Winter Storm Does What Winter Storms Are Known To Do

The first winter storm of 2014 rolled through the region overnight Friday and dumped 4 to 6 inches of white stuff on the lower Valley.

It pretty much behaved like countless winter storms before it. Schools were closed, plow drivers worked long hours and we in the media tried to think of new ways to tell you it’s snowing.

The storm was a bit more annoying than the average storm, though, thanks to a rude arctic air mass.

At 10:30 a.m. Friday, it was 8 degrees on Ansonia’s Main Street. To put that into perspective — it was 30 degrees in Anchorage, Alaska.

Oh, and with the wind chill, it felt like 8 degrees below zero locally.

A property on Hawthorne Avenue in Derby had 4 to 4.5 inches of snow, with drifts measuring up to 6 inches.

Valley Indy readers, though, put the estimates in Shelton and Oxford in the 6‑inch range.

NOAA.GOVRoads were passable as of Friday morning, though, including Route 8. It was crucial to drive slowly in a car with decent tires.

As of noon Friday, there was a smattering of fender benders resulting in minor injuries, according to the staff at Griffin Hospital’s emergency room.

“We haven’t seen an increase in our ER volume today,” hospital spokesman Christian Meagher said in an e‑mail. ​“The only injuries we’ve treated in the past 15 hours that may have been weather related were the result of minor motor vehicle accidents.”

We posted live info Thursday night into Friday morning in the box below. The info is listed from oldest to newest. The article continues below.

One person was taken to the hospital after a crash on High Street in Derby at about 8:30 a.m. Friday.

At about 11 a.m., Derby firefighters extinguished a small fire in a basement on Old New Haven Avenue.

About 11:30 a.m. on Mica Court in Shelton, additional crews had to be called to clear snow so EMS could help a 74-year-old man who fell down stairs.

In Ansonia, the city’s senior center was scheduled to open at 1 p.m. as a ​“warming station” for anyone in need.

At a noon press conference in Hartford, Gov. Dannel Malloy said parts of the state would see temperatures as cold as ‑15 degrees by this evening, and urged residents to call 211 if they need shelter.

Malloy said people should check on neighbors who might need help, especially seniors, and said cold weather tips can be found here.

Malloy said the state’s highways are ​“all in pretty good shape” and that plows were catching up on secondary roads. He urged motorists to stay off the roads.

“This was not a gigantic snowfall,” Malloy said, adding that the cold temperatures are more of a concern.

The colds temps were expected to continue into Saturday.

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