A mix of overnight rain and snow into the morning of Dec. 20 brought much of Port Orchard to a standstill days before Christmas weekend.
Two weeks after Port Orchard cleared downtown of snow before the Festival of Chimes and Lights, the city was hit again. At least 3 inches of fresh powder blanketed city streets at daybreak. The morning continued with additional snowfall and freezing rain that officials worried could create dangerous driving conditions.
Doug Bauer, a longtime bus driver for Kitsap Transit, said such conditions can bring out the bad side in commuters. “The worst thing about driving in the snow is all the drivers on the road who don’t know what they’re doing,” he said.
To help keep drivers off the road, several Port Orchard businesses closed for the day, including the Town Square Mall and Coffee Oasis. Government offices closed early, and meetings were called off or moved to Zoom.
Still, that did not stop some from opening their doors, as the holiday season is extremely important for business owners, along with consumers. Mallory Jackson, owner of Custom Picture Framing downtown, braved the conditions, which she described as bad all around.
“Driving in was just terrible,” she said. “I live off of Berry Lake Road, and I usually get a lot more snow than downtown does. I was fine until I hit Port Orchard Boulevard, and then it was just slippery and nasty.”
Jackson opened her business briefly because she had products, Christmas gifts included, that needed to be picked up by customers.
Michelle Wright, owner of Bay Street Hair, also had customers looking to make their appointments. But first she had to clear some of the snow away from the front of her building. “I have a residential drain for some reason on the commercial property,” she said. “So it fills up like a lake, and I don’t want it to freeze.”
With holiday shopping still on the to-do list, officials are advising drivers to take proper precautions and pack extra supplies in their cars in case of an emergency. Bauer said it often just comes down to making good decisions on the road.
“Watching your following distance, making sure you stop safely, not accelerating hard or breaking fast. Any of that stuff,” he said.
Officials are also advising drivers that if they feel unsafe at all, the best place for them to be is not behind the wheel, as the road can hinder the performance of even the safest of drivers. Jackson said her commute almost ended prematurely after a vehicle going the opposite direction of her on Bay Street briefly lost control.
“He fishtailed, and I thought he was going to hit my car,” she said. “Luckily, that wasn’t the case.”
The snow also sent students into an early holiday break after the South Kitsap School District announced cancellations for Dec. 20 and 21.
