Police and dispatchers said icy roads caused numerous wrecks throughout Kanawha County Friday evening.
"There are 39 active accident calls," a Kanawha Metro 911 dispatcher said around 8:30 p.m. "We're slammed."
"... It hit quicker than they could salt," she said. "We've got salt trucks out. They're just trying to get them as quickly as they can."
Numerous injuries were reported, she said.
A seven-vehicle wreck was reported around Dunbar at the mile marker 53 of westbound Interstate 64. All lanes on I-64 from mile markers 50 to 53 were shut down "due to multiple accidents and icy roadways," Metro 911's website announced around 8:40 p.m. The state Department of Transportation said the closed portion of I-64 was between Dunbar and Institute.
Both westbound lanes had reopened by 11:30 p.m. A dispatcher said there were still 16 active wreck calls across the county at 10:30 p.m.
"There's a lot of them, and they're everywhere," Derrick Scott, of the Kanawha County Sheriff's Office, said of the wrecks around 8:30 p.m.
He noted reports from Cross Lanes, Elkview, Quincy, Sissonville and St. Albans.
"The whole interstate is a solid sheet of ice," Scott said.
South Charleston Police Patrolman C. Stover said the winter's first significant snowfall caused all the bridges in the city to freeze over. He noted a three-car wreck on I-64, a three-car wreck on the Dunbar Toll Bridge and, as he was on the phone with a reporter, he got a report of a vehicle rollover on northbound Corridor G at the intersection with Ruth Road.
Around 9:30 p.m., Metro 911's website reported new accidents along I-64 eastbound, Interstate 79 northbound near Mink Shoals, Elk River Road northbound near Clendenin, Cabin Creek Road in Giles and Martins Branch Road and Sissonville Drive in Sissonville.
Other counties were also dealing with wrecks from the first significant snowfall they've seen. Sgt. H. Mick with Harrison County 911 dispatch said her agency had probably dealt with over 60 cars that had been involved in wrecks between 5 and 10 p.m.
She said most of the accidents were on bridges, which, people need to remember, freeze before roads.
"People don't know how to drive when it snows," she said. "... Every year, the first snow, everybody wrecks. It's true."
A dispatcher in Jackson County said there were "a lot" of wrecks along I-79 there.
"We've had so many I lost count a long time ago," she said.