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Sloppy storm backs up traffic, downs trees and cables – Scranton Times-Tribune

Vaseline November 23, 2024

Laura Kobeski’s weather app indicated that Friday’s snowstorm would be little more than a blip on her day’s radar, which may require her to shovel through her property, clean her car and exercise some caution during her drive to Wilkes-Barre.

Instead, the Moosic resident woke up to power lines in her neighborhood, trees on her lawn and several inches of snow on the road.

Still, Kobeski, who works for a home health agency, believed she could safely get to work in Wilkes-Barre off Interstate 81.

So she cleaned her Jeep Grand Cherokee, warmed it up and headed to work.

“I started my journey to work and the roads were a complete disaster, completely sliding,” she said. “And then I got to 81 and the ramps were a disaster. I was fishing.”

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Jake Evans, a native of Scranton and a resident of Switzerland, and Patrick Stephen of Olyphant, right, build a snowman in the yard of a home in the 200 block of Willow Avenue in Olyphant on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. (Christopher Dolan / Staff Photographer)

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Once on the highway, near the Route 315 exit, traffic came to a complete standstill.

“It looked like a tractor-trailer being stabbed with a knife in the middle of the road,” she said. “Northwards also came to a complete standstill.”

At that point, Kobeski decided to head back home and get off at the first exit she could.

Although her plan was to work from home, that plan was somewhat vague, she said.

“We have power now, but the lights have been flickering all day,” she said. “So I’m kind of on and off.”

Kobeski said her internet was also spotty.

“I have a 14-year-old who goes to school from home,” she said. “If it’s on, it’s on and if it’s not on, it’s not.”

Kobeski said she was glad she was home safe, but she has no regrets about wanting to work in health care.

“You always have to try,” she said. “Or you don’t know if you can go in (work) or not.”

Up to 19 inches

Earlier this week, forecasters warned that precipitation totals would depend on elevation and temperature.

Michael Murphy, chief meteorologist at the National Weather Service, Binghamton, said the agency’s forecasts were correct, with many areas in Lackawanna County getting totals within the upper limits of those forecasts.

For example, downtown Scranton got seven inches, Moosic got six inches, Newtown Twp. gained eight inches and Clarks Green rose to twelve inches.

Jefferson Twp., in the eastern part of the county, came in with 20 inches of snow.

Murphy said the snow was heavy and wet and clinging to trees and wires. In some cases the weight brought down the trees and wires.

In the northern part of the province, Tomkinsville received 10 inches, Clifford 17 inches and Richmondale 19 inches.

Murphy said he expected precipitation to fall Friday afternoon.

Be prepared

Amber Sheridan, who lives in Newton Twp. and runs a daycare there, said she prepared for the worst with Friday’s weather.

On Thursday evening, she announced a two-hour delay, following a forecast that called for variable amounts of snow for the area, ranging from three to four inches.

“It gave us some time to wake up in the morning and see what we actually got,” she said.

Sheridan’s man does snow plowing in the area and woke up before 4 a.m. to start clearing roads.

Sheridan called him and asked him what the roads looked like around 5am

“He said it wasn’t too bad, but there were a lot of trees down and power lines down,” she said. “And it keeps snowing.”

So Sheridan decided to close the center rather than put staff members on dangerous paths.

She had prepared parents in advance for a possible closure.

“I don’t think they were very surprised. “Most of them just looked out the window and thought it was the safest option,” she said.

Sheridan’s power went on and off several times, but many of her neighbors were without power.

Sheridan’s staff was able to work from home on Friday and completed online training.

Those without internet would complete it this weekend, she said.

Power issues

Emergency services were busy all morning and well into the afternoon responding to reports of trees and wires throughout the province.

According to scanner reports, multiple accidents, some involving injuries, have been reported across the area due to slippery roads.

Due to snowy conditions and downed cables, traffic slowed across the province and some roads were closed.

According to the PPL outage map, thousands of Lackawanna County customers were without electricity as of 3 p.m. and crews were working to restore power by the end of the day.

Unlike most municipalities in the state, Blakely owns and operates its own electric distribution system.

So when the power went out just after 2:30 a.m. Friday morning, city workers immediately sprang into action to restore electricity to residents.

Blakely Borough Manager Chris Paone said the outage was due to a particularly heavy snowfall that caught on the wires.

“Within about an hour to an hour and a half of clearing the trees, crews were able to restore power to two-thirds of the city,” Paone said.

About an hour later, another group of trees fell on power lines, and crews worked for about 30 minutes to clear those trees.

Around 2 p.m., the municipality was working to restore power to a handful of customers, out of the 3,600 households they serve.

“The heavy snow is really taking a toll on the trees and the lines themselves,” he said. “This is some of the heaviest snow we have seen in a long time. It just wraps itself around trees and wires.”

The municipality removed trees from the area with power lines, but the particularly heavy snowfall posed additional challenges.

“There are trees that are 50 to 60 feet away from power lines that bend into them,” he said. “The trees are not designed to handle this kind of weight and I know PPL has a lot of problems too.”

In addition to crews working to restore power, DPW workers had been plowing since 2 a.m., Paone said. “It was a catch-up game, we got a lot more snow than anyone thought we would get.”

Originally published: November 22, 2024 at 10:35 AM EST

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