CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Kanawha Valley is beginning to restart itself as the dig out from Winter Storm Jonas continues Monday.
Charleston felt Mother Nature’s punch Friday through Saturday evening as the storm dumped a total of 18.6 inches of snow. Because of the large amount, clean up crews have been challenged of exactly where to put all the snow.
“It’s the amount of snow and what to do with it,” said Gary Taylor, director of Charleston Public Works on Monday’s 580 Live.
The city hired a contractor to help it remove snow left behind in the downtown area. The snow will then be piled up to melt in the parking lots of the North Charleston Community Center.
“We’re hauling snow out of there. It’s just somewhere to put it. When you clear the road, obviously it goes to the side of the road where people park or their driveways are and then we run into problems there,” Taylor said.
With sunny skies in the forecast Monday, C.W. Sigman, deputy director of Kanawha County Emergency Management, said that would help clean up efforts.
“Once you scratch it down to a little bit of black top and the sun can hit that first piece of black top, it’ll thaw out pretty quick,” Sigman said. He was also a guest on 580 Live.
Although the interstates have been passable, the work this week will include clearing side streets, Sigman said.
“We got some back roads that’s not on the public highway that has not been cleared,” he said. “We’re going to see some instances I think because what used to be a two lane road is now a lane and a half and it’s kind of hard to get over and out of the way.”
Not many cars were towed from city streets this weekend as a result from the storm. Taylor said about five vehicles had to be pulled out.
“We gave everybody an opportunity to dig them out,” he said of their patience. “We tried to help dig some out.”
Taylor said the goal for the rest of the week is to try to get residents mobile again.
“People need to get to work, I know they need to get to the doctors and other things, so the rest of this week we’re just going to spend on trying to get as many roads passable as we can.”
Also, several awnings and roofs collapsed due to the heavy snow. No injuries were reported.
Jonas was the second largest snow storm over any two days in Charleston’s history, according to meteorologists. Both the Blizzard of 1993 and 1996 brought 19 inches of snow.