Ohio – The holiday storm kept road crews busy as many Northeast Ohio drivers had to slip and slide to their holiday destinations. While the snow created tricky travel conditions, it also made for a picture perfect Christmas Day.
“We haven’t had snow on Christmas in awhile, it’s pretty nice, haven’t really driven out in the weather yet, it took me two hours to shovel out of the driveway…got a lot of snow,” said one driver.
People in Northeast Ohio woke up to a winter wonderland, and for much of the day, the snow just kept falling.
“When you guys said it was gonna snow, I wasn’t expecting us to get quite as much as we got, I was kind of surprised,” the driver said.
Many people say the snow is a great way to get into the holiday spirit, but driving in it is not quite as fun.
“The roads kind of suck when you come north. We’re from down south, so it’s a little bit worse up here than it is down south, but it’s been a great day, you know, it is what it is and we have a white Christmas,” said one woman outside a gas station in Highland Hills.
Although the dream of a white Christmas came true for Northeast Ohio, for some drivers, it was a bit of a holiday nightmare.
“Troopers in the Cleveland area and east of Cleveland handled a lot of crashes. They were extremely busy, they were out, as well as handling the crashes, they were out helping stranded motorists,” said Sgt. Ryan Purpura, a trooper with the Ohio State Highway Patrol
The highway patrol reminds drivers to slow down and stay alert to changing road conditions, especially in the snowbelt where lake effect bands can pop up fast.
“If it gets colder, the conditions can worsen on the roads, they can turn to black ice. That’s why we ask you to slow down and just because it might look clear, pay attention to the possibility of something being slippery, especially bridge overpasses…those tend to freeze first,” said Sgt. Purpura.
“The roads are real bad, ice, rain-slicked, it’s ad out here, you gotta have a four wheel drive like this,” said another driver.
Plow truck drivers were busy all day long trying to keep up. But, like in most places, the snow kept falling, and coating the roads all over again.
“Stay in the house if you ain’t really gotta go nowhere,” advised the man.
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