TYLER, Texas — With the temperature reaching up just above freezing on Friday, snow and ice on Tyler roads began to melt.
However, Andy Erbaugh with the Tyler Police Department says the road conditions in the morning were worse than they'd been the rest of the week.
"For the most part, it's been very good to see that there's not a whole lot of traffic out there," Erbaugh said. But when they do go out, they get stuck. We're seeing that that's been the case, especially in certain areas, just over and over and over."
City crews have focused on sanding and de-icing bridges, overpasses and around hospitals while Smith County teams worked on main arterials in the city.
"Shiloh that there's still a very tricky road that has the hills there," Erbaugh said. "Hills are still going to be very hard to get up, especially on your side streets. You're going to be sliding and skidding a lot."
Many residential neighborhoods and side streets remain blankets of snow. Erbaugh says police have helped several drivers stuck who hadn't made it too far from home.
The police department is asking the community to stay home Saturday because with temperatures dropping Friday evening, morning road conditions could be similar.
"Because it's so packed out, it's so thick, that tonight, when it begins to freeze again, that's just gonna become ice again," he explained.
Erbaugh says once the sunshine comes out Saturday afternoon, streets might be OK for drivers, but it could be until Sunday or Monday until the snow and ice are entirely gone.
"If you have to get out, it's slower speeds, it's much more distance between you and the other car because these, these roads that are side roads, you try to stop, you're gonna find yourself skidding, and we saw that a lot this morning," he said. "Even if you think that you're on concrete or asphalt, you might hit an ice spot."
The department has responded to a few accidents this week as well. Some which occurred after cars couldn't make it up hills and rolled into vehicles behind them.
