Roads will stay treacherous until temperatures rise

A Milton Police Officer stands by near a slick spot on White Mountain Highway where a station wagon had slid off the road on Thursday afternoon. (Harrison Thorp photos)

“Unless you absolutely have to get out on the roads, don’t.”

That’s the advice of Lebanon Road Boss Larry Torno, who said despite his crews’ best efforts, all the roads in town, including Route 202, are treacherous.

The storm that whipped into town on Thursday afternoon is far from over, with ridiculous bitter cold and drifting snow making it dangerous to venture outside.

Rochester and Milton schools remained closed for a second straight day. SAD 60 school officials now appear prescient as they didn’t schedule a return to school from the Christmas break until Monday.

On Prospect Hill in Lebanon about a foot of snow was on the ground this morning, with a temperature reading of -3 degrees at 8 a.m.

A squirrel hangs monkey-like from a Lebanon birdfeeder as the snow began to fall on Thursday.

In Rochester, reports from the Police Station indicated no major accidents or incidents overnight, but that a few cars had been reported sliding off the roads.

In Milton, a car lost control on Route 125 near the Milton Water Treatment Plant on Thursday afternoon, but no injuries were reported.

Most motorists appeared to be using common sense and keeping it slow on the roadways, but Torno said today that even going slow is no guarantee you’ll arrive at your destination incident free.

Torno said the roads are extra dangerous because salt and snow are useless in this type of storm.

“Right now we’re in scraping mode,” he said today. “That’s all we can do.”

Salt is only good above 28 degrees and if they put sand down, the winds just blow most of it off the roadway, leaving the pavement slick, he said.

Torno said he can only remember this amount of snow accompanied by sub-zero temperatures occurring three or four times in the past 50 years.

To make things worse, one seven-yard truck (plow and blade) and one of the one-tons broke down, he suspects due to the cold temperatures.

Drifting snow muddled snow-depth estimations, but a best guess would be the Rochester/Milton/Lebanon area got 12-14 inches with varying depths locally.

Lebanon Town Offices are expected to open today at 11 a.m., while Milton Town Office is closed today and will reopen on Monday.