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Thursday, February 15, 2007

By: FREDA R. SAVANA (Thu, Feb/15/2007)

The nasty combination of snow, sleet and freezing rain closed schools and businesses Wednesday and caused vehicles to slip and slide on slick roadways.

Although snow accumulations were not significant, reaching only 2 to 3 inches in most parts of Bucks and Montgomery counties, the overall weather was miserable, a trend expected to continue today with temperatures below 20.

Commuters and police departments reported treacherous road conditions but relatively few accidents, primarily because most folks stayed home, officers said.

At the state Department of Transportation, spokesman Gene Blaum said some slush was deliberately left on roads by the 400 or so plow trucks working in the region; leaving it there gave the freezing rain something to adhere to.

"We leave a little snow and slush when we're dealing with sleet and freezing rain," said Blaum. "We don't want to get down to bare pavement."

Still, he said, PennDOT began treating the roadways Monday with a salt brine solution to prevent the snow from sticking, and plows have been out since Tuesday night.

Route 309 was closed for a time Wednesday afternoon after an accident involving a tractor-trailer. Otherwise, traffic continued to move on major roads -- albeit slowly -- Blaum said.

By the afternoon, there were 60 traffic accidents through Bucks and nearly 40 disabled vehicles on area roads, said John Dougherty Jr., Bucks County's emergency management agency coordinator.

"That's a little above a normal day, but for these types of conditions, it's low," Dougherty said.

In Bedminster, Police Sgt. Mark Ofner said conditions were "very poor ... with a lot of ice," but with little or no traffic, he said, things were going well.

Crystal Barber of Hatboro found the roads to be still "pretty bad" around noon when she was making her way into work at the Shell gas station on Route 611 in Doylestown Township.

"The roads haven't been plowed at all," Barber said. "But it's pretty dead here. There aren't a lot of people on the roads."

Fellow commuter Bill McCoach said it took him nearly two hours to drive from his Delaware County home to his job at a supply company in Willow Grove. His trip usually takes about 30 minutes.

"The roads," he said, "well, I've seen better and worse."

Heavy snow was evidently to blame for at least two partial roof collapses in northeastern Pennsylvania, at a U.S. Army Reserve Center in Scranton and a library outside Wilkes-Barre.

Thousands of state workers stayed home, scores of municipalities declared snow emergencies, and airlines canceled half the flights at Philadelphia International Airport. Statewide, there were innumerable traffic accidents -- even a refrigerator in the middle of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia -- but no immediate reports of fatalities.

The first major winter storm of 2007 could not have come at a worse time for florists, gift shops, candy stores and other businesses that traditionally ring up big sales on Valentine's Day.

At Stutz Candies on Route 611 in Warrington, traffic in and out of the shop was noticeably down, as the weather prevented some from picking up sweets for their sweethearts. The store normally gets about 600 customers on Valentine's Day and was expecting to see only about half of that by closing time at 9 p.m., said Robin Davis, store manager.

Some people did plan ahead, she said, and Stutz saw about 600 customers on Tuesday. By Wednesday afternoon, the roads were partially cleared and more were venturing out, especially men, Davis said.

"They know they'll be in trouble if they don't come out," she said.

For some, it seems, it was better to brave the icy roads than the wrath of their loved ones expecting a romantic dinner. At the Freight House in Doylestown, general manager Jay Stevens was shocked to see the crowds. Only three or four parties canceled their reservations, and the restaurant was expecting to see about 200 guests. The location may have helped.

Stevens said he received calls from local people who canceled reservations at restaurants farther away. "They can walk here or drive a shorter distance," said Stevens.

But the Black Bass Hotel was not faring as well. The River Road restaurant in Solebury had half of its reservations cancel, which is devastating for a business looking forward to getting a Saturday-type crowd mid-week.

"We don't get many on Wednesday. To have this type of business (in winter) ... we really rely on an extra weekend (day) in the middle of week," said owner Michael Reichert, who added that while customers were canceling, many were rescheduling for later in the week.

Some large corporations such as Merck, which employs more than 11,000 in Montgomery County, and GMAC ResCap, which has 2,500 employees in Horsham, give many of their staff the choice of working from home when winter storms hit.

"If your presence is required for whatever reason, then you're expected to do what you can, while remaining safe, to come in," said Connie Wickersham, a Merck spokeswoman.

But if you can do your job from home, you have that option, she said. "The main order from corporate is to be safe."

The same holds true at GMAC ResCap, the residential mortgage unit of GMAC. As a "flexible workplace," spokesman Brett Weinberg said, employees can work from home if they need to.

Not so for Frank Charlton, a Horsham man who spent much of his day on the road as a driver for a Willow Grove flooring company.

"I saw a lot of accidents, spin-outs," he said, mostly in New Jersey, where the roads were bad in the early morning.

"People were going 25 or 30 mph, start to get comfortable and then speed up and slip. If you just go slow, you're fine."

Today's commute might be tricky too.

Accuweather forecaster John Gresiak said skies should be clear today, but frigid temperatures and high winds will turn the landscape into an "arctic wasteland."

"It will be very cold and very windy," he said.

Daytime temperatures will barley nudge above 20 degrees today, and Friday and nighttime numbers will drop to the single digits.

It appears Punxsutawney Phil might want to reconsider his prediction.

Staff Writers Hilary Bentman, Melissa Busch and John Wilen and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Freda R. Savana can be reached at (215) 345-3061 or fsavana@phillyBurbs.com.