LANDRUM – By 5 p.m. Wednesday, January 17, Landrum Fire and Rescue had worked three wrecks involving tractor-trailers and one other wreck with passenger vehicles on the icy roads around Landrum. Chief Warren Ashmore said most of the tractor-trailers had either jackknifed or slid off the road. Two tractor-trailers lost control on Hwy. 14 and one on Hwy. 176. 

Though snowplows had been running all day, by Wednesday afternoon the hills on Hwy. 14 between Landrum and Gowensville were a sheet of ice. The curve on Hwy. 14 between downtown Landrum and the Hay Rack was also a sheet of ice and, around 3:30 p.m. an SUV driver

couldn’t hold her vehicle steady as it slid sideways into a van heading toward downtown. 

Unofficial reports said Landrum received three and a half inches of snow Wednesday morning. Landrum Ingles Co-Manager Scott Turner said they had the usual pre-snow traffic of customers buying staples such as bread, milk, snack food and bottled water.  

IGA Grocery Store owner Willard Teaster said they did have a lot of customers shop on Tuesday to stock up on essentials such as bread and milk.  “The traffic was about half as much today [Wednesday] as it usually is,” he said. “Wednesday is usually a pretty busy day because of senior discounts. A lot of people couldn’t get out today.” 

Teaster said those who did make it to the store on Wednesday expressed appreciation the store was open. “A lot of customers said they hadn’t seen the weather this cold for this long,” he said. “Others just liked the challenge of getting out on the roads.” 

Ashmore said if people didn’t absolutely have to be out they should stay home. “It’s going to get worse as it gets into the night,” he said, adding that South Carolina issued a winter weather advisory alert in effect until 11 a.m. Thursday. “We’ll probably have to work all night [Wednesday].”