Snow and ice cut power, close schools in eastern Washington

SPOKANE — Snowstorms eased early Monday across Eastern Washington, leaving treacherously icy roads, downed power lines and closed schools and businesses. A pedestrian was struck and killed by a snowplow.

The respite was likely to be brief as a new wave of storms hit the Pacific Coast before daybreak, spreading lighter dustings of snow across most of the state west of the Cascade Range. As much as an inch was reported well before daybreak in the suburbs east of Seattle.

A winter storm watch for 1 to 4 inches of snow Monday night was issued for the Seattle area.

More than a foot of snow fell late Saturday through early Monday in Spokane and some other parts of Eastern Washington. Classes were canceled Monday for more than 80,000 students across the state, including Spokane, and thousands more in nearby parts of Idaho and Oregon.

Interstate 82 was closed between Kennewick and the Oregon border for 15 hours from Saturday night to midday Sunday.

Power was out to an estimated 4,000 people in Eastern Washington and northern Idaho. Most got their lights back on by early Monday.

The Spokane and Tri-Cities airports were closed for a time because of the storm. At Spokane International Airport, the closure lasted three hours after a Southwest Airlines jet skidded off a taxiway after landing Sunday afternoon. No injuries were reported.

In the worst of more than 100 motor vehicle accidents, Armando Barragan, 30, of Othello, was fatally struck by a state Transportation Department snowplow while walking westward on the eastbound shoulder of State Route 26 in Othello shortly after midnight Sunday, the State Patrol reported. No charges are likely, according to the patrol's accident report.

Six Special Olympics athletes returning to the Tri-Cities area from the Bluewood ski resort were injured and taken to hospitals, none with severe injuries, after their bus went off the road and tipped over Saturday evening about 10 miles west of Prescott on State Route 124.

According to the State Patrol, the trailer of a tanker truck ahead of the bus lost traction and rolled, and the bus went off the road and rolled when the driver tried to slow down on the icy pavement.

Freezing rain hindered emergency crews from reaching the scene, Walla Walla County sheriff's Sgt. Tom Cooper said.

"It was so slick that more vehicles were coming around that bend into that dip, and we had other cars slide into that tanker and the bus on its side," Cooper said.

"Once we got down in there, it was so slick, we couldn't get out," he said. "They actually had medical crews that were stopping somewhere around a quarter of a mile before the accident scene and walking their equipment in."

About 40 people ages 14 to 50 years old were on the bus and authorities reported at least 10 people were injured, although several parents said the number was more like 20.

"The athletes did a great job of taking care of each other," said Mary Ann Breshears, of Kennewick, whose son Marcus, 17, had a sore back from the accident.

In Spokane, snow fell so heavily Sunday that city crews were constantly re-plowing major roads just to keep up. "It just keeps coming," Dave Mandyke of Spokane Public Works told The Spokesman-Review newspaper.

Officials were concerned about continuing cold temperatures and urged residents to stay home as snow plowing continued.

"It's not an emergency," Mayor Mary Verner said. "It's just major snowstorm of a kind that we have not seen in many years."

Schools were closed in Spokane for the first time since an icy storm in 1996. Students will have to make up the lost time later in the school year.

Nonessential city employees also got the day off, City Hall was closed and private employers were asked to let their workers stay home, said Tom Mattern, deputy director of emergency management for Spokane County.