Highlands sees 2.5 inches of snow on Monday
Photo by Christopher Lugo/Staff Highlands school student Walker Kitrell throws a snowball at Kelsey Hutchinson Founder’s Park on Monday.
The first snow of 2022 came on Monday to Highlands and is still stuck to the ground all over the Plateau.
Highlands recorded 2.5 inches inches of snow on Monday and Cashiers recorded three inches of snow.
Highlands town manager Josh Ward said crews were working all day Monday to make sure roads and sidewalks were clear of snow.
“We make sure to have all of the equipment ready to go when we know that there is going to be heavy snow,” Ward said. “The salt spreaders, plows and all of that are ready and we make sure that our crews are on call, so they are always ready in case things get bad. They are there working until it’s over.”
Ward said N.C. Department of Transportation is supposed to clear off Main Street, but if they are backed up, the town crew is ready to clear the street, as well.
“A lot of times, they are tied up,” Ward said. “We typically try to get all of the main routes as much as possible until it stops. Then, we start jumping into those secondary town roads that we have. We also clear the sidewalks. We have a little Kubota machine that is small like a lawnmower and has a blade on it that we clear the sidewalks with.”
On Monday morning, Ward said because of the warm temperature, it was more of a slick snow.
“It really packed down and it was hard to go on Monday morning,” Ward said. “The crews were able to get it cleared by mid-morning though. We had the sun come out and thaw everything out and we were able to move everything a lot better then.”
Power outages were experienced throughout the Town of Highlands because of high wind speeds.
“We had some trees fall, as well, that our power crew had to work on in the morning,” Ward said. “For a while, the majority of town was out of power, but we got everything back on pretty quick.”
Brandon Crone, lead telecommunicator for Macon County Emergency Services, said they fielded 114 calls by 9 a.m., Monday, compared to 38 calls the previous Monday morning.
Duke Energy reported 758 customers in Macon County were without power Monday morning. By Tuesday morning, power had been restored to all but eight customers.
With more snow fall reported for Thursday, Ward said his crews will be ready to be working again.
“Our teams were out again on Tuesday morning spreading more salt to make sure that we are prepared for any black ice that comes from the melted snow on the streets,” Ward said. “Obviously, we can’t get to all of it, so people need to be really careful driving with this ice on the roads.”
- By Christopher Lugo