South Jersey officials touched base to make sure everything was in its place for the final act. Watch video
County officials and department heads from across South Jersey checked in with each other Saturday afternoon and made preparations for remainder of this weekend's blizzard.
Having already weathered the storm Friday into Saturday, it was time to make sure everything was in its place for the final act.
"People should stay off the roads," Gloucester County spokesperson Deb Sellitto reiterated Saturday afternoon, having said much the same at 9 a.m. when roads were impassable and plow crews were fighting to keep up.
According to unofficial estimates from the National Weather Service (NWS), the Williamstown section of Gloucester County received the most snow accumulation at 13 inches. Washington Township, at 6.8 inches, was on the low end as of the NWS' afternoon update.
Sellitto said some county roadways were still impassable. The county public works crew retired for the day at 4 p.m. and a "skeleton" crew would work the overnight shift before the department came back full-force at 6 a.m. Sunday.
In Salem County, Freeholder Director Julie Acton reported that Saturday's condition warranted a conference call involving the county's office of emergency management, roads crew, health and human services, the sheriff's department, the prosecutor's office and more.
"We encourage everyone to stay off the roads, if possible, this allows our road crews to continue to keep up with the storm and clear the roads," Freeholder Deputy Director Dale Cross said. "The concern now is the snow drifts from the wind, but I am confident our county road department will continue doing a great job. Residents should report any loss of power to your utility provider."
According to the NWS, Pennsville received the highest snowfall accumulation with 11 inches. In Mannington, some snow drifts more than 5 feet were reported and scanner reports indicated a few ambulance drivers encountered impassable roads.
Salem County's road department has been at work since Friday night and was set to cease operations at 5 p.m. Saturday before hitting the streets again at 3 a.m. Sunday.
As of noon Sunday, the road crew consisting of 18 county vehicles and 25 contractors plowed more than 1,900 miles.
Flooding, which was also of concern in neighboring Cumberland County, did not pose a major threat in Salem County. This was far from the case across Cape May and Atlantic counties, where it was "worse than [Hurricane] Sandy," according to some business owners.
Kim Wood, Cumberland County's deputy administrator, offered Saturday afternoon that drifting snow was a major concern across the county in the Bayshore region.
"Flooding has occurred and Mayor [Bob] Campbell [of Downe Township] reports that the bay almost topped the bulkhead in Fortescue, but did not," Wood said in an email. "In addition to Downe Township, flooding issues have also been reported in Maurice River, Commercial and Greenwich townships"
The next high tide was expected to come in at 9 p.m. Saturday. According to the NWS, Vineland received the most snow in Cumberland County with 10.2 inches.
Wood noted that as of 10:20 a.m. Saturday, Atlantic City Electric was reporting 332 outages out of the utility company's 36,020 customers.
"Weather is forecasted to deteriorate this afternoon as the storm wraps back around, Wood said. "Residents are encouraged to stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary. Most available resources are already in operation to fight the storm."
Greg Adomaitis may be reached at gadomaitis@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregAdomaitis. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.