The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
DIG OUT, HUNKER DOWN
Just when flurries ease a bit, bitter cold sets in as winter bites with vengeance
Lorain County residents joined the rest of northern Ohio for the great dig out of 2019 starting early Jan. 20.
Snowfall around the region made for roads slick and thick with the white stuff starting Saturday afternoon.
Plow crews worked Sunday, but the weather was expected to stay windy and cold overnight, so safety forces and local officials said they expect driving will remain risky on Monday.
At the National Weather Service office at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, staff were tabulating measurements from weather spotters and social media around the region, said Meteorologist Brian Mitchell.
Snowfall ranged from 10.9 to 13 inches around Oberlin,
“Snow storms naturally cause frustration. I was stuck for a half an hour on a road that was previously plowed...”
— Mayor Chase Ritenauer
7 to 8 inches around Elyria and North Ridgeville and 12 inches in Amherst, he said.
“Varying amounts across the county there,” Mitchell said.
In many storms, there is an area with the right combination of temperature and moisture to pick up the heaviest amount of snow, Mitchell said. Oberlin may have been it, although Sheffield Lake also experienced heavy snowfall, he said.
Anyone expecting a heat wave in the next few days will be disappointed.
“It’s going to be within a few degrees of zero starting out tomorrow,” Mitchell said Sunday evening. “The high’s only going to climb to the mid teens.”
Overnight of Jan. 21 to 22 will bring bitter cold. “You’re going to have some windchill readings 10 to 20 below zero,” Mitchell said.
When asked by The Morning Journal, Mitchell confirmed the weather workers were on the job without pay due to the federal government partial shutdown that started Dec. 22.
“We’re still here doing all the essential stuff,” he said. “We’re here certainly to take care of the watches and warnings and advisories.”
For local folks, practical matters included moving the white fluffy stuff to a more convenient location.
Starting Jan. 19, shovels were hot commodities, said the managers of hardware stores in Avon Lake and Vermilion.
Curiously, one shopper bought a bag of potting mix from Ace Hardware of Avon Lake on Jan. 20, said store manager Robert MacMurray.
“Outside of that, it’s been all winter,” he said, with shoppers stocking up on snow-melting mix and twocycle engine oil for snow blowers. “It’s all been snowrelated.”
The Vermilion Ace Hardware sold at least 40 snow shovels and four snow blowers on Jan. 19 and 20, said store manager Chris Wood.
“Our sales were really good today,” he said on Jan. 20. “Business has been steady. Shovels, salt, snow blowers, just stuff for the weather.”
In Lorain, Allen Quinn, 60, rode his bicycle from his sister’s home on F Street to get cigarettes and afternoon refreshment at The Stop Convenient Store on East Erie Avenue.
“You have to be careful,” he said about riding in the snow. “I’ve had a lot of practice. You’ve got to be careful because you can slide left or right, but with an old dirt bike you can do it.”
His other advice for winter cycling is to wear at least two of everything. Quinn had on two hats, his hood, two pairs of socks and two pairs of pants.
For drivers, shortly after 3 p.m. Jan. 20, the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office lowered the snow emergency level to Level 1.
That did not mean the streets were clear.
“Travel plans should still be delayed if possible,” the sheriff’s emergency notification said. “Roadways are snow covered/icy in many locations.”
“I can tell you the roads up there are still slick and icy and we’re still handling a lot of crashes,” said a Ohio State Highway Patrol dispatcher said the evening of Jan. 20.
Overnight weather was expected to be windy, with blowing snow and cold temperatures,
he said. Things have gone very well. We have had 11 trucks out and as of 9 p.m. tonight all major road and streets and all secondary streets have been plowed and are clear. We will be sending our trucks out again on Sunday at 5 a.m. to do all major routes again as necessary.
In Elyria, things have gone very well, said Mayor Holly Brinda.
“We have had 11 trucks out and as of 9 p.m. tonight all major road and streets and all secondary streets have been plowed and are clear,” she said. “We will be sending our trucks out again on Monday at 5 a.m. to do all major routes again as necessary.”
Wind out of the north did not help the situation in Lorain, said Mayor Chase Ritenauer.
“Snow storms naturally cause frustration,” Ritenauer said. “I was stuck for a half an hour on a road that was previously plowed and had nearly a foot of snow as a result of winds and drifting.
“Our location on the lake hurt our efforts this storm, but our workers performed admirably through some difficult, if not impossible, situations,” he said.
Lorain Public Property Manager Lori Garcia, who oversees the street crews, thanked Lorain residents for being patient.
“I really feel they got this storm cleaned up quickly for the type of storm it was,” she said.
The street crews worked in shifts of 10 or 20, with the entire pool of 20 drivers working at least 16 hours over the weekend, Garcia said.
For some of the relatively new staff, this was the first major snowfall they cleared. Late last week, the crews
“There are cars parked everywhere in this city and it is a mess to try and clean those side streets.”
— Lorain Public Property Manager Lori Garcia
practiced their routes and working with the equipment to get ready for the storm, Garcia said.
But on some streets, city residents also did not help.
“I think the biggest thing that we are very, very frustrated with is that 80 percent of the people did not adhere to that no parking ban,” Garcia said. “There are cars parked everywhere in this city and it is a mess to try and clean those side streets.”
The situation becomes doubly frustrating because residents call the Street Department staff complaining that their streets are not clear, Garcia said.
Lorain crews will remain out through the morning of Jan. 21 to clear the side streets.
Due to the size of the storm, street crews could not notify police of every car remaining parked in the street. However, if there is snow to be moved but cars in the way on Jan. 22, the street workers are calling the police to tow or ticket the offending cars, Garcia said.