OC Sheriff: ‘It’s Been a Mess on the Roads’

When the forecast shifted Wednesday evening to put Orange County further into the pathway of Winter Storm Grayson, it caught some commuters on local roadways.

“Our guys were just overwhelmed with wreck calls,” Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood said on Thursday morning. “There weren’t any of them terrible wrecks, they were just people had gotten stuck, couldn’t get up a hill or run in or bumped into someone and created a road closure.”

While the forecast is calling for sunshine on Thursday, temperatures are not expected to rise above freezing. Blackwood said that would continue to cause hazardous conditions on the roads. And if residents need to leave their homes, Blackwood encouraged them to think about their route.

“If you’ve got roads or areas that are going to be difficult to navigate, you need to think about another way to get around them,” Blackwood said.

The sheriff reported major thoroughfares – interstates and highways – were passable, but that secondary roads throughout the county were covered in ice and snow.

“University Lake, in particular, the bridge down there was just terrible last night,” Blackwood said. “You can ride up the road now and see the cars that have had to be left behind, and it’ll be a day or two before we can get them all off the road.

“But the good thing is that it was a dry snow; it didn’t get our trees and ice on our power lines.”

A transformer blew and power lines were down in Hillsborough on Wednesday night leaving more than 1,700 residents without power. But Duke Energy is not reporting any Orange County power outages on Thursday.

Chapel Hill Fire chief Matt Sullivan said town crews were working to clear roadways but added that abandoned vehicles and low temperatures were also causing complications with that effort.

It could be Monday before temperatures rise above freezing.

The inclement weather caused school and government closings and delays on Thursday.

Photo via Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood