By Courtney D. Clark
Black Friday shoppers braved winter weather Friday as they kicked off the 2009 holiday season.
In fact, emergency operations centers in the area reported a total of 37 motor vehicle accidents between 12 a.m. and 8 p.m. Friday.
The snow appears to have deterred the greatest amount of early-bird shoppers in Nicholas County, with 15 reported accidents. A Nicholas County EOC official said although a few people were transported, there were no severe or major injuries.
Raleigh County tagged close behind with 14 accidents, two with injuries.
“We had several reports of slick roads,” a Greenbrier County EOC supervisor said. “I know we had at least four accidents since Thursday night, but no transports whatsoever.”
While officials said the West Virginia Turnpike saw six accidents and Wyoming County reported two, Monroe, Summers and Fayette EOCs said their counties actually had no weather-related accidents.
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As the season’s first snowfall and specials began to taper off, the National Weather Service released a bit of brighter news.
Simone Lewis, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Charleston, said today’s forecast calls for a high of 49 in Beckley, and Sunday will actually enter into the upper 50s.
“The system is going to continue to move and clear out for tomorrow and Sunday,” the NWS meteorologist said Friday. “It looks like it’s going to get a lot warmer and stay dry through Monday, when we expect to see the next round of precipitation come in.”
Meteorologist Jim Hudgins of the NWS in Blacksburg, Va., said Greenbrier, Summers and Monroe counties could anticipate a similar forecast.
— E-mail: cclark@register-herald.com
