MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — About 24 hours after Winter Storm Jonas jolted north central West Virginia out of unseasonably mild weather, the message from emergency officials remained the same as when the first flakes fell Friday afternoon.
“Shelter in place. This is a great day for tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Keep aware of what’s going on. Listen to the radio, television and National Weather Service,” advised Ed Preston, Morgantown Police Chief.
The four weekdays leading up to the invasion of Jonas were filled with police agency pleas and requests from MECCA 911 to stock up on storm supplies in advance and be off the roads Friday.
“As far as 911 calls and calls for assistance, it was minimal to none. We want to thank the community for heeding our caution and preparing ahead,” said Mike Wolfe, Executive Director of the Monongalia County Homeland Security Emergency Management Agency.
Overnight, Monongalia County was slammed with 8 to 12 inches of snow in the western part of the county to up to 22 inches of snow further east and snow steadily fell into Saturday afternoon.
Wolfe said his team measured 16 inches of snow by 7 a.m. at the 911 center.
While the winter storm crippled interstate travel in the southern part of West Virginia, only a few incidents were reported in Monongalia County.
A jackknifed tractor-trailer on I-79 near the split with I-68 resulted in a 2-hour road closure overnight.
Wolfe also said local DOH crews were pulled to the bottom of Cheat Mountain on I-68 near the Preston County line for big rigs hung up in the snow.
With exception of those few minor incidents, the pace of the storm’s wrath was the biggest challenge for road crews.
“It was a very quick accumulation of snow to say the least,” remarked AccuWeather Meteorologist Bill Deger. “Pretty much right from 6 p.m. right through about midnight, that’s when the heaviest snow fell with accumulation over an inch an hour . We had visibilities down to a quarter of a mile.”
Monongalia County is home to two of the region’s largest hospitals, including a level 1 trauma center.
Emergency officials and road crews prioritized roadways leading to Ruby Memorial Hospital located inside city limits.
They are “working very diligently as to keeping that ambulance route open as it goes up Route 705 to the Mileground. That’s the priority now to get those ambulances in and out,” the police chief said.
“We’ve been able to work in cooperation to bring some of the city crews out just past the city limits areas around the hospital to assist DOH so we can continue receiving and transporting patients,” Wolfe added.
Winter Storm Jonas formed from moisture from the Gulf and the Atlantic combining with upper level low pressure from the Rockies and the Plains. That collided with an existing low pressure system that moved up the coast fueled by warm ocean water temperatures off of the east coast.
“It certainly is going to be one for the record books,” Deger said.
National Weather Service observer Charles Trembly of Terra Alta in neighboring Preston County recalled similar snow totals more than 6 decades ago and again some 20 years after that.
The mountain town accumulated more than 100 inches of snow in January 1977.
“The grandaddy of the whole system here was Thanksgiving of 1950,” Trembly shared.
According to him, 36 inches fell in the first day. The next day brought 30 more inches of snow. The third day, “That’s what did us in,” Trembly exclaimed. The storm dumped another 20 inches of snow in Terra Alta. It shut the railroad down for three days the lifelong resident remembered.
West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin declared a state of emergency Friday. It doesn’t forbid travel. But, in Preston and Monongalia Counties, Friday’s message carried right on over into another day of accumulation.
“Stay inside. Stay warm, and stay off the roads,” reiterated Chief Preston.