KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Knoxville leaders estimate the city spent a total of at least $625,000 responding to a winter storm that killed 36 people across the state, or at least five people per day. Knox County leaders said eight people may have died in the county because of the weather.
Knoxville plow trucks are estimated to have traveled a total of over 17,000 miles trying to clear roads, and leaders said at least half of the cost to respond to the storm went towards the salt used to treat roads. People died from hypothermia and from road conditions in Knox County.
"There was a Winter Storm Warning, and anytime the National Weather Service issues a warning, it means your life is in danger," said Anthony Cavalluci, with the National Weather Service in Morristown. "Winter Storm Warning means conditions are not favorable."
NWS staff said a warning is triggered when more than 3 inches of snow is in the forecast. The average snowfall in East Tennessee is 4 inches in a season. The winter storm brought at least 8 inches of snow in a single event.
"It's not common for a single weather system to impact over 95 counties," said Patrick Sheehan, Director of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. "Any place you see that a large unhoused population has been exposed, that accounts for this (number of deaths)."
The winter storm brought comparisons to around 30 years ago when the Blizzard of 1993 swept through East Tennessee. The winter storm brought the largest amount of snow the area has seen in decades. The storm also brought more snow to the valley than the mountains, unlike the Blizzard of 1993.
By the end of the week, winter weather brought the most snow East Tennessee has seen on the ground since 1910 — breaking a record set more than a century ago.
"In the mountains of Blount County, for example, and in even parts of Sevier County didn't receive very much snowfall at all," said Cavalluci.
TEMA also said the winter storm marked the longest duration the area's temperatures stayed below freezing.