Watch out for icy secondary roads
Officials are warning drivers to be careful on secondary roads where ice and snow had melted Wednesday to only refreeze overnight as cold weather continues into today.
Shaded areas on secondary roads could prove troublesome for drivers this morning, as the ice and snow that melted on roads Wednesday was expected to refreeze overnight, according to Tim Herrington, the director of the Floyd County Emergency Management Agency.
“We’ll be in a lot better shape this afternoon,” he said.
A number of wrecks were reported by Floyd County 911 Wednesday, along with reports of certain roads being solid sheets of ice. Officials made the call early Wednesday for motorists to stay off the roads.
Ga. 101, which was reported as extremely icy, itself had a handful of wrecks, including a turned over pickup truck, Wednesday morning. By 9:15 a.m. Wednesday there had already been 24 wrecks, four with injuries, and 25 stalled vehicles since the winter weather hit Floyd County Tuesday afternoon. Icy areas included Reeceburg Road, Booze Mountain Road, Doyle Road, Billy Pyle Road, Burnett Ferry Road, Wax Road, Big Texas Valley Road and a number of other roads.
Rome Public Works Director Chris Jenkins identified sections of Chulio Road, Lombardy Way off Ga. 101, sections of Redmond Road, the heavily shaded College Heights community off Shorter Avenue and Horseleg Creek Road as particular areas of concern for a second night in the deep freeze.
“We’ll check all the bridges again and then just keep monitoring some of the places that we looked at Wednesday,” said Jenkins. “I think the brine did very well.”
Rome developed its own brine-making apparatus a couple of years ago and it is really paying dividends this year.
Jenkins said his department used 250 of the 50-pound bags of salt, at $7 each, to make the brine sprayed on roads Tuesday in preparation for the snow and ice.
He said the city also sold about 4,000 gallons of the solutution to Floyd County Public Works for distribution on rural roads.
Jenkins said residents
of Rome really helped out by staying at home and off the roads Wednesday.
A windchill advisory put into effect by the National Weather Service isn’t set to expire until 10 a.m. today. Floyd County was also one of the 83 Georgia counties included in a state of emergency issued by Gov. Nathan Deal.
According to the NWS, the temperature hit a low Wednesday at 13 degrees — not including the wind chill — and the wind reached a speed of
22 mph, with gusts reaching 30 mph.
“The cold windchills will cause frostbite in as little as 30 minutes to exposed skin,” the NWS stated in it windchill advisory.
The NWS predicted windchills would range from 5 degrees to -5 degrees overnight. Widespread melting on roads isn’t expected to happen until later this afternoon as the temperature could reach a high of 42 degrees.
Rome and Floyd County schools will be closed for the second day in a row, citing the state of emergency. Darlington School will also be closed. Georgia Highlands College will be closed, while Georgia Northwestern Technical College will delay opening until 10 a.m.
Rome city offices will open at 10 a.m. and municipal court will be held as scheduled at 12:45 p.m.
The Rome News-Tribune office will open at 9 a.m.
The William S. Davies Homeless Shelter at 132 E. 18th St. is going to be open for the next couple nights to provide emergency shelter for those needing to get out of the cold. The American Red Cross of Northwest Georgia provided 15 additional cots along with extra blankets Wednesday afternoon.
The shelter is in need of food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It also needs sweat suits, pillows, and volunteers to help serve meals and settle guests.
Also, Rome First United Methodist Church at 202 E 3rd Ave. is acting as a designated shelter for women with children. They church is set up to handle 25 women and children needing a warm place to stay.