STORM HITS AREA

Weekend weather causes concern throughout community

While this may all seem like it would lead to a dangerous drive, according to several local police stations there were very few car crashes caused by the snow.

A winter storm forecasted to strike Lorain County Jan. 12 into Jan. 13 raised anxiety across the county with 10 school districts closing and the city of Lorain declaring an emergency snow ban on their streets.

Tom King, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said relatively warm temperatures Jan. 11 were indicative of the storm that came Jan. 12 and the whole weather system came from a low pressure system in northern Alabama and Georgia.

He said the system carried warm temperatures in front and lower temperatures in the back.

“A cold front went through Thursday night and as the low (pressure) moved up through

New England it spread moisture back into the area causing the precipitation to change over to snow on (Jan. 12),” he said. “We also got a little bit of freezing rain as well, I know a lot of the area experienced a bit of a mix for a few hours before the changeover occurred over to snow.”

According to a release from the National Weather Service in Cleveland, they measured the snowfall the county received over the 24-hour period bridging Jan. 12 to 13. In a measurement taken at 7:15 a.m. the estimated snowfall in Elyria was 5.9 inches, Oberlin received five inches and Sheffield Lake received four inches.

While the snowfall aggravated those with driveways to shovel, the ice caused by such low temperatures led to fears the Vermilion River may overflow leading to evacuations of the area, according to an alert released by the county.

Despite these fears, caused by a blockage of ice near the US-6 Vermilion River Bridge, the Vermilion police said nothing

was damaged and no homes needed evacuation.

“I actually went down there right when (the ice) broke free and it was running pretty smooth there,” Katie Kopriva, a dispatcher with the Vermilion Police Department said. “Usually, sometimes, it will break or it will jam up and that’s what causes the flooding. It jammed up under the river bridge but then it broke free pretty quick.”

While this may all seem like it would lead to a dangerous drive, according to several local police stations there were very few car crashes caused by the snow.

Though each jurisdiction had a few cars slide off the road, Avon, Avon Lake, Sheffield, Sheffield Lake and Vermilion each reported no accidents.

Representatives of the Elyria and Lorain police departments were not available for comment on their conditions, but representatives from their fire departments said each city had two crashes.

Avon Lake Police Lt. Sean Bockleman seemed surprised by the lack of crashes.

“(It was) a combination of good luck and our service crews getting out in front early,” he said with a chuckle.

KEITH REYNOLDS — THE MORNING JOURNAL Vermilion seemed calm the afternoon of Jan. 13, but just a day earlier it was feared the Vermilion River would overflow necessitating evacuation of the surrounding homes.