SPOKANE — Schools, city halls and businesses closed Monday in many parts of Washington because of a winter storm, and more bad weather was in the forecast.
The National Weather Service said a heavy snow warning was in effect through 4 a.m. Wednesday for the Olympic Mountains, North Cascades and the west slopes of the Central Cascades and mountain passes. A hazardous weather outlook was issued for Eastern Washington and the Idaho Panhandle, with snow expected for most of the rest of the week.
A storm that dumped more than a foot of heavy, wet snow over the weekend eased Monday across Eastern Washington, leaving treacherously icy roads, downed power lines and closed schools and businesses. A pedestrian was struck and killed by a snowplow.
So much snow fell in Spokane that cars high-centered on snow drifts in the middle of unplowed residential streets and cars skidded into other cars at icy intersections that had been plowed.
Spokane city officials closed City Hall and urged residents to stay home to give snowplows a chance to catch up. City and county governments told “nonessential” workers to stay home.
Schools were closed in Spokane for the first time since an icy storm in 1996. Students will have to make up the lost time later in the school year.
“It’s not an emergency,” Mayor Mary Verner said. “It’s just major snowstorm of a kind that we have not seen in many years.”
In fact, Spokane had not seen a snow event this big in more than half a century, the national Weather Service said.
Officially, 11.2 inches of snow were recorded at Spokane International Airport in the 24 hours from 4 p.m. Saturday to 4 p.m. Sunday, meteorologist Greg Koch said Monday. But 13.7 inches were measured for the duration of the storm. The single-day snow record is 13 inches set in January 1950, Koch said.
Another 2 to 4 inches were forecast from the storm moving in late Monday, he said.
The Washington State Patrol and other Spokane-area law enforcement agencies responded to more than 140 collisions in the 24 hours prior to 5 a.m. Monday, trooper Mark Baker said.
In central Washington, Armando Barragan, 30, of Othello was fatally struck by a state Department of Transportation snowplow while walking westward on the eastbound shoulder of Highway 26 in Othello shortly after midnight Sunday, the State Patrol reported. No charges are likely, according to the patrol’s accident report.
Interstate 82 was closed between Kennewick and the Oregon border for 15 hours from Saturday night to midday Sunday.
Classes were canceled Monday for more than 80,000 students across the state, including Spokane and Eastern Washington, and thousands more in nearby parts of Idaho and eastern Oregon.
Power was out to an estimated 4,000 people in Eastern Washington and northern Idaho, but electricity was restored to most on Monday, Avista Utilities said.
The Spokane and Tri-Cities airports were closed for a time Sunday because of the storm. At Spokane International Airport, the closure lasted three hours after a Southwest Airlines jet skidded off a taxiway after landing Sunday afternoon. No injuries were reported.
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