| Snow Covers Area
 County Gets Seven Inches; But Few Wrecks
Sarah Qualls
staff writer
The past weekend’s winter weather brought about seven inches of snow to Overton County, covering homes, roads and cars.
Despite the slick roads, there were only four car accidents over the weekend, all of which were weather-related. The Overton County E-911 said they received over 100 transport calls from law enforcement, medical workers and some government workers for help to get to work.
Overton County’s highway department has used about 40 tons of salt and 62 tons of limestone screening. The salt and screening are mixed to melt the snow/ice and create traction. The highway department has two salt trucks and 4 snowplows that have been covering the 600 miles of road since Friday.
“We’re doing the very best we can, under the circumstances.” said Kathy Little, highway department office manager. “We’re trying to get as much as we possibly can done.”
Little said that some workers worked 12-hour shifts and some had put in over 20 hours of overtime over the weekend, trying to keep the roads clear for residents.
“It’s been a while since we’ve had this much snow,” Little said. “And we apologize for anything that has inconvenienced any citizen.”
One problem they ran into was roads with salt refreezing overnight. This meant they had to get back out and re-salt them. This happened several times over the weekend. However, Little wanted to urge residents to call if a road needs to be cleared.
“Call us if a road needs something done to it,” Little said. “We will get someone out there to fix your road.”
The number for the highway department is (931) 823-5631.
For all of middle Tennessee, TDOT crews have used approximately 6,000 tons of salt and 525,000 gallons of salt brine in an effort to remove snow and ice from roadways. TDOT also urges motorists seeking roadway conditions information should dial 5-1-1 from any land line or cellular phone or visit the TDOT web site at www.tn.gov/tdot/tdotsmartway. And if emergency Trooper assistance is needed while traveling anywhere in Tennessee, simply dial *THP (*847) from your cell phone.
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