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From left, Berwick Police Officer Michael Rodrigue, St. Mary Parish Sheriff's Deputy Walter Shepherd, and Shawn LeBlanc of Bayou Vista Volunteer Fire Department direct traffic Wednesday morning in Berwick due to an out traffic light on La. 182. Officials closed U.S. 90 throughout St. Mary Parish due to the icy conditions while La. 182 remained open. (The Daily Review/Diane Miller Fears)

Icy weather causes road hazards

U.S. 90 closed across St. Mary

St. Mary Parish saw a mixture of freezing rain and sleet Tuesday night that caused officials to close U.S. 90 throughout the parish. La. 182 remained opened, though.

Schools were closed, too, Wednesday, but officials hoped to re-open schools Thursday as the chance of precipitation cleared out early Wednesday morning.

Temperatures reached a low of 18 degrees Wednesday morning at Harry P Williams Memorial Airport near Patterson, according to the National Weather Service. Wednesday’s high was expected to reach 35 degrees with sunny weather.

The low Wednesday night into Thursday morning is projected to be 23 degrees with no expected precipitation.

The biggest issue the parish experienced since Tuesday evening was traffic problems, including several vehicles sliding off of the roadways on La. 182 in west St. Mary Parish, said Duval Arthur, parish homeland security and emergency preparedness director.

Sleet, freezing rain and icy road conditions hit the west end of the parish harder than the Tri-City area, he said. Arthur didn’t know exactly how much precipitation the area received, but it was a significant amount.

State Department of Transportation and Development officials closed U.S. 90 throughout St. Mary Parish from about 9 p.m. Tuesday due to ice on the roadways, Arthur said. The elevated portions of U.S. 90 remained closed Wednesday morning with the exception of Calumet Cut.

La. 182 remained open in St. Mary Parish and was used as a detour route, but there were still some patches of ice. So motorists were advised to use caution when traveling, said Detective Lt. Traci Landry, spokeswoman for St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies worked several minor crashes due to the iced roads but no crashes with major injuries, Landry said.

Several vehicles started sliding on the La. 182 bridge in Baldwin when the roads began to ice.

“We worked a few other incidents on 90 where cars kind of spun out, but nothing major,” Landry said.

“DOTD did a great job of shutting everything down, and I think they did a great job of working with us,” Landry said.

A couple of transformers went out in Berwick and workers were trying to fix those power issues Wednesday morning, Arthur said.

“We didn’t have any iced down lines. That’s what we usually get from (freezing) precipitation on trees,” Arthur said.

Public and Catholic schools were closed Wednesday due to the weather. St. Mary Public Schools Superintendent Leonard Armato said Wednesday morning that school officials plan to re-open schools Thursday, but they had to first see if the ice melts away.

Armato planned to meet with homeland security and weather officials Wednesday afternoon to decide whether to re-open schools Thursday.

South Central Louisiana Technical College’s Young Memorial Campus in Morgan City and St. Martin Parish public schools were also closed Wednesday.

ST. MARY NOW

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