Sean C. Morgan
Sweet Home started the year with more snow then more snow again on Monday.
Sweet Home was covered in snow Monday morning last week when it started falling about 7 a.m. By 9 a.m. a couple of inches had accumulated.
Before it could melt, snow was falling early New Year’s Day around the Willamette Valley. Roads were clearing by Thursday evening, but chunks of snow remained scattered about along roadways and sidewalks Fields remained under a blanket of snow.
Monday morning, Sweet Home had another thin layer of dry powder easily blown or swept away. The National Weather Service showed Sweet Home and the Willamette Valley under a winter storm warning through Tuesday evening.
Forecasts were calling for the snow to turn to freezing rain on Tuesday and rain as temperatures were to climb into the 40s an low 50s by Wednesday.
“People seem to be adapting well,” City Manager Craig Martin said. “I haven’t heard of any real significant traffic accidents as a result, which is a good sign people are respecting the weather and adjusting.”
“We’ve had a couple jobs out of it,” Andy Wright of Jack Wright and Son Auto Body and Paint said, but not too much related to the weather.
One accident showed up in last week’s police logs when a driver slipped on some ice on Highway 228 behind Thriftway. The single car, driven by Cody Shipp, 16, slid into a ditch. His parents pulled the car out of the ditch.
Public Works crews were out over the weekend sanding in anticipation of snow Sunday night and Monday morning, Martin said. He suggests that residents be prepared ahead of time for potential power outages.
“Any time during the winter, always be prepared for power outages,” Martin said. “It’s not unlikely we could be out of power for an extended period.”
Residents should prepare alternate heat sources and stock up drinking water if they are on a well, Martin said. City water users should prepare as well. The city has a three- to five-day supply in its reservoirs, but an extended power outage could conceivably last longer.
This is the kind of weather where weak exposed pipes are discovered, Martin said. Residents should cover faucets and exposed pipes, especially if they are planning to be gone for any extended period of time.
One water customer, who stopped at City Hall, had been gone for awhile, Martin said. Water usage was down as if the user were gone, then usage suddenly jumped to 4,500 cubic feet with an apparent leak.
The weather “has delayed construction work on our sewer demonstration project,” Martin said. The city is talking with the contractor now about when the project can continue. It will remain “on hold till we get back to a more normal weather pattern.”
Martin believes localized flooding similar to the flooding around Thanksgiving could occur again. The city will have sand and bags available for public use in the City Hall parking lot between City Hall and the library.
With the amount of snow gathered in the low hills surrounding Sweet Home, “we look like we’re set up for some flooding,” Fire Chief Beaver said.
Martin asks that members of the public help out and keep an eye on storm drains and ditches.
“It really helps if they’re able to keep the ditches and storm drains clear,” Martin said. Public Works will respond to clogged ditches and drains, but it takes time as they move from one incident to another.
Drains can be plugged by leaves or other items, a plastic bag in one case, Martin said.
The Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District has had little trouble through the last week, Chief Beaver said. One ambulance spun out on a call near Brownsville the first day of snow. The ambulance and personnel were unharmed.
The department chained up its rigs when it snowed last week then again on Monday in anticipation of a possible Monday night snow storm.
“We’ve definitely been busier during this cold spell,” Chief Beaver said. Ambulance calls were up, with nine on Friday. The day “the snow started, we had three medic units out all at the same time.”
On New Year’s Day, the department responded to a number of fire calls, Chief Beaver said. Those calls were not to fires. Rather they were to downed trees and power lines.
The department has responded to no weather-related traffic accidents, Chief Beaver said. “People seem to be driving very responsibly around here.”
“We’ve been trying to get people off the streets while it’s light out,” Sweet Home Postmaster L.K. Craigmiles said. That means that mail carriers have not necessarily delivered to every address every day.
Delivery trucks have also been delayed getting to Sweet Home, Craigmiles said. “That’s just the weather. We can’t control that.”
The Oregon Department of Transportation crews haven’t been challenged much by the snow. They take care of the highways 24 hours per day, seven days a week plowing the roadways as needed with a crew of 10.
Any time the snow gets above about two inches, the crews plow Highways 20 and 228 and put de-icer on curves and corners.
Roads were clear with spots of ice on Monday all the way up to around milepost 58 where the highway had a snowpack of a couple of inches, Tony Jones, Sweet Home coordinator, said. The roadside snow base was 80 inches.
So far, the snow hasn’t caused any problems keeping the roads up, Jones said. “We like it when we can’t keep up. That’s the challenge. That’s the game of it.”
Postal vehicles have been chained up as needed, Craigmiles said, and there haven’t been any incidents for drivers.
“So far we’ve been very fortunate,” Craigmiles said. “For the first couple days, mail slowed down because it was slow getting here.”
It didn’t stay slow for long as the lull in advertising from December ended, and the Post Office has been as busy as usual.
“The first day it snowed, it amazed me,” Craigmiles said. “To me it was like the busiest day I’d seen in downtown Sweet Home.”
Monday, the Post Office was busy with persons trying to get everything out in the mail before the anticipated ice came in.
The old saying about delivering the mail through rain, sleet or snow was painted by an artist in New York, but it was never really a Postal Service policy, Craigmiles said. “But we do our best to live up to it.”
At Thriftway, “it was weird this year,” Manager Mark McDonald said. “Normally, the first snow, you get fear buying.”
There was none of that this year, McDonald said. Instead the store has experienced strong business steadily.
“The average order size is up probably 40 percent Purchases have been strong,” McDonald said. “For us it was never that big bump like usually happens.”
Area residents have been stocking up on emergency gear, like water, matches, batteries and wood pellets for stoves.