The shelters in Denver filled as fast as the snow fell late Tuesday, leaving outreach workers scrambling to find an open bed, an empty cot or unused floor mat for the city’s homeless.
By Wednesday night, welfare agencies were bracing for another overflow night.
“It’s going to get worse,” said Bernie O’Connell, an outreach worker at St. Francis Center.
Meanwhile, the season’s first major snowfall – which began at evening rush hour Tuesday – left road crews playing catch- up.
As Wednesday’s temperature in Denver dropped to a low of 10 degrees, road crews tried a new blend of anti-icer.
“This one is better in cold temperatures, and we’re not displeased with the result,” Colorado Department of Transportation spokeswoman Stacey Stegman said.
Still, many Denver streets were slick shortly after the first flakes fell Tuesday afternoon and stayed that way into Wednesday because road crews couldn’t pretreat the pavement with the blend of magnesium- chloride anti-icing liquid, city officials said.
“When you get a storm like this one at the evening rush hour, it’s such a challenge because you’re bound to get icy streets,” said Dan Roberts, director of street maintenance at Denver Public Works.
Anti-icing liquid makes for a slick road when applied to dry pavement, Roberts said, and that increases the chance for additional accidents.
The city ran 60 snow trucks, while CDOT crews manned 85 vehicles, both on 12-hour shifts.
Meanwhile, many commuters decided to avoid driving altogether.
“When the weather gets this bad, people would prefer to leave the driving to someone else,” RTD spokesman Scott Reed said.
He said there was higher-than- normal ridership of buses and light-rail trains, including the new southeast line, but the system was never overloaded.
Denver’s emergency cold- weather shelter – tucked inside the former Permits Building across from City Hall and Civic Center park and designed to handle overflow from area shelters – filled for the first time since opening Nov. 1.
Things got so bad that the homeless who congregate for warmth above the steam grates along the City and County Building built a makeshift tent city, with intertwining tarps and ropes to offer cover from the snow.
“They set up quite a camp,” said O’Connell.
At least six people died in accidents attributed to the weather.
In an Arapahoe County rollover, Mahendra Parmar, 48, of Centennial was killed when the car he was driving south in the 5200 block of Himalaya Street struck a northbound pickup truck about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Parmar’s 14-year-old daughter and the driver of the pickup were taken to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
In a Larimer County crash, a 10-year-old Louisiana boy died from injuries he sustained when he was partly ejected from the pickup truck he was riding in as it rolled down an embankment along southbound Interstate 25 near Wellington about 6 p.m. Tuesday.
The boy’s mother, Theresa Cupit, 43, of Oak Grove, La., was the driver and sustained minor injuries, police said. She was charged with careless driving causing death.
Also, four people were killed in a rollover on Interstate 70 near Idaho Springs on Tuesday night.
Roads and interstates throughout Colorado were snowy and slushy Wednesday but remained open. There were chain restrictions for commercial vehicles.
The storm moved southeast out of the state late Wednesday, and frigid temperatures followed in its wake.
Wednesday night, the metro area and the Eastern Plains were expected to see temperatures below zero, according to the National Weather Service.
With snowpacked and slushy roads freezing solid overnight, this morning’s commute may be treacherous.
“The storm’s not over with yet,” said Colorado State Trooper Gilbert Mares. “I anticipate the troopers out on the road will be extremely busy.”
Staff writers Katharine Bernuth and Felisa Cardona contributed to this report.
Staff writer David Migoya can be reached at 303-954-1506 or dmigoya@denverpost.com.
