‘A perfect storm.’ Lexington, state slowly dig out after snowy, icy winter blast
Lexington and Central Kentucky began to dig out Friday from the first major snow storm of 2022 which dumped nearly 10 inches of snow in the Lexington area, causing widespread accidents and traffic backups into Friday morning.
Western Fayette County received north of 9 inches of snow, making it the seventh snowiest day in the city’s history, according to National Weather Service totals posted early Friday.
On top of the snow, temperatures plummeted to the single digits Thursday evening and Friday morning, creating black ice on roadways Friday morning, further thwarting snow removal efforts on the state and local level.
State and local leaders urged people Friday to continue to stay off the roads so crews could treat and clear roads. No weather-related deaths had been reported by 3 p.m. Friday.
“All roadway surfaces will freeze. They are and will be extremely dangerous,” Gov. Andy Beshear said late Thursday, shortly after declaring a statewide emergency. He urged the public not to travel Friday.
Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton also asked the public to be patient as city crews began the arduous task of clearing streets.
“I want to thank our residents for their patience as we battled the storm and continue clearing roads. Please be safe, stay off streets and roads if possible, and keep warm during today’s bitterly cold temperatures,” Gorton said.
City plowing crews had cleared the city’s major roadways-- including Nicholasville Road, Main Street, Harrodsburg Road and many key downtown streets. Crews had also cleared many secondary streets heading into Friday afternoon, city officials said.
City crews were working 12-hour shifts to clear and treat icy roads.
‘A perfect storm’ creates havoc and headaches
State and local crews pretreated roads with brine in anticipation of Thursday’s snow, but the snow storm moved in quickly when people were trying to head home around noon Thursday, causing an unknown number of accidents and hours-long back ups on multiple interstates, including the Western Kentucky Parkway, Interstates 64 and 75.
“It was a ‘perfect storm,’ literally,”said Kentucky Transportation Secretary Jim Gray, a former Lexington mayor. “Heavy snowfall, combined with heavy, midday traffic and freezing pavement temperatures. The heavy traffic slowed many of our snowplows and salt trucks, and freezing pavement meant ice beneath the snow.
An unknown number of motorists spent hours on Interstate 64 in Montgomery County on Thursday night waiting for emergency crews and tow trucks to remove up to 40 vehicles, including multiple jackknifed semi-trucks, that were involved in a pile up there Thursday afternoon.
According to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, that section of I-64 eventually re-opened early Friday morning.
Some motorists spent more than six hours on I- 75 near the Clays Ferry Bridge near the Madison and Fayette County line on Thursday waiting for crews to clear that section of interstate that also shut down around noon Thursday after multiple accidents in that area.
On Friday, sections of various roadways were shut down again due to multiple accidents as crews tried to clear roads.
An accident on I-75 in Scott County involved multiple jack-knifed tractor trailers, which shut down the interstate for several hours.
The Western Kentucky Parkway also was shut down in Ohio County after a tractor trailer overturned. The parkway was closed for several hours, according to Kentucky State Police.
There were also long delays on I-75 in Fayette County between the Man O’ War Boulevard exit, 108, and the Clays Ferry Bridge on Thursday afternoon, according to state and local transportation officials.
Vehicles were struggling to make it up a large hill just before the Madison County line on I-75, state and local transportation officials said. State road crews were trying to re-salt that area as temperatures started to climb in the double-digits by Friday afternoon.
More than 150 wrecks in Lexington over two days
Traffic in other areas of the city and the state was slow-moving as icy, slick roadways made travel treacherous into Friday afternoon.
Lexington police were so busy responding to accidents Thursday afternoon, they temporarily suspended taking non-injury accident reports around 3:30 p.m. Thursday. Police resumed taking non-injury accident reports around noon Friday.
From 10 a.m. Thursday to 12:45 p.m. Friday, Lexington police had responded to 124 non-injury collisions and 24 injury collisions. That number only includes the non-injury accidents that were reported to police. That actual number of non-injury accidents over the past two days is actually much higher.
Police had also helped with various motorist assists and street hazards bringing the total number of incidents police worked over the two days to 245, according to Lexington police.
Lexington Police Sgt. Donnell Gordon said no weather-related deaths have been reported to the police department as of noon Friday.
One Lexington police officer was injured when he was hit by a vehicle that slid into him while he was helping with an accident on Thursday afternoon. The officer was responding to an accident on Jacks Creek Pike and Old Richmond Road at the time the accident occurred, police said. The officer was able to drive himself to the hospital. His injuries are non-life threatening.
The storm prompted a series of cancellations on Friday. Fayette County Public Schools, which had nixed in-person learning Thursday, also called off school Friday, joining dozens of other Central and Eastern Kentucky school districts. Most city and state offices were also closed.
The University of Kentucky closed its campus—except for its health care operations— but allowed students who were scheduled to move in for Spring semester to return to campus Friday.
Mother Nature will help boost snow-clearing efforts on Saturday.
According to the National Weather Service, temperatures in Central Kentucky are expected to rise above freezing, reaching the mid-40s by Saturday. On Sunday the high temperatures are expected to reach 48 degrees.
This story was originally published January 7, 2022 at 3:45 PM.
