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During the ice alert we watched as Houston and Harris County worked together to keep roads safe and people informed.

When the winter weather threat came in the area’s emergency response command center sprung into action.

And now it’s time to evaluate the response.

There’s no question. When you own a body shop bad weather can be good for business.

“Absolutely. This is our kind of weather. Business is booming right now,” said Elaine Duplechain, collision auto repair.

At the Collision Auto Repair Shop in southwest Houston weather related accidents from Wednesday’s wintry mix of ice and rain brought in new business Thursday.

“Today we’re seeing a lot of estimates, a lot of people are coming for estimates. We’ve written probably about five or six estimates this morning,” Duplechain said.

Traveling on slick roads proved dangerous for some drivers.

In all, there were 51 accidents Wednesday compared to just 27 wrecks for the same day and time period a year ago.

In hindsight, things could have been much worse. But officials say those numbers point to two important conclusions. First, people heeded the warnings and stayed off the roads and second the emergency plan implemented by TxDOT, and the county apparently worked.

“We still had more accidents than normal, but the information was out about the accidents, where they were, the overpasses being crowded and people knew where to go,” said County Judge Robert Eckels.

City sand trucks kept up with the pace of the weather.  When overpasses or connectors got too treacherous they were shut down – a precaution that worked for many.

“I’ve seen accidents every day for the last three days,” Duplechain said.