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Thursday evening’s snowfall may have inconvenienced some Western Tidewater area residents with power outages, traffic delays and needing to make last-minute child care arrangements when schools announced they would be closing Friday. But thankfully, the region was spared any motor vehicle accidents resulting in injuries or loss of life.

We at The Tidewater News extend our thanks to Franklin, Southampton and Isle of Wight drivers who heeded the National Weather Service’s early warnings and either stayed off the roads or drove with caution during Thursday evening’s and Friday morning’s commutes. That gratitude certainly extends to the law enforcement, fire and EMS agencies that braved the storm to respond promptly to the relatively few traffic incidents reported.

Also deserving of thanks are the Virginia Department of Transportation crews who worked last night and this morning to plow major roads, and the crews with Dominion Energy, Community Electric Cooperative and Franklin Power & Light who worked in freezing temperatures on Friday to remove downed tree limbs that had fallen on power lines and restore electricity to residents.

Let’s not forget either that the most snow anyone received locally was only a handful of inches — hardly the winter storm of the century. All in all, things could have been a lot worse.