“Canceled, postponed, closed, opening late, closing early”

Those were the most common words and phrases heard around Albany and Clinton County this week as a winter snowstorm blanked the area with snow that ranged from six to more than eight inches of snow and ice Monday and Tuesday.

What many are calling the “storm of the century” or at least the storm of this century – so far, brought the region to it’s knees early this week when a winter weather system moved across Kentucky dumping snow and ice and bringing with it sub-freezing temperatures.

City, county and state road crews worded virtually non-stop beginning early Monday morning when the storm first began dropping precipitation in this area, and continued to work to salt and scrape roadways and clear sidewalks around Albany, all the while, as snow and ice continued to fall.

In most cases, especially involving street and highway cleaning work, the efforts saw crews working repeatedly over the same areas, as the heavy snowfall quickly covered their clearing efforts within minutes.

In addition to the efforts of road crews to clear and treat highways, private vehicles equipped with snow blades as well as farm tractors, were spotted throughout Albany, working to remove snow from parking lots that were adjacent to area businesses.

With the snowfall ceasing for awhile Tuesday morning, road crews continued canvassing the city and county with efforts to remove snow and ice from the roads, and with the assistance from clear skies and sunshine for awhile, headway in the clearing efforts became clearly evident.

By mid-morning Tuesday, scattered patches of asphalt were becoming visible and traffic was beginning to move easier and in more volume.

The arrival of this week’s winter storm came as no surprise, as weather forecasts were warning of the potential this system had several days in advance of its arrival.

On Sunday night, several hours before the first snowflakes had fallen, the Clinton County News found shelves in local stores, especially those for bread, milk and egg products, empty in many cases, while in others, store and supply employees were busy trying to restock after customers had depleted what had been on display.

All the while, temperatures never broke the freezing mark on Monday or Tuesday and local weather forecasts weren’t calling for temperatures to hit levels above the freezing mark until at least the weekend.

In the meantime, overnight low temperatures were predicted to dip to levels below the 0 degree mark on Wednesday and Thursday nights of this week.

Clinton County school officials canceled classes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week due to the heavy snowfalls that caused most county roads to remain covered and dangerous and at press time Tuesday, with weather forecasts being for temperatures to remain below freezing for the remainder of the week, it was doubtful that students would return to classes before next week.

Most other meetings and functions that had been scheduled for early this week were also canceled or postponed.

The storm affected virtually the entire state of Kentucky and in fact was broad reaching enough to have impacted pretty much the entire mid-west region of the nation before heading to the northeast area of the nation and dumping more snow and ice to an already crippled region there.

Other regions of Kentucky saw at least as much snow as Albany and Clinton County, while many areas of central Kentucky and eastern Kentucky reported snow depths as deep as 12 inches and more.

At about 12:00 noon Monday, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear declared a state of emergency across the entire state, asking motorists to remain off of Kentucky’s highways and allowing road crews to treat and clear them.

The Governor’s declaration also cleared the way for local officials to immediately access to state resources to assist in public safety and recovery efforts.

“This storm system is still dumping snow across much of the state and temperatures are forecast to drop further. Some areas may see accumulation of up to 16 inches, making it one of the worst storms in recent memory,” said Gov. Beshear. “By declaring a state of emergency now for the entire state, we can deploy any needed state assistance, including National Guard troops if necessary, without delay.”

At left, Larry Thrasher restocked Little Debbie cakes Sunday at the IGA, near where shoppers had depleted bread supplies prior to the arrival of the snow storm.

Above, City of Albany employees Josh Parrigin and Eric Guffey were among many crews out clearing snow Monday morning during a storm that dropped between six and eight inches of snow across Clinton County.