Now comes the meltdown and cleanup.

The winter storm system that weather forecasters predicted to hit the area did just that, dumping up to a foot of snow in some places of Caldwell County Friday and early Saturday.

Snowfall amounts varied according to the area of the county, but most ranged from 8 inches in lower elevations up to a foot or so at higher locations as the county tasted its first true taste of winter in quite some time. The snowfall probably was the most to hit Caldwell from one storm since the March 1993 blizzard that brought things to a standstill across North Carolina.

While this one did not reach that magnitude, it did pose its own issues, primarily with the roads across the county. The snow made for slick driving conditions, and as it kept piling up, vehicles of all kinds slid off into ditches, medians and shoulders, some striking trees or other vehicles, and others simply getting stuck with not way of getting out.

Because of those issues, law enforcement and rescue crews spent Friday and parts of Saturday dealing with the incidents.

“We worked numerous wrecks because the conditions were so treacherous,” North Carolina State Trooper T.A. Rathbone said. “It just took us some time to get to each call because of those conditions. We had a lot of problems with vehicles that were not able to move, and we had a lot of vehicles on the sides of the road.”

Rathbone said several roads around the county were closed for periods of time because of issues related to the weather conditions, noting that issues near the Catawba River bridge backed up traffic in the northbound lane past Interstate 40 along U.S. 321.

Road crews with the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Division of Highways office in Hudson worked throughout the night Friday and all day Saturday trying to improve the roads. County Maintenance Engineer Rodney Gantt said those crews plowed snow and spread a mix of salt and sand on them to improve traction.

“It’s been plowing pretty good,” Gantt said. “We worked all day and all night, and we’ll keep working around the clock until we get it safe.”

Gantt said crews were concentrating their efforts in primary roads first, then the secondary roads and those in subdivisions.

“The primary roads are passable,” he said. “There still are some spots that have some icy spots and are partially covered. Most of our secondary roads are still covered.”

An issue hampering NCDOT’s efforts locally was the malfunction of several pieces of heavy equipment used to clear roads. Gantt said three graders and four plows went down overnight, and crews were having to spend some time working on those to get them operational once more.

However, the sunshine early Saturday and warmer temperatures worked in the favor of road crews by melting a lot of the snow and ice. Unfortunately, that melting snow creates water that will stay on the roads and probably refreeze overnight when temperatures dive back into the 20s. It’s a pattern that could continue over the next couple of days as daytime temperatures warm up then fall, especially Monday when the overnight low is 21 and Tuesday when it is anticipated to be 19.

“That’s what we’re afraid of,” Gantt said of the thaw-freeze, thaw-freeze effect.

While road issues were of concern, so were emergency calls fielded by Caldwell Emergency Services and other fire/rescue agencies throughout the county. Wrecks and medical calls Friday and overnight topped 60, and kept the county’s Emergency Operations Center, which shut down Saturday afternoon, busy.

“We had downed trees, roads blocked and some power outages,” said Emergency Services Director Tommy Courtner, who said the county declared a state of emergency because of the storm. “The good thing is that we had very few injuries associated with the wrecks that required continued care.”

There were a number of power outages associated with the storm, mostly from broken poles and downed lines, though crews from Blue Ridge Electric and Duke Energy worked through the night Friday and into Saturday to restore power.

Courtner said a shelter was opened by the EOC along with the American Red Cross at one point Friday evening and had some people there, though it closed Saturday morning as conditions showed improvement.

“We’re pretty lucky we didn’t get hit harder,” Courtner said, in reference to snowfall totals up to a possible 18 inches that had been predicted by the National Weather Service. “People still need to realize they need to stay put, though. Roads are still pretty bad.”

Gantt and Rathbone agreed with that assessment.

“We work better when we can freely work on roads without traffic,” Gantt said.

Rathbone added, “Unless it’s an absolute emergency, stay off the roads. If people stay home, we won’t have wrecks like this. That’s our best recommendation. There’s no reason to risk your life or property to be on the road. Just stay at home and wait it out.”