could not climb the hill and slid into a parked car.
Another truck backed up to get out of the plow’s way and collided with a different parked car.
Following that a woman drove between the two and collided with a parked vehicle, Green said.
Later, a vehicle traveling southbound on 19th Street collided with the front of a Jefferson Transit bus while turning left onto Landes Street.
Green said he was not aware of any injuries occurring from the various incidents.
East Jefferson Fire-Rescue responded to seven wrecks during the day and was called in to help by other law enforcement agencies, according to agency spokesman Bill Beezley.
There were several significant backups caused by semi trucks “who had not chained up” and had to do so in the middle of the road to move any further.
Traffic blockages were also caused by cars that spun off the road.
Beezely said about 20 cars were unable to get up the hill at the intersection of Discovery Road and Jacob Miller Road, which caused a backup “and made it difficult for services to get through, even with the [police] lights on.”
Clallam County public works crews began plowing streets at 5:30 a.m. Monday, County Engineer Ross Tyler said.
“I would guess that [this] morning, we would hit it again at 5:30,” Tyler said Monday.
“We hope to get everything plowed off and sanded before people go to work in the morning,” he added.
“You have to be a magician or a prophet to figure out how best to allocate resources. We will go by what the National Weather Service tells us and draw up our tactics as we go along.”
Olympic Medical Center’s emergency room was so busy that family members and visitors were not allowed to stay with patients while they were treated, hospital Assistant Administrator Rhonda Curry said Monday afternoon.
“We have seen a very high volume of emergency room visits, but most of them are non-life-threatening — fender benders, people slipping,” Curry said.
“Our request is that unless you absolutely have to be out, just stay in the house and stay off the roads.”
The city of Port Angeles is using four major plows, and three additional plows are available during daylight hours.
Clallam County Public Utility District officials reported no widespread outages as of Monday afternoon.
“So far we’re been pretty fortunate,” PUD spokesman Mike Howe said.
Puget Sound Energy, which provides electricity to East Jefferson County, reported small and scattered outages.
“Nothing significant has happened,” PSE spokeswoman MacKenzie McDowell said at 4:30 p.m.
A wreck was cleared at state Highway 20 and Discovery Road that blocked traffic into Port Townsend late Monday morning.
Dispatchers in both counties relayed reports of dozens of minor wrecks on the Peninsula’s highways, county roads and city streets.
The State Patrol said Brett Coyne, 22, of Maple Valley, was uninjured when the 1997 Ford truck he was driving crossed the centerline of U.S. Highway 101 at the Morse Creek “S”-curve east of Port Angeles and collided with a 1995 Toyota Camry driven by Joseph Rabb, 75, Sequim,
Raab was not injured, but his passenger, Mary Raab, 70, also of Sequim, was treated for a broken femur, troopers said.
Clallam Transit’s 30 buses, all with tire chains, maintained mostly normal schedules throughout Clallam County, including to and from Sequim and Forks, General Manager Terry Weed said.
But in Port Angeles, service on the city’s four routes were cut at 2 p.m. Monday to hourly pick-ups instead of every 30 minutes.
“If conditions persist, we’ll probably maintain that philosophy for now,” Weed said.
Paratransit service was shut down at about noon Monday, he said.
Paratransit buses do not go on unplowed roads, and people who use the service are less likely to travel in snowy weather, Weed said.
In addition, the No. 26 was not going to the Lower Elwha Klallam reservation west of Port Angeles after a truck jackknifed on the main road leading to the reservation.
The No. 20 also was not serving Melody Lane on Golf Course Road, the No. 10 to Joyce was terminating at Crescent School and the No. 52 to Diamond Point was stopping two-tenths of mile before its scheduled stop at the beach.
If more snow falls, bus service should continue with the same schedule, Weed said.
“It will not inhibit our ability to get out there unless the direction we get from the state or otherwise is that they are not plowing roads or not getting too roads,” Weed said.
Port Angeles streets are being plowed, sanded and deiced according to the following priorities, from highest:
• Main arterials that must be kept open for transportation to Olympic Medical Center, the fire station, the police station and emergency rescue units.
• Remaining arterials and bus routes are then plowed.
• Other arterials and major traffic-volume streets and access to all schools follow in priority.
• All remaining streets, including those in residential areas are the last to be plowed.
Serenity House of Clallam County will open its emergency warming center at 516 E. First St., Port Angeles, today from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Volunteers are asked to e-mail Brad Collins at serenityhouse.brad@gmail.com.
In Port Townsend, the city has opened an emergency shelter in the Mountain View Commons, 1925 Blaine St.
The shelter room will remain available until other shelter facilities open this coming weekend, a city spokesman said.
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Staff writers Charlie Bermant, Jeff Chew and Paul Gottlieb contributed to this report.
Staff writer Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
