Snow brings delight along with dangers, school closures

Published 11:52 am Monday, January 28, 2008

While snow caused problems on Snohomish County roads this morning and closed many schools, people in Darrington reveled in the picture-perfect conditions.

“It’s another day in paradise,” said town councilman Dan Rankin. “It’s beautiful. I wish we had a snow day so I could enjoy it, but no such luck.”

Several inches of snow fell overnight in Darrington, adding to the blanket that has covered the mountain town since Christmas.

There’s around six inches of snow on the ground, but since people drive through snow daily, there hadn’t been any weather-related accidents, Rankin said.

“We’re used to it,” he said. “It’s second nature. You expect to have snow here; so it’s part of life. Down there (in Everett), although in history they used to have to deal with snow every winter, it’s not that way anymore, so people don’t know.”

A slick sheet of ice and snow made roads from Marysville to Bothell treacherous.

Even as temperatures were warming this morning, vehicles still struggled on icy onramps.

The shoulder of I-5 between Marysville and Everett was littered with cars stuck in the snow.

In Monroe, Jakeh Roberts, the city’s utilities department manager, said he woke up at 1:30 a.m. and deployed crews by 2 a.m.

“We’ve got a pretty good jump on it,” Roberts said.

At least a few inches of snow accumulated on roads and the city used two vehicles with snow plows to improve road conditions, Roberts said.

Lingering snow showers will continue to add to problem roads, officials said.

Wet roads are forecasts to freeze and become icy tonight. As much as three inches of snow is expected to accumulate before daylight, more in some areas.

Rankin advised people in other parts of the county to drive like Darrington residents: Take it slow and give each other plenty of space.

“You always think, ‘How can those people not understand this? Can’t they drive normally?’” Rankin said. “But we don’t deal with road rage or traffic in Darrington. Everybody gives everybody their own space and you cope with it.”

The snowy weather made for a dangerous but entertaining morning for Sue Campbell in south Everett.

She lives on a steep hill on Seaview Way just before it connects with Mukilteo Boulevard.

Every time it snows, people slip slide their way up and down the hill.

This morning was no different. She heard a scraping noise and watched a car slip down the road before crashing into a tree.

She went outside to look, and there was the man’s car with one wheel in the air.

“They’re stacking up on the hill like (airplanes getting ready to land at ) LAX,” she said. “Right where our house is right where everyone starts losing it.”

She said people should park at the bottom of the hill, but they don’t.

So far this morning she watched six cars spin out, crash or otherwise lose it.

“It’s fun to look out the window and see people try to make it up the hill,” Campbell said. “It’s dangerous. It is entertaining as long as no one gets hurt.”

While school children around the county enjoyed an unexpected day off, Everett schools already had planned to have children stay home for pre-scheduled teacher day.

Still, the snow gave everyone delight, even some children for whom snow wasn’t exactly novel.

A group of immigrant children from the former-Soviet Union talked as if they were seasoned weather experts.

“It’s way colder there,” said Vita Popach, 13, who moved to Everett almost three years ago from the Ukraine. “If it snowed we had to go to school anyway. We walked to school both ways in the snow and it’s not like here where it gets warmer. There it just keeps snowing.”