Gaston County Schools, During a typical evening on Sunday, Bi-Lo in Belmont has two to three lanes will be open for customers.
This is hardly the case last night as the threat of a heavy snowstorm threatened in the minds of people.
“We’ve got 10 lanes open at the moment,” said Jason Morrison, deputy director of the grocery store, at about 19 pm Sunday.
Morrison said all the store’s sales have increased by more than 30,000 and on average about every day since Friday, when forecasters began to say the snow on Monday was a certainty.
“It has been well all weekend,” he said. “We have a lot of bread, milk and eggs and things like that. But we are getting low on some other points in time.”
As the sun rises this morning, the flakes begin to fall in Gaston County, “said Andrew Kimball, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Greer, SC
“We seek to develop the snow probably right around dawn or right then, around 7:30 am,” he said.
About three to five inches of snow expected to fall through the afternoon, when the precipitation will change in a mixture of sleet and freezing rain. This “light glaze” will continue to come until some time Tuesday morning, Kimball said.
“Monday and Monday night, we are not expected to be above zero,” he said. “So the roads are very slippery. And the temperature will struggle to get the freezing point Tuesday. ”
Gaston County Schools announced no changes to his schedule Monday as Sunday night. Schools spokeswoman Bonnie Reidy said officials would watch the weather and control of roads on Monday morning to determine what to do.
“We are waiting and watching the weather,” said Reidy.
Officials from the NC Department of Transportation pushed area residents to consider staying home Monday rather than risk havoc on icy roads.
The Department of Transport did not intend to brine to Gaston, Lincoln and Cleveland counties Saturday and Sunday. If snow falls, the salt workers plow snow and spread as needed, and engineers continue to watch the forecasts to decide what strategies to use, according to the website of the State.
The notice at the end of last week allowed the city of Gastonia to get a head start on preparations. Gastonia does not use salt water, which is designed to help prevent formation of ice on roads where snow or ice begins. Instead, the city uses slag, a mixture of sand and salt, “said Superintendent of Public Works Dale Denton.
The city has 15 large trucks equipped with plows and spreaders have 10 slag and two graders who are ready to go to work, “he said.
“Early morning is what we hear in so far as it will start snowing,” said Denton. “We’ll all be ready to go at 7 o’clock”
The town starts to slag on the hills and bridges. Once an inch of snow has fallen, the plows begin to roll.
Major thoroughfares such as Franklin Boulevard U.S. 321, Garrison Boulevard and Redbud, Union and New Hope roads receive priority treatment.
“Sometimes we make several passes over them,” said Denton. “Whatever we get those cleared and nature under control, we travel on secondary roads.”
The city also gives priority to the inputs of the fire department and police station, lots of parking, and along Court Drive at the entrance to Gaston Memorial Hospital.