COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Despite plowing almost continually for 14 hours, road crews had a hard time keeping up with the heavy snowfall Friday, which dumped between 12 and 16 inches of snow across the Branch County area.
The snowfall started slowly overnight, but intensified throughout the day, to a rate of over one inch accumulation per hour.
The National Weather Service Winter Storm Warning for Branch County was finally cancelled just before 10:00 p.m.
City of Coldwater Department of Municipal Services crews, on the job plowing the city streets since 4:00 a.m. Friday, knocked off around 6:00 p.m. They were scheduled to resume plowing at 4:00 a.m. Saturday.
The storm caused all schools in the region to cancel classes, scrapped all sports events, and forced many businesses to close early.
While no major accidents were reported Friday in Branch County during the heaviest snow, a 50 vehicle pile-up on I-94 near Galesburg and another multi-vehicle accident caused by the weather conditions closed down the expressway for several hours Friday.
