GETTING ANSWERS: Gov. Cooper heads west as help with ice heads east

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Two days after a record snowfall much of southeastern North Carolina is still digging out from the ice left behind.

Over the past two days Gov. Roy Cooper has held briefings in Raleigh about the storm. Today he moved on to other matters.

As most students in our area missed a third day of school because of the weather the Democrat traveled to Charlotte, where he visited an elementary school to discuss the need for funding a class size requirement.

We asked our ABC affiliate WSOC in Charlotte to ask the governor about lingering storm issues.

“We have (four) people who died from the results of the storm,” Cooper said. “We have one truck that skidded off of the bridge and fell into a creek. Two men died and another person skidded off the road and hit a tree and died Beaufort County. It just shows you just gotta stay safe on the roads and slow down. We encouraged people not to go out unless they had to, and people for the most part did that yesterday and today.”

This afternoon Cooper’s office sent out a news release titled “Roads clearing, but bitter cold temperatures remain.” It included a quote from the governor who said, “Last night was a quieter one for troopers on our highways. it appears that many people heeded the warnings and stayed off the roads, and there were far fewer collisions. But very cold temperatures remain along with icy spots on many secondary roads and neighborhood streets, so we need to keep our guard up.”

We know it’s more than just some icy spots in your neighborhood, so we called the governor’s office for more information.

Spokesman Ford Porter said the NCDOT is redirecting more resources our way. We asked Porter if we could speak with the governor about what’s going on, and he said he would check. We have not heard back about that request, but we did get a call from NC Transportation Secretary Jim Trogdon, who said the governor asked him to call us.

Secretary Trogdon said that with the limited amount of time crews can effectively work because of the cold and how it affects ice removal he ordered more resources east. He said DOT Division 3, which includes Brunswick, New Hanover, Pender, Onslow, Duplin and Sampson counties, is getting resources from three other districts that stretch from Boone to Winston-Salem and down to Charlotte. The DOT says that adds 40 more trucks and graders to the fleet of more than 90 DOT and contractor vehicles already working in the six-county division.

Secretary Trogdon also said conditions are even worse farther up the coast, which is getting help from other parts of the state.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story reported that according to our Charlotte affiliate WSOC reporters did not have time to ask Gov. Cooper about storm issues during his school visit. WSOC later let us know that one of its reporters was able to ask the governor about it. His response has been added.