Huge snow drifts are causing major problems for residents of rural Spokane County.
Karlee Humphrey and her husband Brad live just south of Spokane off of Palouse Highway. Since last Thursday, they have not been able to access their home due to drifting snow completely covering the roads.
"It's piling up and piling up, and it is something else to see the roads blown shut with snow," Humphrey said. "We are able to walk in on foot from a couple blocks away but there's no way to get a car in."
The Washington State Department of Transportation announced on Tuesday that SR 27 had reopened between Waverly and Latah, but remained closed between Latah and Tekoa.
While the Humphreys are snowed out, many of their neighbors are snowed in and unable to leave their homes. It's a problem that's been affecting many of those who live in the rural parts of the county.
"We've been staying with family, but it's definitely been a challenge trying to get to work and trying to live a normal life now for the past several days," Humphrey said.
A county engineer says, by their estimates, this is a once-in-a-decade event and they're devoting their full resources to restoring access.
"We have all of our crews mobilized and they're all working extended shifts. They're all working through the weekends, so that's about a hundred people and a hundred pieces of equipment," said assistant county engineer Matt Zarecor. "And then beyond that, we have contracted with eight bulldozers."
Humphrey said the drifts have gotten so high, those bulldozers are going to come in handy.
"It's unreal. I mean it's probably going to take a bulldozer to get the snow out by now," she said.
The drifts are also causing real safety worries.
"[It's] kind of a crisis, and if there's a medical emergency, there's no way emergency crews could ever get to their home," Humphrey said.
"That's our primary concern," Zarecor added. "If you can't maintain access, the concern over a fire or a medical emergency is just paramount. So we actually pull off of other projects like the arterials, even if there is a little bit of drifting, to make sure we can get access to everybody and their homes."
Humphrey said she called the county and they told her they don't have an estimate for when the crews will reach her neighborhood.
"Going on a week of not being able to exit your home or get into your home. To me, that's a major crisis that needs to be fixed pretty immediately," she said.
Zarecor says the county understands the problem has gotten severe, so they've adjusted their normal plowing priorities to help folks like the Humphreys. However, drifts provide unique challenges.
"When that drifting starts happening it's just an entirely different creature, because you just keep having to fall back and redo things all the time," he said.