The Morning After the Snow of 2011: Not Out of the Woods Yet

On Tuesday, January 11, Gilmer County Deputy Clayton said, “ People are starting to get out on the roads. But because of falling temps, our concern is black ice for tomorrow.”
According to Deputy Kosak, “Gilmer has one snow truck out. The rest of the fleet went to help Atlanta.”

Deputy Clayton also added that “the mayor took his tractor out to help shovel the snow.” Day two of the infamous snow of 2011 shows yet another government official rolling up his sleeves to pitch in where needed.

On Monday, fetchyournews.com was on the road in Gilmer County and tracked down Chairman Commissioner J.C. Sanford off of Hwy 382 who was checking road conditions first-hand. Sanford said the county road department cleared emergency routes and hill-top roads first. At the time of this writing 515 was a solid sheet of ice due to rain on top of packed snow. Simmons and Maddox roads were passable.The commissioner indicated that Gilmer County has 400 miles of roads to maintain; the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) has 80 miles to maintain. The county has been working round-the-clock to clear roads and that over-salting roads that aren’t being traveled in these weather conditions is dangerous as it leads to more icy conditions. Mr. Sanford said the rumor that the county was out of or running low on salt was not true.

Joining the ranks of officials throughout all of North Georgia, Mr. Sanford urges residents to: “Stay in.” Period.

The GDOT offers state and interstate real-time travel information and road conditions 24 hours a day. Call 511, then press ‘9’ to reach an operator.