Santa Cruz County Officials Advise Residents Not to Travel Unless of Emergency

Santa Cruz County officials are asking residents Friday to cancel all travel plans except in cases of emergency because of a winter storm that is impacting many major roads around the county.

Snow, ice and high winds have combined with fallen trees and downed power lines to create hazardous conditions around Santa Cruz County and have closed major thoroughfares like state Highway 17, which closed in both directions overnight.

Many Bay Area students don’t have school this week but the weather has a lot of families reconsidering their travel plans. NBC Bay Area’s Raj Mathai spoke to Brooke Bingaman, meteorologist with the Bay Area branch of the National Weather Service, for some insight on this latest storm.

The county's Emergency Operations Center has been activated to monitor the storm activity and to coordinate the response by public agencies.

Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.

The county advised people to use libraries or other public facilities to warm up, charge electronic devices and use the internet if their homes are being affected by power outages. A list of branch libraries can be found here.