By Happy Carlock
Another wave of what some have dubbed Snowpocalypse 2014 hit the Rockbridge area on Monday, dropping about four more inches of snow.
Rockbridge County Emergency Management Coordinator Robert Foresman said the biggest challenge was the timing of the storm.
“It was good that both VMI and W&L were closed during the day as well as the public schools because it minimized the traffic,” Foresman said.
Lexington and Rockbridge County schools were closed Monday, bringing the county to a total of 12 missed school days this year. But Lexington has missed only five days.
Schools Superintendent Dan Lyons said Lexington schools will have to make up one of those days on June 16.
The county will have to make up eight of the missed days, under state requirements. County school calendars had four built-in snow days. The remaining four days will be made up by adding days to the end of this year.
Classes had been scheduled to end on June 6, Rockbridge County Schools Superintendent Jack Donald said in an email. But because of the need to add four more days, they are now scheduled to end June 12.
“The biggest challenge is trying to get the snow cleaned up afterwards and making it safe for the kids to get back in the building, and trying to have some continuity of instruction,” Lyons said. “I think we’re pretty fortunate that we haven’t had a lot of days consecutively missed.”
This winter’s snow removal could cost the state about twice as much as the Virginia Department of Transportation had expected. VDOT will likely exceed its snow budget by more than $100 million, and the agency’s chief engineer said Wednesday that the cost may be as much as $150 million more than planned.
The state highway agency said that additional snow removal costs will be covered by VDOT’s $1.8 billion maintenance budget.
Foresman said Public Works and Department of Transportation workers were well prepared to respond to the storm and had the roads cleared by the time it ended.
“This was not as bad as the previous storm,” Foresman said. “While it did drop some significant snow in some areas of the county, we did not get as much as was predicted, and with people staying off the roads it allowed the VDOT crews and Public Works to get the streets clear.”
A few minor car accidents were reported during the storm, but there were no serious injuries. One power outage was reported early Monday morning, but Foresman said power was restored by 4 p.m.