Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886
Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886
Accidents wreaked havoc throughout county
On Dec. 1, elementary school students and their parents wait for the school bus at the corner of Shelton Springs Road and Parsley Avenue. School starts were running two hours late because of snowfall.
Mounds of snow are piled on the Shelton High School parking lot Monday morning, with school running two hours late due to snowfall.
It's autumn on the calendar but winter weather appeared with a week of steady snow and precipitation that knocked out power and forced school cancellations.
According to weather.gov, Shelton received 3.21 inches of precipitation from Nov. 29 to Tuesday. Belfair received 2.76 inches of precipitation, according to weather.com. A Facebook post by a Union resident showed 24 inches of snow piled up.
Two winter weather advisories were issued last week. The Mason County Sheriff's Office also reported snow-related accidents Dec. 2, including a collision on state Route 3 at milepost 9 by the Deer Creek store involving 10 vehicles and a collision on SR3 near U.S. Highway 101 that sent two cars into a ditch.
North Mason School District canceled school Nov. 30 and had two-hour delays Dec. 1, 2 and Monday. The district released students early Nov. 29 in anticipation of the snow and to ensure kids could make it home safely.
"The safety of our students is always our first priority," North Mason School District Superintendent Dana Rosenbach said in a news release Nov. 30. "The North Mason School District covers a large geographic area with extremes in elevation and weather conditions, and our families are dependent on school buses for transportation to and from school. Late yesterday and evening, some of our areas were highly impacted by heavy snowfall and wind damage that made our roads impassable. In addition, the county is short manpower to clear the roads as they have in the past, making some of our routes impossible to navigate safely ... we may have to cancel specific routes on weather-impacted days to not cancel school."
Mary M. Knight School District canceled school Nov. 30 and Dec. 1. The district released a statement Nov. 30 about an incident where a bus slid off the road amid the snowy weather Nov. 29.
"Our MMK bus driver was slowing for an accident (car in a ditch) on the S curves on Shelton Matlock Road, when a vehicle passed our bus on the right and then spun out and ran into the ditch in front of our MMK school bus," MMK Superintendent Matt Mallery said in a news release. "Our bus driver took evasive action and missed the vehicle that had passed them illegally and was able to come to a complete stop. When trying to move again on an incline and with the slope of the road, the bus was unable to gain traction, causing the rear of the bus to be pulled into the ditch. One student was picked up by a parent and the other student was transported back to school in another district vehicle. Our transportation director took another school bus out and pulled our bus out of the ditch and both buses returned to school. Again, no students were injured, a Shelton police officer and a Mason County Sheriff's officer was on scene to render assistance."
Mason County PUD 1 was ready for the weather and started to prepare before the snow started falling.
"Anytime we have snow that accumulates and stays around long enough to get wet and heavy, it takes down trees, which take down our poles and wires," PUD 1 General Manager Kristin Masteller told the Journal in an email. "So, we had all hands on deck, standing by for the call. Our water crew helped WSDOT clear the highway so our line crews could get up to the outage areas. This storm was not as bad as the storm we had in January, but it was close. We had issues with our transmission lines in addition to a lot of single tap line issues at people's homes. The transmission and substation issues are a time drain. They take a long time to fix and we know that's frustrating for customers, but it's the nature of the beast living in a rainforest."
Masteller said nearly the entire system was out at some point, but they received help from Grays Harbor PUD and the City of McCleary.
"(I) can't say enough about our neighbors and the public power community. Our line crew spent a week helping Jefferson PUD last month too during their historic storm event. It's what we do," Masteller said. "Snow is starting to fall again so hopefully we don't have too much go out tonight. Our crew is tired. I'm tired!"
It was also all hands on deck for Mason County PUD 3. According to PUD 3 spokesperson Lynn Eaton, the PUD had 5,432 customers affected by outages.
"The majority of those were in the north end (Tahuya Peninsula). We had over 5,000 fed from our Collins Lake Substation who were without power and durations ranged from a few hours to over 14 hours," Eaton said in an email to the Journal on Dec. 1. "There were many individual outages so our longest outage was over 18 hours for one customer. We were also battling outages in the Matlock area simultaneously but for a much smaller number of customers (approximately 150). The biggest obstacle for our crews to make progress was access and road conditions. There were so many downed trees and debris and unpassable roads that just getting our tree crews through to clear the trees off the lines before our line crews could get through was slow going."
Eaton said it is a little early for this amount of snow, but the outages are not uncommon for this time of year, usually due to rain and wind. The large outages allow PUD 3 to come together and get customers' power restored in the quickest and safest way possible."Whenever we have outages like this where trees have taken down more lines than we have crews to get to, we always like to remind people that downed lines are dangerous," Eaton said. "Just because they aren't arcing or sparking, doesn't mean they aren't live. If you see a downed line, always assume it is live and stay at least 100 feet away - call the PUD or 911."
North Mason Regional Fire Authority Chief Beau Bakken said they received 12 calls related to weather and specifically, snow and ice conditions as of Dec. 1. He said this is the earliest he can recall having a snow-related event to respond to."It can (and some cases did) slow our response during an emergency," Bakken told the Journal in an email. "We found it difficult to respond to some areas of the Tahuya Peninsula due to road conditions. We have four-wheel drive ambulances and we have tire chains that we use during severe snowfall."
Even with the snow, fires can happen. Bakken said people should have their chimney cleaned once a year and to not overheat wood stoves before going to bed - overheated temperatures can lead to chimney fires. Smoke detectors should be operable, and don't run any type of gas in an enclosed space.
Bakken urged people to stay home if there is no need to go out.
"We are working with the county to try and keep roadways open and plowed," Bakken said. "We are responding to downed trees to keep roadways open, and if anyone has a medical need to leave their home and cannot due to weather conditions, we will help."
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