White Center Now: The blog about White Center

The King County Roads cameras tell the story – the snow has returned. Above is a cam from 17th/98th; below, 16th/100th:

Avoid hills – that’s where people are getting stuck. As for the forecast, a Winter Weather Advisory alert remains in effect until 2 pm, so the National Weather Service expects things will improve after that.

(Thanks to Gill Loring for sending the photos!)

It’s New Year’s Eve-Eve, and day 5 of significant snow on the ground … and the streets, and the decks, and the porches …

The official snow total for last night/today, at Sea-Tac, was just over 2″, and the snow total for December is now up to 8″. The National Weather Service does not forecast much more, and says that by Sunday, we’ll finally be back in the 40s.

Until then, be careful – side streets look like the ones in the photos above, while the arterials have been addressed – five White Center traffic cams are on the “south” tab of this page.

That’s the view of downtown White Center this afternoon, as captured by the Seattle Department of Transportation traffic camera at 16th and Roxbury. The snowy scene is on its way out, though, as the temperature rises above freezing and rain moves in. The area’s two-day total – Friday-Saturday – was 11.1 inches, #15 on the all-time list of two-day totals. Thanks to Gill for capturing some neighborhood scenes:

Get ready for the big meltdown – stay safe as things get slushy!

The snow moved further south this time. So we have:

(updated 7:48 am) HIGHLINE PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Now *closed* today

HOLY FAMILY: 2-hour delay

In Burien:

(updated 7 am) KENNEDY CATHOLIC HS: Now *closed* today

Got a change? Text/voice 206-293-6302 – thank you!

School reopens today! The announcement from Highline Public Schools:

Due to weather and road conditions, all schools are on a two-hour delay on Thursday, February 14. Buses will stop at their alternate bus stops–two hours later than normal.

There will be no breakfast, no morning or afternoon classes for preschool and ECEAP, and no morning classes for PSSC. Afternoon classes for PSSC will be on time. All before school programs are canceled, including clubs, activities and in-school daycare. No transportation will be provided to schools outside of our district.

Find the alternate stops by going here.

The snow’s stopped falling but not gone yet so Highline Public Schools are closed tomorrow:

All schools are closed on Wednesday, February 13. Many roads in the north end of the district are still impassable, and buses are not able to access bus stops–even the alternate stops.

No transportation will be provided to schools outside of our district. All scheduled activities, athletic events and public meetings are canceled.

District administrative offices are open.

Closed for Tuesday, February 12th:

Highline Public Schools
Holy Family Bilingual School
West Seattle Montessori

8 PM UPDATE – WSB is functioning again so we have resumed updates there. Thanks for your patience!

UPDATED 6:58 PM: While our main site West Seattle Blog is still accessible, a technical problem temporarily has us unable to update its pages. While we work on fixing it, this site runs on a different system so here are important updates beyond what we have up on WSB already:

SCHOOL CLOSURES FOR TUESDAY:
Seattle Public Schools
Highline Public Schools
Vashon Island SD
South Seattle College
Hope Lutheran
Seattle Lutheran HS
Holy Rosary
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Summit Atlas
Holy Family Bilingual School
Kennedy Catholic High School
Taproot School
Community School of West Seattle
Westside School
Fauntleroy Children’s Center

Also:
O’Dea HS

POWER PROBLEMS

Almost 1,000 customers are out in southeast West Seattle

ROAD PROBLEMS
Currently numerous. Buses stuck on Avalon – photo from Gwen:

Delridge onramp to eastbound bridge, tree down across Jacobsen Road, Highland Park Way hill closed. Tree down on 35th SW southbound south of Morgan. Thanks to Brian for this photo:

Utility pole down on California between Dakota and Genesee. Thanks to Jeremy for this photo:

Don’t go out if you don’t absolutely have to. The city will need a while to catch up with this heavy snow.

We’ll add here as needed until we can update WSB links.

Enough snow for you? No? Gill Loring shared the photos of what’s already fallen, as more heads this way.

The current National Weather Service alert is a Winter Storm Watch taking effect Sunday aftternoon.

Could be a few more inches!

Hope you are staying safe and warm! The bulk of our snowstorm coverage is on our partner site West Seattle Blog but we’ll post White Center notes here as we get them. First one, from our business-info list:

WHITE CENTER BARTELL DRUGS: Closing at noon Saturday

Anything to add for WC/North Highline, let us know text or voice at 206-293-6302, our 24/7 hotline for both websites.

Highline Public Schools – now CLOSED for today, Tuesday, February 5th (as is Seattle):

Also closed in White Center: Holy Family Bilingual Catholic School and West Seattle Montessori.

5:17 AM: Update – Highline Public Schools are now CLOSED for today:

Read the rest of this entry »

(Thanks to Gill for the snow-on-glass-sphere view!)
Any at your house? The National Weather Service now has the area under a Winter Weather Advisory till 10 pm tonight – see it here, and stay safe! If the snow gets photogenic where you are, we always appreciate photos at whitecenternow@gmail.com.

The Seattle Times is reporting that the road clearing during December’s snow storms was driven by political decisions rather than the clearing of critical arterials.

In previous storms, plow drivers had discretion over how best to clear their assigned routes, said plow driver Chris Stuker. City drivers would traverse main routes in tandem, allowing main roads to be cleared and plows to clear feeder streets as they were able to, Stuker and three other drivers said.

But that system was replaced by top-down decision-making that resulted in trucks being pulled from major streets for special assignments and to help less-experienced drivers, most of them working in the south end of the city, according to two drivers who asked to remain anonymous out of a concern for their jobs.

The roads are still OK but everything else has a coating of white. Forecasters continue to promise that this will only last a few hours, and then it’ll get rained away.

(54 bus in trouble earlier in West Seattle)
Metro has posted its first route changes here. Among them – 21 is not operating south of Roxbury right now.

The official forecasts promise it won’t last. However, given the difficulty of accurately forecasting around here, and the track record from the recent Snowmare ’08, take whatever action you must. Perhaps also a good idea to keep in mind that wind is supposedly to follow. Latest forecast here.

From King County, more important words of warning – about your roof. And be sure any storm drains around your house are cleared, too – until this all melts away and we are back to “normal,” there’s still a chance of trouble.

(Photo courtesy Jerry, taken at 14th SW and SW 116th)

KING COUNTY: Closures and changes updated here

METRO BUSES: Here’s today’s outlook

(photo courtesy Alison – tend to your downspouts and storm drains when you can; eventually this will all melt)
Road/bus stories to share? Please add them in comments. Meantime, as of 4 am, Metro resumed updating its list of routes that are “suspended” and/or rerouted; see that (long) list here. Also, here’s the list of county road closures. Also note, Sound Transit has suspended 560 service between Burien and West Seattle; service alerts here.

9:41 AM UPDATE: If you have business to do in Burien, city hall is open limited hours today (more at rpin.org)