First Snowfall of the Season Graces St. Cloud Area [VIDEO]

ST. CLOUD -- The wait is over, the first snowfall of the season has finally hit the St. Cloud area.

Residents, businesses and schools are doing their part in dealing with the snowfall.

Mark Held in the General Manager of Handyman's Hardware says shovels and ice melt have been selling like hot cakes.

"We've been seeing an uptick of people coming in for shovels and salt, in fact yesterday we saw a number of people come in preparing for the snow," says Held.

The snowfall has caused whiteout conditions, sloppy roads and power outages throughout the area.

Several schools began cancelling school Thursday. Sauk Rapids-Rice Superintendent Dan Bittman says they started the day with classes, however, decided to enforce an early dismissal.

"As we continued to get more information throughout the day, we decided it was in the students best interest to have an early dismissal and we started that process this morning," says Bittman.

The National Weather Service has issued a Blizzard Warning for Stearns County until 9:00 p.m. and if you do have to travel, make sure you take your time.