By Pat Maurer
Correspondent
The further north you traveled, the more snow fell, during the area’s first severe winter storm Tuesday and Wednesday. Because rain fell and froze on the roads first, travel was extremely treacherous Clare County Road Commission Manager DeWayne Rogers estimated around 10 inches fell in the northern parts of Clare County. He estimated much less fell in the southern parts of the county.
Rogers said his crew had been hard at work since around 4:00 am Tuesday only stopping in the late evening, and that they expected to work about the same number of hours on Wednesday, depending on the storm stopping.
He said the cleanup efforts were going well, saying drivers cleaned state routes, then paved roads Tuesday. Next, probably on Wednesday, would be gravel roads followed by area subdivisions.
He said, “Now that it has stopped, we can work on the get the state routes completely cleared and clean, and work on the paved county roads. We will likely work into the late evening.”
In Clare County, Public Information Officer Mike Bailey said there were 21 reports related to the storm including personal injury crashes, semi tractor trailer crashes and several reports of slide-offs due to icy roads. “There could have been even more that weren’t reported,” Bailey said.
Four to five inches of snow fell in northern Isabella County.
Isabella County Central Dispatch reported 22 calls Tuesday with ten of the calls reported vehicles in the ditch with drivers sliding off ice covered roads as they attempted the drive into work. There were also single and two vehicle crashes reported, some with injuries.
Isabella Road Commission drivers were clearing roads by 6 am Tuesday and continued until the evening, and continued with the same on Wednesday as the storm tapered off.
The respite was only expected to be a brief one though as the National Weather Service I Grant Rapids reported that “Another winter storm may arrive by Friday, with a similar track to Tuesday’s.” Snow was “likely,” during the next winter blast with the potential for “significant accumulations and strong winds.”