OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – With the winter storm moving in quickly on Monday, the cities of Edmond and Oklahoma City are working to keep you and your family safe.
Several crews all over the city and state are ready to go as they monitor the weather conditions coming in Monday.
The city of Edmond tells News 4, “there are four spreader plow units ready to go if needed. Depending on how the forecast changes and street conditions we can and will have the rest of our equipment ready to go. If necessary, we will initiate 12-hour snow shifts.”
The city continues to say, “Our Emergency Management team has been monitoring weather conditions and will continue to do so and coordinate with our street’s response team through the rest of weekend.”
Oklahoma City crews started preparing Thursday.
“We started loading our trucks. We started putting the spreaders on for the salt and everything that goes along with that. So, we’ve loaded 17 trucks so far,” said Raymond Melton, street superintendent, Oklahoma City.
Raymond Melton also said crews will be out on the roads for probably 24 hours until the roads are safe.
“But we expect this only last a day or two, and it probably won’t be like a February or January ice storm… We will bring crews in at their normal time because it looks like it’s going to hit about ten or 11 tomorrow morning. So, they’ll come in at six and work all day,” said Melton.
The Oklahoma Department of Transportation said they have about 50 trucks in the Metro ready to go.
“They’ll tackle the interstates, highways and turnpikes. They’ve been fuel already and filled up with sand and salt. So as soon as precipitation starts to move in, we’ll be able to tackle that,” said
Mills G. Leslie, Strategic Communications, Oklahoma Department of Transportation.
ODOT has 640 trucks statewide and 190,000 tons of sand and salt mixture for Monday.
“These groups are going to be watching and monitoring different areas. And of course, as soon as it moves in they’ll start, they’ll start tackling the roadways,” said Leslie.
The Oklahoma Department of Transportation suggests planning ahead. You can check current road conditions before you head out in the morning here on ODOT’s website.
AAA Oklahoma also encouraging all drivers to prepare their vehicles now to prevent being stuck due to cold weather’s impact.
Some things they suggest are checking dead batteries and tires.
AAA Oklahoma said they handled 64,899 emergency roadside assistance calls last winter in the state with the most common problems being dead batteries and flat tires.
Cool weather comes along with freezing pipes, the American Red Cross said some things you can do to prevent frozen pipes is by keeping garage doors closed, open kitchen and bathroom cabinet doors to allow warmer air to circulate around the plumbing and running water through the pipe – even at a trickle – helps prevent pipes from freezing.
They also suggest keeping the thermostat set to the same temperature both during the day and at night.
You can find more information about freezing pipes here.
The snow is expected to move out by Monday evening with cold air remaining.
