SPOKANE, Wash. — It's been a brutal few weeks of snow in Spokane County. Last week we showed you streets in the southern parts of the county that were covered in huge snow drifts and how those drifts trapped residents.
But with an army of plows and contracted bulldozers, most of the county's roads are now free of drifts.
"I'd say it's pretty much taken care of now,” said Martha Lou Wheatley-Billeter with Spokane County Public Works.
Here's what Weger Road just off Palouse Highway looked like last Monday.
Here is what it looks like now.
The woman who told KREM 2 last Monday that she and her husband were unable to access their home said plows came the day after KREM’s report on their situation aired. She said she hasn’t seen any new drifts since.
Meanwhile, farther south, crews have cleared some major rural roads that were previously covered in drifts. The plows in some places left behind huge sheer faces of snow.
Spangle-Waverly Road and Waverly Plaza Road are both open. Cheney-Plaza Road is now closed, but this is due to ice rather than snow drifts.
"We're just keeping our fingers crossed that this is the last gasp of winter," Wheatley-Billeter said.
The county will now turn their attention to what comes next: the melt.
"As the temperatures warm up over the next week, like the next five to seven days, there may be some flooding,” Wheatley-Billeter said. “So crews are keeping an eye out for those traditional trouble spots."
The repeated daytime thawing and overnight freezing may make roads more difficult to drive on, but it does prevent the type of rapid melting that could result in dangerous flooding.
"If it's a gradual warm-up, that's a good thing,” Wheatley-Billeter added.