With Snoqualmie Pass closed, likely until Sunday, WSU cancels classes for Monday and Tuesday due to travel concerns.
NORTH BEND, Wash. — In North Bend, the closure of Snoqualmie Pass is having wide-reaching impacts and weather conditions could keep the pass closed until Sunday.
State transportation officials said late Thursday that every mountain pass that connects the east and west side of the state, including Snoqualmie and Stevens, are not expected to open until Sunday at the earliest.
RELATED: All major Cascade passes likely closed until Sunday due to ‘dangerous weather conditions’
Snoqualmie Pass is closed between North Bend (milepost 34) and Ellensburg (milepost 106).
Heavy snowfall led to downed trees, snow slides and the threat of avalanches.
As traffic came to halt on I-90, some local businesses noticed.
At Herfy’s Burgers in Snoqualmie, employee Suzy Yi did not see the usual lunch crowd. Yi said sales are not the only concern. There’s a supply issue too. Yi is worried that the closure will make it more difficult to get deliveries for the business.
Interstate closures are creating a major conflict because of the inability to move critical and perishable goods, according to Washington Trucking Associations.
Sheri Call, President and CEO of Washington Trucking Associations, said there’s usually $42 million worth of freight every hour of everyday traveling on Washington roadways.
In a statement emailed to KING 5 on Friday, Call wrote, “The ripple effect, while, we hope short term, will equate to a micro supply chain crisis.”
The closure is also being felt by college students who were planning to travel back to Washington State University in Pullman, where classes were supposed to resume on Monday after a long winter break.
Washington State University announced it was canceling classes on Monday and Tuesday to give students time to return to Pullman following a multi-day closure of mountain passes.
“We have well over 20,000 students here on this campus and a very large percentage of them come from the west side of the state. So we know there are a lot of people who make that trek every year,” said Phil Weiler, Vice President of Marketing and Communications at WSU.
