You probably don't know Tommie Pore. But he's probably been down your street plenty of times in the last 27 years.

Yesterday, at 2:30 p.m., the veteran county snow plow driver was calm as he started his first 12-hour storm shift on north county streets.

"If the public works with us it should go smoothly," Pore said. "If people stay off the road we have the manpower to move the snow."

That's what everyone was hoping as the region braced yesterday for what was predicted to be a historic snow storm.

Forecasts late yesterday put the blizzard warning in place through 10 p.m. tonight and...