CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Snow was making travel tough in parts of West Virginia on the day before Thanksgiving.
As of late Wednesday morning, emergency officials in the Mountain State’s Eastern Mountain counties and parts of the Eastern Panhandle were urging drivers to stay off the roads as heavy snow continued to fall.
“It’s hard to say when it’s one of the busiest travel days of the season,” admitted Brent Walker, spokesperson for the West Virginia Department of Transportation.
Amanda Mangan, news director with Allegany Radio Corporation in Cumberland, Md., was out on the roads Wednesday with Maryland road crews. “It is a heavy, wet snow,” she reported from Interstate 68.
At certain times on Wednesday, snow was falling along Interstate 68 at a rate of one to three inches per hour, according to the National Weather Service. In other areas affected by the storms, some roads were impassable as snow totals neared or topped double-digits.
“When vehicles come through there and they think they can, kind of, pull a hill or navigate through these conditions, they get stuck, trucks jackknife and then our salt trucks, of course, are stuck in it as well,” Walker said.
In the highest elevations, during the height of the snow, he said chains were recommended.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Winter Storm Warnings were still in effect for the following counties: Hampshire, Morgan, Berkeley, Jefferson, Hardy, Grant, Mineral, Pendleton, Preston, Tucker, Randolph, Pocahontas and western Greenbrier.
“That’s why they give out these advisories, these warnings, the traveling needs to take heed and, again, it’s tough on one of the busiest travel days,” Walker said on Wednesday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”
Meteorologists with the National Weather Service said most of the new snow from Winter Storm Cato would exit West Virginia by Wednesday evening.