TEXAS, USA — As more winter weather continues to move across Texas, here's what law enforcement and other agencies are saying about road conditions in West Texas and the Hill Country on their social media pages.
SUNDAY
City of Early
The City of Early is working hard to keep you safe and your city services uninterrupted.
1. The streets and not safe enough for riding around sight seeing, but safe enough to travel on in a case of emergency.
2. The Monday Commercial trash route will be picked up on Tuesday, and the Tuesday residential route will continue as normal unless conditions worsen.
3. Your water and sewer services should continue as normal. In the event of power outages we have backup generators to keep your water flowing in and your sewer flowing out. In the case of a busted water main our crews will work to get your service back as soon as possible.
4. Your Fire Department is standing by and will be able to respond in any emergency situation. They do however ask you to be extra careful with open flame heat, electric heaters and other methods of keeping warm.
Your Police Department is also there for you if needed, but they are asking for you to limit your travel to only that which is necessary.
5. Our City hall will be closes tomorrow in observance of Presidents Day.
6. Stay in, stay warm, and enjoy time with the ones you love.
Crockett County Fire Department:
Eastbound IH10 is closed at the truck stop mm372.
Roads are slick and covered in snow throughout Texas. Travel plans should be cancelled. Dozens are accidents up and down I10.
Irion County Sheriff's Office:
FM 915 is closed due to a downed power line. TxDOT is continuing to sand the roads, no ETA as to when they will be in this area.
There are power outages from Abilene to Midland. AEP is doing their best.
Please, stay home, bundle up, be safe!
Junction Police Department:
This may be a long shot —
We are in dire need of snow chains.
If you have any you are willing to give or lend out to us please let us know. The highest need is for the dump trucks that TXDOT has. But any will be used and appreciated.
Thanks
We have no radio communication because we have no tower. The county tower has collapsed. Now it is even more important not to call dispatch unless you really need something. Because dispatch will be calling all first responders by telephone.
Kerr County Sheriff's Office:
Good evening – as expected, road conditions have continued to worsen, and temperatures continue their drop toward single digits. Wind chill warnings have been issued for the entire region. Through tonight and tomorrow, wind chill values will drop well below zero, making frostbite a risk for those outside. Additional precipitation is expected, with snow totals of 1-3” inches with locally heavier totals possible across the entire Hill Country. We are about to enter the worst 24-48 hours of this storm. People and pets outside and those attempting to travel are at great risk during this time.
PLEASE. STAY. HOME.
Every major road in the region is affected by ice as of this writing. See the map below or visit http://drivetexas.org for the latest information. TXDOT has closed State Highway 16 north of Kerrville and US Highway 290 west of Fredericksburg. Presume that all smaller county roads and city streets are also extremely hazardous.
Our Deputies are working overtime to meet the number of calls for service, and to protect public safety. Please consider all first responders’ safety as well as your own should you decide to venture out. Motorists should be fully prepared, including blankets, food & water, heat sources, and other essentials, should emergency workers not be able to reach them after an incident. Many areas are completely impassable under current conditions, and those conditions will continue to worsen. Communication towers have already been damaged in some areas of the region, so do not count on having cellular phone service if you have an emergency.
Again- PLEASE. STAY. HOME.
Kerrville Police Department:
Update from officers on the street and street closure information: All city streets have ice and are driving conditions are much worse than yesterday. Do not drive if you can avoid it.
Loop 534 is closed from Sidney Baker to Cypress Creek Road. People trying to get to the shelter at Calvary Temple Church at 3000 Loop 534 will need to come from the Tivy High School side.
G Street is closed from Sidney Baker to Broadway.
Most of SH 27, which includes Memorial Boulevard, Broadway, Main Street and Junction Highway as it runs through town, is completely frozen over.
Holdsworth Drive and Harper Road are also iced over and vehicles have slid off the roadway. Singing Wind is bad.
IH10 and SH 16 should be avoided.
We will continue to update you on road closures as we are able. Please do not call our dispatchers for updates on road conditions. The streets are icy and will stay that way. Stay home and stay safe.
Sutton County Sheriff's Office:
Roads in the area are beginning to see closures. Heavy snow fall is expected to begin around 7pm. Expect extended travel times as well as response times from first responders. Many hills on the interstate have become impassable by most traffic and are causing extended delays. Temperatures are forecasted to be in the low single digits tonight. If you have to travel use extreme caution. Fuel topped off, food and water, and warm clothing and blankets are highly recommended. Expect travel delays.
