Freezing conditions expected to cause slippery roads Friday night

KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) - After seeing more than 80 crashes at one time Thursday evening during the snowstorm, Kanawha County emergency officials are concerned things will be even worse Friday night with temperatures expected to drop into the single digits.

CW Sigman, Kanawha County Emergency Management director, said as soon as the sun sets, any snow, slush or water that is left on the road is going to turn into a solid sheet of ice.

“Stay home,” Sigman said. “Don’t get out on this, because I don’t care how good of four-wheel drive you have, unless you have chains, you are going to slide on the ice.”

The risk of refreezing will be even worse on smaller roads where plows did not clear all the snow during the day on Friday, Sigman said.

Areas like Malden were much better on Friday than during the peak of the storm on Thursday, but a thick layer of ice was already coating the road surface and making it difficult for drivers like John Hopkins.

“These roads are bad,” Hopkins said. “If you are in a vehicle, if you are in a car, you are not going to make it. You are going to have to get an SUV or something because in a car you are going to do nothing but spin out, spin out, spin out because it’s nothing but ice out here.”

“There are going to be accidents if people start going out,” Sigman said. “There will be challenges tonight being so cold up through part of the day tomorrow, and to add to our misery we are supposed to get rain Saturday night into Sunday.”

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