A blanket of snow across Clallam County on Sunday made Slip ‘N Slides out of highways and city streets, weighed tree branches until they fouled power lines or snapped, and provided the stuff of sledding and snowball fights.
Fender-benders, rollovers, closed roads, fishtailing and power outages were widely reported throughout the day across Clallam County and along Hood Canal as the snow fell on even low-lying areas.
More snow — as much as three inches — is forecast for parts of the North Olympic Peninsula today as the storm moves to the east.
The Port Angeles area was hardest hit on the Peninsula on Sunday, the National Weather Service reported, with sections getting between two and 12 inches of snow.
Differences were largely determined by elevation. In general, areas of just 300 feet got five times the snow as downtown near the water.
State Patrol officers went to 20 highway crashes in Clallam County from Saturday evening through Sunday afternoon.
All Sunday afternoon, emergency 9-1-1 dispatchers reported trees blocking roads, branches smoking and crackling on power lines, and cars in ditches.
On U.S. Highway 101 at the infamous “S” curve at Morse Creek east of Port Angeles, cars littered the roadsides.
One knocked over a light pole. No one was injured in the wreck.
Car in creek
After snow started falling Saturday afternoon on the West End, a car plunged into swollen Beaver Creek off state Highway 113 about two miles from the junction with U.S. 101.
The occupants, unidentified by authorities, were taken to Forks Community Hospital wet and cold but otherwise reportedly OK.
The state Department of Ecology was notified of the car nearly submerged in the creek.
No other information was available Sunday evening.
The advice to motorists from Clallam Fire District No. 2 Deputy Chief Mike Oakes was simple.
“Stay home,” he said.
“If you don’t need to be out, stay home and watch football.”
The snow created less havoc in Jefferson County on Sunday.
No vehicle collisions were reported in Port Townsend, said city police Sgt. Joe Kaare.
Throughout the rest of Jefferson County, State Patrol officers went to 19 vehicle collisions between midnight and about 5 p.m. on Sunday.
