NOTE: After reading, please leave your comments in the space provided at the end of this article.

CENTRE — As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, no roads in Cherokee County are officially open to traffic, according to Highway Department Chief Engineer Corey Chambers. 

At 3:15 p.m., Superintendent Brian Johnson announced that there will be no school in Cherokee County on Wednesday, Jan. 12.

Johnson said parents had not yet been informed of the decision to cancel classes because the Board of Education's automated SchoolCast system, which places a robo call to all students' homes and works "99.9 percent of the time", is temporarily down.

Chambers said road crews are making “pretty significant progress” on clearing major roads in the county, but reminded motorists that roads remain officially closed until further notice. 

“We’re hoping that by the end of the day tomorrow [Wednesday] we’ll have all the main roads graded and cleared,” Chambers said. “But the big unknown is what the weather is going to do tonight.” 

Chambers said indications from state and national weather services are that temperatures will drop to as low as 19 degrees tonight, which could convert piles of slush and puddles of melting snow into solid ice on the roadways. 

“There is a lot of slush out there now, which is making it easier to clear,” he said. “But it’s still very wet and it could all freeze overnight.” 

Chambers said officials from the state Department of Transportation told him state crews are headed for the county today and will work to clear roads as long as possible.