HARDY COUNTY, W.Va. — The digging out process continued Friday in parts of West Virginia, two days after Winter Storm Cato dumped as much as 20 inches of snow on some areas.
It was more snow than Paul Lewis, director of the Hardy County Office of Emergency Management, and many other emergency officials were expecting.
“Everybody was calling for six to 8 inches, so it almost doubled itself compared to what they originally said,” Lewis said on Friday’s MetroNews “Talkline.:”
Unofficial snow totals from the National Weather Service in Baltimore, Md. showed 20 in. of snow fell in Petersburg in Grant County, 20 in. in Paw Paw in Morgan County, 15 in. at Sugar Grove in Pendleton County, 10 in. in Lehew in Hamphire County and 13.5 in. in Wardensville in Hardy County.
On Wednesday, during the height of the storm, Lewis said there was a 10-car pileup at the Hampshire-Hardy county line while part of Route 55 to Wardensville was closed for five hours because of jackknifed tractor trailers.
“It seems like we always have a problem on Route 55 when he have any type of snow at all with trucks,” Lewis said.
By Friday morning, he said all of the major roadways in Hardy County had been cleared. Black ice, though, was a problem there and across the Mountain State while Black Friday shoppers were out looking for bargains.
Several additional inches of snow were reported in Preston County and Tucker County along with Garrett County, Maryland to close out the holiday week.
Crews with First Energy were working to repair 700 remaining power outages in eastern West Virginia for Mon Power and Potomac Edison customers. Most of those outages, as of Friday morning, were in Greenbrier County.
Temperatures were projected to near 60 degrees in parts of the Mountain State by Sunday.