Whiteout
Snow storm blasts through Gallup area

Juan Chavez sprinkles some blue chemical snowmelt in front of the entry doors to the Pizza Hut Restaurant on US 491 in Gallup while trying to prepare the business to safely have customers come in and dine. Several restaurants in the area reported very slow business and other local businesses closed up altogether due to the snow storm. {Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

By Bill Donovan and Leslie Wood
Staff writers

Jairod Gonzalez, 7, Tess Leyba and Julian Martinez team up to create a large snowball to be the body of a snowman Monday afternoon on Vega Street in Gallup. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

A slow-moving snow storm blanketed the area with between 5 to 8 inches of snow Monday. The snow storm resulted in McKinley County road crews scrambling to get as many roads in the county cleared as possible.

Alan Reppert, an AccuWeather meteorologist, said the most recent snow storm resulted in Gallup’s highest snow accumulation of the winter season so far.

“It seems like it should be our highest snowfall this far,” Reppert said.

Motorists also felt the impact of Monday’s winter blast as Gallup police responded to 20 traffic accidents between 7 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., all of which were weather-related.

Deputy Police Chief John Allen, of the Gallup Police Department, said the agency’s officials asked night shift officers to remain on duty into the morning hours to assist with the large volume of calls for assistance. School resource officers were also reassigned to patrol work because school was not in session.

Lt. Darren Soland, of the New Mexico State Police, said portions of Interstate Highway 40 that traverse Continental Divide and the state line were particularly hazardous Monday morning. He said state road crews were working in both the Gallup and Grants areas to clear the interstate of excess snow and ice.

But by 3 p.m., despite being on the road from 5:30 a.m., the crews were able to get only the primary roads cleared, leaving hundreds of miles still snowpacked as evening approached.

“We haven’t gotten many calls,” said County Manager Tom Trujillo.

The county did get some calls from residents in the Manuelito area who were wondering when their roads would be cleared. The answer: probably not on Monday.

“Our first priority was getting the school bus routes cleared,” said Trujillo. After that, the paved roads would be cleared and then all of the other county roads.

The school bus routes were cleared by the afternoon, said Charles Kendall, who oversaw the county road cleanup on Monday, but it won’t be until Tuesday at the earliest before county crews would be getting to the other roads in the county. And if it snows again Monday night or Tuesday morning, the crews will be back clearing the school bus routes before they start on the other roads.

“The problem we will have with the other roads,” said Kendall, “is mud.”

The roads weren’t too bad when the crew first started about 5:30 a.m. but it soon was coming down hard and heavy, after raining for several hours.

As a result, when road crews finally get to plowing unpaved roads in the county, they’re going to remove snow and find mud, which will create problems of its own when county residents try to get to work or get home, especially if temperatures get moderate enough to thaw the frozen snow.

This is a problem that residents in the more remote parts of the county have been facing off and on for decades — muddy roads that make travel impossible except in early morning hours when mud has frozen because of cold temperatures that occur during the night.

As it is, road crews are hoping to get to many of the secondary roads on Tuesday if no new snow falls and hope to have all roads cleared off by Wednesday. There were few minor accidents and vehicle slide-offs throughout the day, but nothing too serious.

“I think people are driving with common sense and getting to their destinations,” Soland said.

Stan Henderson, public works director for Gallup, said four crews of city employees were sanding local streets to ensure motorists’ safety. They continued their efforts throughout the night, he said.

“The main roads are fairly passable,” Henderson said Monday afternoon. “ ... but we do expect temperatures to fall and re-freeze the roadways.”

The sudden blast also affected local restaurants.

Tamara Long, manager of Burger King east, said she experienced a nearly 20 percent decrease in business Monday because of the storm. Some of her employees from Zuni and Breadsprings also had trouble traveling to work because of road conditions.