Winter winds make many howl

DARKE COUNTY, Ohio (WDTN) - The trouble came with the wind Friday, blowing across fields, piling up on roads and stacking up cars.

"It's crazy," says Esther Boyer. "It was blowing all over the road earlier. It was definitely scary."

Boyer is one of the unfortunate drivers who fell victim to the drifting snow.

One minute she was driving to work and the next minute she was joining a fellow driver in a ditch along State Route 49 in Darke County.

"I even stopped sooner than I usually do and I still slid on the roads," Boyer says.

It seemed no one could catch a break from the breeze.

It quickly took the few inches of snow on the ground and built them into huge drifts. At times it made it difficult to even see the road.

"It took me an hour and 10 minutes to get from Troy to Greenville this morning," says Fred Fair, owner of Fair Photo Express and Antique Gallery. "It was pretty treacherous."

ODOT crews tried to keep up with the wind-blown snow, but as soon as they'd leave it would quickly pile up again, giving drivers little choice but to take their time.   

"This isn't Florida, so go slow," says Brad Dill, owner of Dill Oil Company.

SNOW BUSINESS

All along Broadway in Greenville you can hear the sounds of the season, as holiday music plays over a loud speaker, but Mother Nature is singing a different tune.

"The wind's been horrendous," Dill says.

Not just for drivers. The breeze has blown away some business for stores like Fair Photo Express and Antique Gallery.

"Business has been okay," Fair says. "It could always be better."

Fair would be happier if the city looked a little less like his winter window display, but if the winds ever calm down, he thinks he'll still have a nice end to the holiday season.

"Everybody waits till the last so we expect to have a good weekend," Fair says.

For others the storm actually helped them scrape up some extra sales.

"It's just like the grocery store," Dill says."You get a run on it."

But Dill did have some cleaning up to do as he navigated his way through his store's parking lot, trying to make sure customers weren't scared away by the slush or his plowing.

"You have to watch," Dill says. "Give you a stiff neck."

SNOW SCHOOL

While it didn't take long for the winds to teach driver's a lesson about what a little snow and a lot of drifting can do to roads, the breezes also kept some from learning any lessons.

"It's excellent especially the day before break," says Greenville High School student Kaleb Broomhall about getting the day off school. "It makes it better."

The first blast of winter was enough to close a number of area schools, including Greenville.

Drifts decorated the doors of the high school, while students made plans on how to spend their days off with no school now until January 3rd.

"Pretty much sitting at home where it's warm," Broomhall says.

But some had other ideas, like elementary student David Glick who didn't mind taking on some homework of his own by shoveling the drive.

"When it's snowing like this, I like to do it a lot," Glick says.

Unfortunately drivers didn't get nearly as much enjoyment from the blowing snow.

"I guess I was just driving too fast and you should slow down a lot sooner," Boyer says.