Winter Weather Travel Advisory:
Interstate 10 is continuing to see multiple accidents and the roads continue to be covered in dangerous ice, with conditions continually deteriorating. There is currently traffic backed up for miles at mile marker 436 of I-10 and I-10 is closed again today at Kerr County for any EB travels. First Responders, Wrecker services and TxDot are stretched thin and response times are becoming even longer as travel conditions make it hazardous for even them to respond. Once again we ask you to stay off the roads. Find a warm place to stay until this blows over. You can contact the Sutton County Sheriff Office's non-emergency number at 325-387-2288 for assistance with shelter or other needs and drivetexas.org for road conditions. As always, 911 for emergencies only.
Texas Department of Public Safety - San Angelo office
Highway U.S. 87 south of Mason has been closed due to the weather conditions.
Texas Department of Transportation (Abilene):
Updates- Abilene District.
Jones County - crews continue to plow roadways and treat some areas with salt and aggregate.
Haskell County- crews continue to plow roadways and treat bridges and overpasses. Drifting snow with some accumulation. Traffic moving at normal speeds.
Stonewall County- crews continue to plow roadways and treat bridges and overpasses with salt and aggregate. Traffic is moving slowly.
Nolan County- light snowfall and crews continue to plow roadways.
Borden County- no moisture falling at this time. Crews continue to plow roadways and treat structures with salt and aggregate.
Shackelford County- snow accumulation on roadways.
Scurry County- no moisture falling at this time. Crews are working to remove snow accumulation in the passing lane on major corridors.
There is white out conditions across most of the district. Roads are snow-packed and some are impassable. Snowplows have had to stop working until they have visibility. #EndTheStreakTX
We are starting to see some accumulation on roadways throughout the district. Our snowplows will be working to clear these roadways. We need your help. Stay off the roads so they do not become snow-packed. Winds are blowing 30 mph. Visibility is poor. #StayHome #staybackfromequipment #EndTheStreakTX #txdotabl
SATURDAY
Abilene Police Department:
The Abilene Police Department will be assisting citizens who may need help sheltering from the weather and are not able to get out of the elements during this significant weather event. Temperatures are expected to remain below freezing for an extended period of time, and heavy snow and ice accumulation is possible beginning Sunday evening. Starting immediately, officers will be reaching out and directing our most vulnerable population to the Salvation Army where they will be able to stay through the cold spell. This event is part of a larger Citywide cold weather planning to assist our Citizens who may be in need of help.
The local Jeep Club that is offering free rides to any first responders needing to get to and from work during this bad weather. The president of the Jeep club is Billy Alexander from DPS and there are a several members that are first responders.
He asks that if you need a ride anything to get to and from work, fill out this application. Any questions should be directed to the club.
Crockett County Fire Department:
Crockett Co Fire and EMS are responding to multiple accidents on IH 10. Please caution. If you must travel, take it slow.
Dove Creek Volunteer Fire Department:
There is multiple vehicles stuck on knickerbocker Road at the EQ. Most vehicles cannot make it over the dam. Please do not go that way to town.
Ector County Sheriff's Office:
A Message from our SHERIFF****
****Folks, I don't foresee the roads improving for a day or two. In fact from what I am seeing it will get worse. I have been driving around this morning and while the roads are navigable being extremely careful, it is not worth YOUR life or anyone else's!!
STAY HOME STAY SAFE!!!!!
Grape Creek Volunteer Fire Department
2 separate vehicle accidents on HWY 87 N, between San Angelo & Grape Creek. One involving a semi truck & trailer. Avoid the area!
Irion County Sheriff's Office:
Road conditions still extremely slick and treacherous! Please stay home if all possible. If you must get out take it slow and keep your distance from other automobiles! BE SAFE!!
Junction Police Department:
If you don’t have to be out and about Please do not. Several roads could be iced over. This morning there has been reports from Kerr, Kendall, Gillespie County’s of accidents and or road closures. www.drivetexas.org is a great source for major roadway information
Kerr County Sherriff's Office:
We’re asking everyone that does not have an absolute need to STAY HOME today and off of Kerr County roads. Both Interstate 10 and State Highway 16 are extremely hazardous at this point, along with most city and rural streets and roads.
