Rock Hill buried under 18 inches of snow

ROCK HILL, S.C. - Normally after a snowstorm, at least 100 people would be out at "School District Hill" - the best place in Rock Hill to sled - taking their chances on sleds or inner-tubes or boxes.

But Thursday's storm was no normal one, dumping 18 inches of snow on this city about 20 miles south of Charlotte, N.C., sometimes at the rate of 2 inches an hour, paralyzing all of York County in drifts up to 3 feet high.

"Off the main roads, anything but a 4-wheel drive is useless," York County Emergency Management Director Cotton Howell said. "This kind of snow is unprecedented in my memory."

The storm caused four traffic deaths statewide, three Thursday night and one Friday, the Public Safety Department said. In all, state troopers reported more than 1,400 wrecks from the time the snow started until noon Friday, when most winter storm warnings expired.

The snow fell in two bands - one Thursday morning that caught workers and schoolchildren off guard, snarling traffic and making 15-minute commutes last several hours. The second band fell Thursday night, leaving an additional 4 to 6 inches in those areas.

The 18 inches in Rock Hill topped the Weather Channel's list of snowfall amounts from the storm. And some residents, yardsticks in hand, say that measurement might have been a little low. One York County sheriff's deputy told Lt. Willis Gregory he took a step out of his home Friday morning and sunk into nearly 2 feet of snow.

Official records aren't kept in Rock Hill, but the city's unofficial weather observer can't remember more snow in 125 years of data. Howell said longtime residents say it's the worst storm in the past century. And Steve Gilbert, one of the few brave souls to make it to "School District Hill," said this storm would have been something up in Montana, where he lived a decade ago.

While the heaviest snow was confined to eastern York County, areas from Whitmire and Gaffney to Union and Chesterfield saw 10 inches of snow or more, the weather service reported.

The snow amounts lessened further south and west, but areas from Newberry to Winnsboro saw 4 to 6 inches, and a dusting of snow fell as far south as Columbia.

A few flurries and snow showers hung around Friday, but the weather should quickly clear, and temperatures in places that got the most snow should be up in the 60s by Sunday, forecasters say.

"But it will take more than one day in the 60s to melt all of this away," Howell said.

The weather also postponed a number of high school basketball playoff games.

Schools across the northern half of the state closed or were on a two-hour delay. State offices in 18 counties delayed opening, while Gov. Mark Sanford closed offices in Cherokee, Chester, Chesterfield, Lancaster, Newberry, Union and York.

While the 18 inches of snow in Rock Hill didn't break the state record of 24 inches set in the Clarendon County town of Rimini in 1973, some records across the state were broken. The 8 inches of snow that fell at the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport shattered the old record for Feb. 26 of 5.1 inches set in 1982 and the storm total of 8.3 inches was the ninth-highest snowfall ever recorded at the station.

Getting nearly a foot-and-a-half of snow caused unprecedented headaches in an area that shuts down when just an inch falls. Commuters trying to make their way home to York County from work Thursday got stuck on the roads and just abandoned their cars. Then the snow drifted on them, making it impossible for emergency vehicles to operate, Howell said.

"We can't get ambulances in, we can't get fire trucks in," Howell said. "Everything we send out gets stuck."

An armada of 4-wheel drive vehicles, from both local and state agencies, rushed north to help. They spent all night and morning trying to get stranded motorists home and getting doctors and other critical workers to their jobs.

Neighboring counties didn't suffer as much. Officials in northern Lancaster County measured 15 inches of snow in just a small area. In rural Chesterfield County, people were staying inside until the 10 inches or so of snow melted, deputies said.

Cherokee County Emergency Management Director John Brasington was stunned to hear the next county over got 18 inches. No one in his area got more than a foot.

"Things are slowly getting back to normal here," Brasington said. "They're starting to clear the roads, but no one is going out on them."

Department of Transportation crews worked around the clock to keep Interstate 77 open. Traffic inched along over bridges coated in ice and slush Friday afternoon, and the only clear portions in some sections of the four lanes heading north in York County was the left shoulder.

Heavy equipment normally used in construction was in other lanes, creating mountains of snow as it tried to clear the interstate.

In Chester County, Sheriff Robert Benson said officials opened a shelter at a Richburg church near I-77 to handle travelers stranded by the storm.

"Some of them got stuck and some of them just had their wipers stop working," Benson said. "My deputies told me we had one fellow whose heat stopped working and he just couldn't wait in traffic any more."

The freak nature of the storm was caused by the excessive amount of moisture this storm brought in from the Gulf of Mexico, Clemson University Agricultural Meteorologist Dale Linvill said.

The bulk of the precipitation had to go somewhere, and Rock Hill just ended up in the bull's-eye, Linvill said.

"Some place had to get this much," Linvill said.

While emergency officials in York County fretted, almost everyone else just relaxed and enjoyed a day off. Nearly everyone had power, unlike recent storms, and the fortuitous timing meant at least a three-day weekend for most.

Gilbert was one of the few residents to brave the roads, taking his children to sled on the hill in front of the Rock Hill School District's office.

They planned to stay out an hour or so, then go back and enjoy the winter holiday. "I'm going to go home, cook something, have me a beer or two and relax," Gilbert said.