Area spared of major accidents

By Leslie Wood
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The recent blast of winter weather resulted in no serious traffic accidents, but did cause some inconvenience for local residents and authorities as they returned to work on Monday morning.

Erin Toadlena-Pablo, a spokeswoman for the Gallup Police Department, described the weekend's accidents as minor and their number as average. According to Metropolitan Dispatch records, the Gallup Police Department responded to 367 calls for assistance, 24 of which were traffic accidents. No fatalities were reported.

Under Sheriff John Yearley, of the McKinley County Sheriff's Department, said deputies experienced similar situations as their city colleagues nothing too serious.

At about 10 a.m. on Monday, Yearley said he was going to help a local woman dig her buried vehicle out from underneath a mound of snow and ice.

Department of Transportation officers also responded to a call mid-morning to assist a driver who had slipped on a sheet of transparent ice near Mile Marker 11 on Interstate 40. The driver's injuries were not serious, but most likely painful.

Toadlena-Pablo said city officers were called to the Bonney Family Home, 2021 Barbara Ave., for a welfare check after the center's employees reported losing electricity on Sunday morning. Some of its residents rely on electricity to support life-sustaining systems, she said.

She also said the city's community service aides patrolled local ditches and arroyos from about 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. to look for transients who were without shelter. No exposure deaths have been reported thus far.

Kristin Reeder, director of mental health and intervention for Care 66, said the facility has temporarily extended its hours to accommodate its visitors during the sudden cold spell. On Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays, the facility usually closes at noon and reopens late afternoon, but Care 66 administrators are being more lenient because of the cold.

The Care 66 outreach team also checked on a group of passers-through this weekend to make sure they had adequate food and shelter.

Reeder said visitors may have come to Gallup unprepared for the weather this weekend because March is not generally the coldest month of the winter season.

Frank Strait, a meteorologist for Accuweather, said nearly 10 inches of snow blanketed the Gallup area on Saturday and Sunday; however, the amount was not enough to pull the area from its current "rainfall deficit," he said.

"The area would need several more systems such as Saturday's for that to happen," Strait said. "But every little bit does help."

Strait said snow is more beneficial to the dry earth than precipitation in the form of rain because snow "melts slowly and trickles into the ground quickly."

He said Gallup should remain dry until Sunday when he forecast a chance of a "fairly strong, significant" winter storm to move into the area.

That may not be good news for city merchants. With Sundays already being a slow business day in Gallup, last Sunday's storm drove an icicle through the cash register of many stores and restaurants. Whilesales of snow shovels and de-icer may have helped local hardware stores, an employee of Quizno's said that restaurant closed three hours early Sunday due to a lack of customers.