Snow blankets area
Ebenezer Church Covered Bridge in Mingo Creek County Park is blanketed in snow following the weekend’s storm.
Several people walk along Richhill Street in Waynesburg Saturday morning.
Skip Frownfelter of PCsquared shovels Saturday in front of the business on High Street in Waynesburg.
Snow is making it difficult for U.S. Postal Service carrier John Conger to deliver the mail Saturday along Jefferson Avenue in Washington.
A lone motorist travels Route 19 in Waynesburg this morning.
Vehicles have a difficult time driving on Jefferson Avenue in Washington this morning.
Residents of Greenside Avenue, Canonsburg, awakened to this snowy scene this morning.
A state Department of Transportation crew plows High Street, Waynesburg, today.
A winter storm warning was called off Saturday afternoon for counties in Southwestern Pennsylvania, the National Weather Service said.
“The snow is over,” meteorologist Brad Rehak said.
The warning remained in effect Saturday night in Westmoreland, Somerset and Fayette counties as well as Garrett County, Md., and Preston County, W.Va.
“(The warning) will be in effect through (Saturday) evening because of blowing and drifting snow,” Rehak said.
Snow from a storm that is pounding the eastern part of the United States resulted in totals that include five to 15 inches in Washington County, a foot to a foot-and-a-half in Greene County and four inches to two feet in Westmoreland County, according to the National Weather Service. Among the highest totals were two to three feet both in Garrett and Preston counties.
State Department of Transportation spokeswoman Valerie Petersen said Saturday plow trucks remained on the job clearing interstates.
Petersen cautioned motorists to drive slowly as snow continues to blow across the roadways in some areas.
“If you need to go out, make sure your car is properly prepared and give yourself distance between you and the car in front of you,” Petersen said. “Expect the unexpected.”
Area fire chiefs said earlier Saturday the lack of calls for service demonstrates people are heeding warnings to stay off the roads.
The chiefs said they were not called to respond to many weather-related calls despite enacting storm-mode operational plans that call for staffing stations around-the-clock.
Washington Fire Department responded to two calls by Saturday afternoon, Chief Linn Brookman said.
Brookman said the first call Friday night involved wind damage at a construction site, and the second call Saturday morning was an accident on the interstate just past the Jefferson Avenue exit.
“The streets are passable,” Brookman said. “There is not a whole lot of traffic out there.”
Neither North Strabane nor South Strabane fire department had weather-related calls as of Saturday afternoon.
“It is quiet as can be,” said South Strabane fire Chief Scott Reese. “Once the snow hit, people heeded the warnings and stayed in. We haven’t turned the wheels all day.”
North Strabane fire Chief Mark Grimm said additional staffing at the department’s three stations was in effect through Saturday night.
Todd King, West Brownsville Volunteer Fire Department chief, said preparedness and motorists heeding warnings to stay off the roads helped cut down the need for emergency service response.
“People aren’t driving, they are not getting stuck, and there are no power outages,” King said.
The storm kept municipal public works crews on the job around the clock.
Waynesburg Borough road crews began plowing when the storm hit Friday afternoon.
“I was out until 9 (Friday) night, then back out at 2 (Saturday) morning,” said Mike Katchmark, who was driving a plow truck Saturday morning. “We’ve been out for 24 hours.”
Katchmark said about 16 inches of snow fell in the borough by about noon Saturday. He noted more was on the way.
“Traffic has been light, and that makes our job a lot easier,” he said. Still, conditions were not good, Katchmark said.
Though the borough was keeping the roads plowed, it was also finding it more difficult to find a place to push all the snow, he said.
“We’re probably going to have to get out the front loader and start hauling it away.”
Katchmark asked residents not to shovel the snow from their sidewalks into the street, but instead shovel it into their lawns.
“People are throwing it out into the road,” he said. When he comes through with the plow, he joked, “I have to give it right back to them.”
Katchmark also had another request of residents to “be patient. The borough is doing the best it can do.”
Businesses did not find many patrons braving Saturday’s weather conditions.
Belko Food Store on High Street in Waynesburg had opened at 10 a.m. but saw few customers during the morning hours.
“We had a few people at first, but not too many,” said Sherry Arnold, a store cashier. What was selling? “A lot of milk, a lot of bread and cigarettes: You’ve got to have those.”
Traffic on High Street was rather sparse, Arnold said. “It’s been mostly trucks, gas well trucks, but not even too many of those.”
About a half-dozen people were in the store about noon.
Tina Kiger of Rogersville stopped in for some tissues. Kiger said she, her husband and son drove into Waynesburg about 9:30 a.m.
“My husband decided he needed Bob Evans,” she said. With about 14 ½ inches of snow on the ground back home, she admitted the idea of making the trip might sound a little crazy.
The roads were snow-covered, Kiger said. “They were bad, but we have four-wheel drive.”
“We had breakfast, went to Walmart and are now heading back home,” she said.
Cody Rush, who came in from Sycamore, also had a four-wheel drive vehicle.
The roads “were not good,” he said. They had been plowed earlier, but when he came in, “they probably had about two to three inches of snow on them,” he said.
Rush was picking up a few items at Belko for his family, but what brought him into Waynesburg was work. He was scheduled to do the sound for a wedding at First Baptist Church.
The wedding was scheduled for 2 p.m. and was apparently still on, Rush said.
“They said (the snow) will make some really great pictures,” he said.
Staff writer Bob Niedbala contributed to this story.