Your public servants in the Sheriff’s Office, Ingram PD, Kerrville PD, DPS, Texas Department of Transportation, local VFDs, and other jurisdictions are working tirelessly to keep the public safe. Please show your support for our first responders by avoiding situations that put them, and yourself, in serious danger. With current road conditions, emergency crews may not be able to reach you quickly following an accident. At this point, all roads in Kerr County should be considered hazardous to travel.
Please stay home and tuned into news, rather than becoming part of it. We have seen many traffic incidents in the last 36 hours, and the worst of this winter blast is yet to come. Lows into Monday will be in the low single digits, with wind chills well below zero, along with more frozen and freezing precipitation. Being stranded in your vehicle in these conditions may easily become a life-threatening situation.
For the latest info about roads, directly from the state road authorities at TX DOT, please visit http://drivetexas.org . Please do not call law enforcement agencies, KCSO included, for road condition information. We are answering calls for life-threatening situations and cannot provide up-to-the-minute information on roads. Again, all roads in our region should be considered hazardous, with more precipitation coming and freezing temperatures not expected to break until Wednesday afternoon.
Kerrville Police Department:
UPDATE: Update from KPD officers on the street: Most city streets are only slightly damp with some areas of patchy ice. Outside the city limits, most roads are icy. Kerrville Streets Department has done a great job sanding bridges, but traffic has displaced much of the sand they've put down and as ice reforms, those areas will become slick quickly. Conditions are expected to worsen overnight and tomorrow. Streets that seem okay now might not be okay soon, and we are still asking people to stay home unless they must travel. If you choose to drive, please exercise extreme caution. There is a light mist and the temperature is 26 degrees.
Please read to the end: stay home! We have been urging drivers to stay off the roads since yesterday morning. If you choose to drive, there is a good chance you may become stranded. You should consider every street, road and highway in the Hill Country as unsafe for travel. We cannot make this any clearer. Even if a street is drivable right this minute, there is a good chance it will ice up and become unsafe. Please do not place an additional burden on our first responders by ignoring this advice.
SH16 is not drivable. Most, if not all, other area roads are not drivable. Kerr County SO, Gillespie County SO, DOS and TxDOT are all aware of the stranded drivers on SH16. They are making efforts to get to them and get them off the roads. The combination of ice and steep hills is making it slow going for our first responders.
Once again, please do not call our dispatchers asking for road updates. They are busy taking emergency calls and talking to our first responders.
We’ve been informed that SH 16 between Kerrville and Medina has been closed by DPS. Again, you should consider all of SH 16 unsafe for travel, and that goes for pretty much every street and road in the Hill Country. Please don’t chance it. Stay home and stay safe.
We are sharing some great information and advice from our friends at KCSO. First responders from different agencies, emergency workers, and repair crews are out working right now as a team to keep our citizens safe. Please help us out by staying home.
Menard County Sheriff's Office:
The Menard County Sheriff’s Office has had several wrecks through the night and is at a fatality wreck scene north of Menard on highway 83. Please do not drive be safe and stay home. Travel is hazardous in these freezing temperatures and will continue until the winter storm has passed. There will be several more days of icy weather. Our first responders are working tirelessly 24/7 responding to calls, help them by not putting yourself in danger.
San Angelo Police Department:
Avoid travel if possible: multiple crashes being reported. Icy patches are on roadways, bridges and overpasses.
Icy patches are on roadways, bridges and overpasses. #DriveSafe #ArriveAlive
If you must drive, follow these tips:
Winter driving tips:
*Stay alert. Make sure you keep your gas tank over half full and keep a close eye on road conditions, which can change rapidly. On road trips, take breaks often so you can stay focused on the road.
*Drive slower than normal and leave more room between you and surrounding vehicles.
*DO NOT use cruise control, brake quickly or make sharp turns. You need to change how you normally drive
Sutton County Sheriff's Office:
The backup on I 10 in Kimble County EB is still about 15 miles long. Traffic is crawling at best. The area with the most back up is roughly between Segovia and the Ft. McKavett exit - Exits 441-468. First responders are stretched to the limit working multiple crashes over night and into this morning. Officials are reporting these crashes have resulted in multiple injuries and one fatality.
Local officials are trying to get to stranded motorists with bottled water, sandwiches and gas. TxDOT is NOT distributing gasoline at this time. Our resources currently are 100 percent devoted to treating the roads with salt and sand.
