My poor dog was the first canary-in-the-coalmine -- slid straight across the back deck and looked very confused when I let her out this morning. I had thought the deck was just wet until I saw that.

There is at least one Blount County School Bus in a ditch at the moment. I wonder why they didn't cancel school?

The police scanner is lit up with calls for police and EMT. Sounds like first responders in Blount Co. are overwhelmed.

Knoxville is reporting that KPD is asking people not to call for minor wrecks if there is no injury, just take each other's info and go on.

Heard a few calls in Blount Co. about people with head injuries from falling on the ice, including one elderly woman.

Overheard: "Would someone have that black pickup that ran into the tree towed so we can stop getting so many calls on it?"

I sat in traffic for over two hours this morning almost got hit twice and almost ran off the road another time, all due to ice. Why didn't Blount County Schools delay school today. THis just looks bad on the BC School officials. It's pretty bad when there were two BC school buses off in the ditch. Think of all the kids who could have gotten hurt. Way to go BC Schools. Yeah i'm a little bitter....

I think they didn't cancel schools because this all started too late. At least at my house the rain didn't come until 7:10, which is well after busses have already started and some kids are probably already at the schools. I think Maryville said that school was on (because some kids and teachers were already there), but don't come if you don't have to. I can't really blame them on this one; the bad weather started late.

Craig Thomas
http://blog.craigdthomas.com

Northbound Alcoa Highway looked like a scene outta Will Smith's "I am Legend." Cars and trucks were stuck, dented, and abandoned along the sides of the road.

Yeah, don't blame the schools. Blame the weather forecasters. If you could have forecasted the weather problem, you should have stayed at home.

I think Maryville handled this the best out of the three Blount County school systems. Alcoa cancelled schools, but said if your students were already there you needed to go pick them up. Maryville said (according to The Daily Times website) "Maryville City Schools are open, but students are advised to stay home if they are not out on the road." That way people did not have to go into more danger to go get their kids if they were already there.

I really think the trick for the schools was the fact that they definitely already had kids on the busses before the weather got bad, and at that point they were in a tricky spot.

Craig Thomas
http://blog.craigdthomas.com

Talk about timing. I heard from BCSO that BC Schools are letting out Better late than never, plus four bus wrecks later. They are saying more bad weather is on the way. Lets see how traffic is on the way home today.
Looks like BC isn't the only ones
Blount County Closing at 1:30 PM
Claiborne County Closing at 2:00 PM
(link...)

It was so cold I actually saw a liberal with his hands in his own pockets.

Couldn’t resist.

Lester

Poor school officials can't win.

If they call off school because of predicted snow storms and there are only light flurries and no accumulation, people laugh at them and gripe about having to stay home with their kids.

If they don't call off school because the forecast only calls for rain and there's an ice storm, people gripe because they can't predict the weather.

Maybe the best thing is to always err on the side of caution, and call off school any time there are clouds and it is below 45 degrees. I would have liked that when I was a kid!

News says Blount County is called off altogether for tomorrow. Guess that'll make it up to the kids that they had to get up early this a.m. for nothing!