A winter storm warning issued by the National Weather Service that threatened to bring even more snow down over Hood River County was downgraded by Tuesday morning to a prediction of mostly rain.

But in fact, Tuesday brought a mixture or rain and snow, and enough of the frozen stuff to close schools in the Hood River Valley.

A two-hour delay had been announced at 5:30 a.m., with Cascade Locks on one-hour delay, but the school district decided at about 8 a.m. to close the valley schools.

About 15 inches of snow fell on the valley on Saturday between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. Snow mostly held off on Sunday and Monday, but another 6-8 inches of snow fell in Odell and Parkdale Tuesday morning.

Over the weekend, familiar scenes emerged: kids on sleds flocked to Jackson Park and closed streets such as a steep section of Seventh Street on the Heights, city and county snow plows and sanders plied the hilly routes, and police and fire joined forces with towing companies to untangle cars from ditches, fences, and each other.

A five-car skid at State and Ninth took about 45 minutes to clear; there were no injuries. Pendleton resident Laura Mechtenberg asked plow driver Adam Schmid of the city public works crew to inform the police that she was leaving her car, disabled in the pile-up, on State and would be back to get it. Mechtenberg was on her way from a high school swim meet that just concluded at the Hood River pool.

Schmid was in the unusual position of having to wait while a River’s Edge crew removed a wrecked car from the road.

Cascade Locks received more snow, 18 inches, than fell on Mount Hood (11 inches).

The weather also resulted in a flurry of accidents along Interstate 84 during Saturday and Sunday including one fatality near Corbett, which killed a Salem woman. Multnomah County Fire and Sheriff’s office reported to that accident.

Hood River County fire districts reported responding to four accidents on the Interstate. Odell and Pine Grove Fire Chief Greg Borton said those accidents took place near Mileposts 65, 66 and 67 in both the east- and westbound lanes.

“Most of the accidents were not life-threatening; mainly there were bumps, bruises and cuts. We transported several people to the hospital. All in all for the conditions and number of wrecks, we came out of it okay,” he said.

Westbound Interstate 84 was closed for approximately seven hours on Saturday following the accident near Corbett.

Safety was at the heart of the decision to cancel school Tuesday, said Superintendent Pat Evenson-Brady.

“We looked at the roads and weather, right on the edge of freezing from Belmont north and normally we know the temperature will drop a bit between 5 and 7 a.m. If it had it would have been really icy,” she said.

“We also checked the freeway, and it was pretty chunky. Looking at the forecast, which was for more snow, the thing we worried about was taking kids home in the middle of the day.”

She added that middle of the day closures are significantly more challenging in the valley than in Cascade Locks.

Evenson-Brady acknowledged Tuesday morning that “there was confusion about this, and I am sorry about that.

“A lot of districts go through this frequently, but we haven’t done it for awhile. These days are really tough on parents and I am sorry for the confusion. Our goal is always to make sure we are transporting kids safely; I wish we had easier weather.”