WILLOW -- State crews spent Friday clearing snow from main roads in the upper Susitna Valley after about a foot and a half fell in the area overnight Thursday.
The snowfall closed five schools.
Amanda Cornell told her 9-year-old son that he'd have to go to Willow Elementary Friday even if it was snowing really hard Thursday night. Then the call came at 4:30 a.m. Friday: no school.
Cornell spent Friday with her two younger sons, ages 4 and 6, at the Raven Lunatic Espresso stand where she works as a barista. The older boy helped his dad plow the 10 inches of snow that fell at their place 10 miles up Willow-Fishhook Road.
She and others heard the issue was state budget cuts that slowed plowing response time.
But Shannon McCarthy, a spokeswoman with the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, said crews deployed across Southcentral Alaska to deal with the snow -- as much as 18 inches in the Talkeetna area, a few inches less in Willow. Reports also came in of rain and freezing rain in spots around Southcentral.
"Every operator is on the road with our available equipment, either plowing or sanding," McCarthy said. "We did authorize overtime, especially in the Mat-Su area."
Five schools closed for the day: Beryozova School, Su-Valley JR/SR High, Talkeetna Elementary, Trapper Creek Elementary and Willow Elementary. Health clinics at Sunshine and Willow were also closed, according to a Facebook post from Sunshine Community Health Center.
Mat-Su School District safety and emergency preparedness officer Joe Schmidt said closing the schools was "a safety decision" made at 4 a.m. based on road conditions from the amount of snow that fell and not whether state crews were out plowing or not.
"There was 18 inches of snow up north," Schmidt said. "Obviously that was the driver."
The state transportation department suffered a $35 million reduction in general fund dollars due to budget cuts triggered by falling oil prices that's left Alaska with a $3 billion deficit, McCarthy said. The reduction led to a loss of 60 positions statewide and around 25 positions cut to part time or seasonal work.
Still, she added, it didn't appear that budget cuts led to a delay in road clearing in the Su Valley.
McCarthy said roads would be cleared in the order shown by a map of statewide snow-plowing priorities posted online in September. The Parks Highway south of Big Lake Road is a priority-one area, while the stretch of the highway to the north passing Talkeetna is a priority-two road.
"They actually worked on the Parks last night, and then they did all the priority-two roads this morning," she said. "They worked on the Glenn (Highway) north of Sutton, and they'll be turning their attention back to the Parks (shortly) because that's ongoing this morning."
The Susitna Valley was expected to get 1 to 3 inches of additional snow Friday night with snow showers on Saturday, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Jason Ahsenmacher.
More snow was in the forecast for Anchorage and the Matanuska Valley, however; a low-pressure system coming up from the Alaska Peninsula was expected to move quickly into Prince William Sound tonight, Ahsenmacher said.
In Anchorage, police were asking drivers to use caution on O'Malley Road, due to a pair of crashes Friday morning.
Police spokeswoman Jennifer Castro said no students were on board the bus when it slid into the ditch, and that only minor injuries were reported in both collisions. She said traffic was otherwise flowing well throughout the city.
"It's just something for drivers to pay attention to when they're coming down that stretch of hill there," Castro said.