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A LOOK INSIDE
Fighting Seasonal Affective Disorder Recognizing Seasonal Affective Disorder and how to combat it Continued on pg. 4 STAFF PHOTO
A pedestrian walks down the snow-covered streets of Morgantown.
Heavy snowfall leads to gridlock, several accidents around city BY DOUGLAS SOULE ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Morgantown and West Virginia University officials say an unexpected twist in the forecast on Tuesday caused road problems. In the Monongalia County area, 40 accidents occurred between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Tuesday, according to James Smith, director of MECCA 9-1-1. For the entire day, there were 56 accidents and four hit-andruns, according to Smith. Between 2:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. there were 36 motorist assists, and MECCA 9-1-1 received more than 400 phone calls. Motorist assists is when cars stuck in snow have to be safely removed. “The decisions were made with the best information available at the time, ” said an email statement
from WVU about the decision not to cancel classes Tuesday evening. “If instructors need to cancel classes, they should make every effort to notify students in advance,” said WVU in the statement. “And if students cannot get to class because of weather conditions, they should contact their instructors as soon as possible.” Morgantown City Manager Paul Brake said for most of Tuesday the Public Works Department, which helps the Morgantown roadways system, operated with five trucks. “Based on the forecast at the time, which called for the snow to taper off in the early evening, Public Works dropped down to three trucks for the afternoon shift,” Brake said. A weather advisory was sent to the public on Tuesday to warn of road conditions. For example, the Monongalia
County Homeland Security Emergency Management Agency said in a Facebook post, “Authority Morgantown Police Department motorists are advised to stay off of the roadways. Conditions are treacherous and traffic in the city is gridlock.” Brake said drivers had to use “reasonable common sense.” “There’s going to be weather conditions that will change, and no matter what, the first responsibility falls on the driver to use reasonable prudence on whether or not they need to drive,” Brake said. Morgantown contains different roads maintained by the state and the city. “Unfortunately, the City doesn’t have ownership or maintenance of state routes that run through Morgantown,” said Morgantown City Councilor Ryan Wallace in a Facebook post. “Although this is counter-intuitive and frustrating,
the WV State Department of Highways is responsible for major roads like 705/Patteson, Beechurst/Don Knotts, and even Walnut Street (to name a few).” James Mirage, assistant director of WVU Roads and Grounds, which does snow removal on campus, said the department faced challenges getting trucks and equipment out. “Morgantown basically was gridlocked,” Mirage said. Mirage said the the forecasts showed the snow would stop earlier in the day. “By 2 p.m. or so we had a number of [workers] who had gone for the day,” Mirage said. “Then this next round hit.” Mirage said clearing the snow off sidewalks was a challenge since there were “thousands of people trying to walk on the same sidewalks.”
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Students brave weather conditions on campus
Controversy sparks over poor road conditions Continued on pg. 5
Second half play proves detrimental for WVU Back-to-back losses come with sloppy second half play for Mountaineers. Continued on pg. 9