WILLIAMSBURG, Va — Williamsburg was met with an early brush of winter weather Sunday.
An early December winter storm covered the city in snow.
For store owner Sam Wallace, that meant shoveling the snow away from his store, after closing early over the weekend.
“We did about fifty percent of our business that we did last year on the same day,” said Wallace.
His store is open now, but store closures over the weekend mean Williamsburg visitors traded shopping for walking in a winter wonderland.
“A winter wonderland Williamsburg style,” said tourist, Krista Campbell.
“It was just beautiful,” said Larry and Nancy Bieber. “Of course, we’re not the ones who have to deal with the inconveniences.”
Those inconveniences include Willimsburg-James City County Public Schools closures and canceled early morning classes, at the College of William and Mary on Monday.
Freshman Meghan Acheson said “there was mixed reaction. Some people were cheering and super happy, but other people who have been studying for a while we’re not too thrilled.”
While students searched for a place to study for finals, the city wrestled with the cleanup.
Virginia Department of Transportation crews pretreated the roadways, but as the snow fell, crews had to continue to clear the roads to help mitigate black ice.
The transportation company and contract crews are working around the clock in the Commonwealth.
VDOT's spokesman, Dave Forster, said the agency's priority is clearing interstates and primary roads and then, major secondary streets.
When storms like this hit, the wet, heavy snow can also snap tree branches and cause them to fall on power lines. Close to 25,000 people were without power at one point.
Most of those outages were in James City and York counties as well as Williamsburg. Overnight, parts of Fort Eustis lost power because of a downline, in Williamsburg.
Since then, Dominion Energy’s website shows the power is back on at the base and several other areas.
If you see a down power line, don’t touch it and call Dominion at 1-866-DOM-HELP or text "dom" to 898366 to report it right away.