Storm brings about five inches to county

By Wanda Combs
Editor

“It got slick fast,” State Trooper Keith Gregory said of the winter storm Tuesday (March 2).
Snow began falling at midday and continued throughout the evening, bringing about five inches of snow in Floyd County. School officials decided to close schools one hour earlier Tuesday. Chains were put on buses, and at the high school, buses were released one at a time down the slippery drive.
Several wrecks, “mostly fender benders,” were reported, but no one was seriously injured, said Gregory.
One woman was transported to the hospital following her car’s collision with a rescue squad vehicle on Route 8 near Lumber Road.  Gregory said the ambulance was transporting a patient to the NRV Medical Center. Logan Carper of Floyd was driving a 1998 Honda two-door car in the opposite direction. Gregory said she saw the ambulance lights and hit her brakes. Her vehicle slid across the road and hit the ambulance in the front at an angle. Carper was put into the wrecked squad vehicle until another ambulance could arrive and then taken to the Medical Center. No one else was injured. Her vehicle was totaled, and the rescue squad vehicle had an estimated $3,500 in damage, Gregory said. The road was shut down about 10-15 minutes before traffic was able to pass in one-lane.
On Route 8 on the other side of town, at U-Toll-Em, a log truck and several other vehicles got stuck. “Most of them were trying to come up the hill,” Gregory said. That road was closed 30-40 minutes as drivers waited for Virginia Department of Transportation employees to push the snow.
On the Floyd side of Midway Grocery, “there were probably 5-6 cars sideways in the road and in ditches,” Gregory commented.
A vehicle also flipped on Union School Road, but the driver was not injured.
“It was just a slick snow,” Gregory said, “and a wake-up call for everybody.”