PORT TOWNSEND — The streets of Port Townsend were deserted Wednesday morning as a winter storm dumped 4 inches of new snow on the downtown area and brought the city to a crawl.
Spokespeople for several East Jefferson County government agencies said the weather didn’t cause many problems because a majority of people just stayed home.
“A lot of people made the decision to stay home today, which is a good thing for us because we didn’t have a lot of cars piling up,” said Port Townsend Operations Manager John Merchant.
“We just wanted to keep things moving for the people who are out there.”
Wednesday’s storm was the second — and strongest — to sweep across the North Olympic Peninsula this week.
A weaker system will move onshore today with a chance of more lowland snow, said Brent Bower, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle.
Rain is expected to develop on the Peninsula on Friday as high temperatures climb into the mid-40s.
Brinnon, Chimacum
During Wednesday’s storm, Brinnon and Chimacum received the largest amount of new overnight snow in East Jefferson County, both reporting 5 inches to the Community Collaborative Rain, Snow and Hail Network.
Weather spotters reported 3 to 5 inches of new snow in Port Townsend and about 2 to 4 inches in the Hood Canal area, said Bower.
Reports of 3 inches of new snow for Port Ludlow and 4.2 inches in Port Hadlock were made to the Weather Service.
Total accumulations after the week’s storms on the North Olympic Peninsula varied widely from place to place with melting, evaporation and wind drifts.
Port Townsend, Brinnon, Port Ludlow, Chimacum and Port Hadlock had between 3 to 6 inches of total accumulation.
Forks, the hardest-hit Tuesday, received anywhere from a trace to 4 inches Wednesday for a total accumulation of about a foot of snow on the ground, and Port Angeles and Sequim — which received 4 to 6 inches of new snow Wednesday morning, according to the National Weather Service — had about half that amount.
Wednesday’s storm was created by a combination of moisture from the south and cold air from the north, Bower said.
The low-pressure system that carried the moisture came onshore near the mouth of the Columbia River, while cold air from the Canadian interior funneled through the Fraser River valley and pushed up against the Olympic Mountains to the southwest, he said.
Merchant said Port Townsend’s five plows were all out early plowing and sanding the main arteries.
A list of all the priority streets that were being plowed Wednesday was available on the city’s website at www.cityofpt.us.
Few traffic problems
Port Townsend Police Sgt. Ed Green said the sparse traffic meant there were few problems, aside from one car being stuck on the curve between Safeway and QFC, which is usually a trouble spot in bad weather.
Two semi-trucks caused a similar blockage Tuesday.
No injury vehicle wrecks were reported in Clallam County, according to Peninsula Communications, though there have been 90 minor vehicle mishaps — mostly cars in ditches — since Sunday, PenCom Communications Supervisor Karl Hatton said Wednesday morning.
The State Patrol reported no injury wrecks on U.S. Highway 101 in Clallam and Jefferson counties or along the Hood Canal since Sunday.
But a semi-truck and trailer jackknifed Tuesday night on state Highway 104 three miles south of Discovery Bay in Jefferson County, State Patrol spokesman Russ Winger said.
The driver “just lost it” on the icy road, he said.
The semi ended up in the ditch and blocked one lane of the road from about 7:15 p.m. to about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday and both lanes from 9:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. while three large tow trucks extricated it from the ditch.
Drivers were warned by state Department of Transportation signage to seek alternate routes, Winger said.
There were also several non-injury collisions in the Brinnon area, Winger added.
“Today, cars are getting around fairly well,” he said late Wednesday morning.
City Hall open
Port Townsend City Hall opened at 8 a.m. as usual, with the Fort Worden Lifelong Learning Center holding a previously scheduled meeting that began at 8:30 a.m.
Six members of the committee met in the third-floor conference room, while others teleconferenced through speaker phones.
City Hall was expected to stay open its regular hours, and City Manager David Timmons said he did not recall any instance that the building closed during his 12 years with the city.
Timmons, who previously worked in Northern Michigan and Vermont, called the recent storms “just a skiff of snow.”
County offices opened for business at 10 a.m., though both District Court and Superior Court were closed.
The city canceled garbage service for Wednesday and may do so again today, and announced it would provide double service once the weather improved.
The pool and the Port Townsend and Jefferson County libraries also were closed.
Snowplows keeping up
County Engineer Monty Reinders said snowplows were able to keep up with the snow, especially since it had tapered off by early afternoon.
“It has been pretty smooth,” he said.
“Right now, we have transitioned to more of a cleanup effort and are working our way to the secondary roads,” Reinders said.
“Later on, we will see if we need to deal with any flooding issues when the snow starts to melt.”
Puget Sound Energy spokeswoman Dorothy Bracken said there were few power outages caused by the snow, and she was not aware of any blackouts in Jefferson County.
“We are fully staffed and will send out a crew as soon as we hear about any problems,” she said.
This was countered by East Jefferson Fire-Rescue spokesman Bill Beezley, who said PSE and his department answered a call at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday on Anderson Lake Road, where a tree knocked down power lines.
Beezley said there were no major incidents.
“People are being good and staying inside,” Beezley said.
Brinnon Fire Chief Bob Herbst saw the same thing in his area.
“There hasn’t been a lot of vehicle traffic, although I’ve seen a lot of people out walking around,” Herbst said.
Willy Stark at the weather shelter in the American Legion Hall’s basement in Port Townsend said 39 people stayed in the shelter Tuesday night and that guests would be allowed to stay through the day rather than being asked to leave during the daytime hours.
“We are staying open while the weather is this bad,” he said.
“This is the first time we’ve done this.”
Local markets were pretty quiet Wednesday, with a dearth of customers.
Jessica Roberts, a supervisor at the Port Hadlock QFC, said few people came into the store Wednesday.
Milk was the most popular item.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
Reporters Rob Ollikainen and Paul Gottlieb contributed to this report.
