City largely avoids dreaded ice storm

05/02/2008 by George.

From The Pittsburg Post Gazette

Emsworth PA 

 Sidewalks and some side roads were more manageable with ice skates than boots and tires, South Hills trolley service was disrupted, schools were delayed, and some power lines came down but, all in the all, the feared ice storm didn’t really require those panic purchases of milk and toilet paper.

“With these kinds of storms, this is about the best you can get,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Lee Hendricks. “It was what we expected, varying amounts of sleet, freezing rain and ice.”

And things are looking up, too. From this morning through tonight, conditions will be dry and temperatures will be slightly above normal. Highs this weekend are expected to be about 40 with lows in the upper 20s.

Generally, the storm began about 1 a.m. and by later in the morning had switched to rain in most areas except along the mountain ridges to the east, where the temperature didn’t rise to above freezing, Mr. Hendricks added.

The storm began in southern West Virginia and was as far north as Bradford. The hardest-hit areas, to the north and east of Pittsburgh, had a half-inch each of ice and sleet; Pittsburgh accumulated less than a half-inch of ice.

“We generally average about one of these types of storms a year,” Mr. Hendricks said. “There was really nothing unusual.”

Indeed. State Police Trooper Robin Mungo said there were only a handful of accidents yesterday and most of the crashes occurred after the ice turned to rain.

The ice storm did create havoc for the Port Authority’s T system in the South Hills, forcing officials to shut it down for most of the morning. It didn’t get running until shortly before 11 a.m. The authority had shuttles available to take commuters into town.

Jim Struzzi, spokesman for PennDOT, said most main roads were ice-free because workers got out early and put down anti-icing agents and then went back and put down salt.

“Relatively, we were in good shape,” he said. “They got out in front of it.”

City of Pittsburgh Public Works Director Guy Costa likewise said his drivers started laying down salt and calcium chloride at 2:30 a.m. The city started with 45 trucks, then increased the effort to 50 during the daylight shift. Primary roads were salted by 7 a.m.

“Overnight and early this morning, it was pretty treacherous on the streets and especially on the sidewalks,” he said.

Complicating matters, freezing rain washed away some of the salt. As temperatures rose, the city switched to straight salt because calcium chloride was no longer needed to melt the ice.

Duquesne Light spokesman Joseph Vallarian said about 4,500 customers lost power. All were expected to be back on line by last night.

About 2,500 Allegheny Power customers lost service but all were expected to have power restored by last night, company spokesman Doug Colafella said.

Staff writers Rich Lord, Torsten Ove, Mark Belko and Karamagi Rujumba contributed. Michael A. Fuoco can be contacted at mfuoco@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1968.

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