While it remains to be seen whether the worst forecasts come to fruition, Warren County first responders and local governments are already getting ready for winter weather.
Wright City Alderwoman Karey Owens brought up winter weather preparations at the Thursday, Oct. 8, Board of Aldermen meeting, asking if the city had enough trucks, staffing and salt.
Brennan Hoelscher, director of public works and parks, said that between those two departments the city has six employees to work on snow removal. It has enough trucks to run three trucks per shift, although the trucks “are put through quite a bit,” he said, and two of them are more than 20 years old.
“Will they last us through the winter? We’re hoping so,” he said.
Hoelscher said the city’s 25-ton salt bin was half full, which was enough for about three shifts of snow removal. “I don’t like to fill the bin right off the bat,” he said, preferring to wait and monitor the weather and salt price variations. He added, however, that he is planning to make sure the city has enough salt.
“We stay highly prepared,” Hoelscher said. “It’s a big part of what we do. It’s a huge public service, so it’s high up on the list.”
In addition to discussing what local governments are doing to prepare, city officials at recent meetings have also speculated about the severity of weather that can be expected this winter, as well as voicing concerns about possible closures of Interstate 70.
At the Sept. 23 Truesdale Board of Aldermen meeting, Mayor Jerry Cannon said that “the long-range forecast is for some really bad winter weather, and that does not bode well” with construction ongoing on I-70.
Eric Kopinski, Improve I-70 program director with the Missouri Department of Transportation, told the Record in late August that one factor that MoDOT considers when awarding contracts for work that will be ongoing during winter is how the contractor plans to handle weather challenges and facilitate snow plows and traffic getting through the work zone.
Like Cannon, however, Wright City Alderwoman Owens said that the concrete barriers on either side of segments of I-70 with construction ongoing will make the highway particularly difficult to drive and to clear in winter conditions, and could lead to the interstate having to shut down.
“With MoDOT having so much of 70 where there are no shoulders, there’s nowhere for snow to go. Have we gotten any communication from MoDOT or anything? Because the last thing we need is 70 to go down three or four or five times,” she said.
Wright City Police Lt. Aaron Sutton said local officials should prepare for the possibility of I-70 having to close at times due to weather this winter.
“70 will go down. I mean, there’s nowhere to go for snow. Expect the worst,” he said.
“There’s no good plan. The only plan is that it’s going to be diversion, and that diversion is going to back everything up,” Sutton said, adding that if there are accidents, it will also take emergency personnel longer to get to them.
“It’s going to get messy,” he said.
Wright City Mayor Michelle Heiliger noted, however, that the most dire winter weather predictions may not materialize, and pointed out that MoDOT does provide some additional resources to help deal with the weather.
“We were worried about it last winter, and we did have a couple of situations, but all in all it went OK,” she said.
“And last winter, they did have a snow plow driver here that was just doing the service roads, keeping them clear, which that was helpful, that was good.”
Long-range weather forecasts for this winter are “hit or miss,” Wright City Alderman Don Andrews said at the Oct. 8 meeting.
“They’re calling for a very wet winter,” he added, but all the predictions he has seen “depend on how the cold front hits the moisture.”
Warren County Emergency Management Director Mike Thornton urged a cautious approach when it comes to relying on long-term weather predictions, some of which are forecasting a potentially record-breaking “Super El Niño.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration seasonal outlook as of Sept. 17 already favored “above-normal precipitation across much of the central and southern United States, with above-normal temperatures favored across much of the northern and central United States during winter,” Thornton noted.
“A record-strength El Niño describes the magnitude of the ocean-atmosphere phenomenon, not the eventual severity of winter weather in Missouri,” he added.
“An especially important point is that warmer-than-normal seasonal temperatures do not rule out dangerous winter storms.”
Warren County “could experience an overall mild winter while still having a major snowstorm, damaging ice event, or Arctic outbreak,” according to Thornton.
Some of the variables that factor into weather forecasting were among the topics discussed at an all-day winter weather hazards class hosted Oct. 6 by Warren County Emergency Management, Thornton said, along with contingency planning for last-minute changes to weather forecasts.
More than two dozen people attended the class, including representatives from Warren County Ambulance District, Warrenton Public Works, Wright City Fire Protection District, and Wright City R-II School District, Thornton said.
Looking ahead, Thornton said he has been in touch with Wright City Fire, Warren County Ambulance and the Missouri State Highway Patrol, which are all onboard with participating in a tabletop exercise focused on the stretch of I-70 where concrete barriers on both sides of the roadway are expected to remain in place through the winter. Hopefully that exercise will take place in the next month or so and will also involve MoDOT participation, Thornton said, although a date has not been set.
For members of the general public who may be wondering what to do to prepare for winter weather, Thornton said it’s a good idea to keep a disaster kit in your vehicle, including things like jackets, three days worth of food and water, jumper cables, and tire chains.
“It’s a really good idea to have some high-visibility tape, so that way if your vehicle gets knocked off of the road, agencies are able to identify where you’re at, because it’s not unheard of for vehicles to get covered in snow,” he said. “So if you have some high-vis tape and you tape it to your antenna or something like that, we can identify where you’re at, even if you’re covered in snow.”
Thornton said he has spoken with the National Weather Service recently, and the agency agreed with him that it’s too early to know for sure how bad this winter’s weather will be, but it’s always a good idea to prepare for the worst.
“Not every incident is going to be terrible,” he said, “but if you’re prepared when it finally does happen, you’ll be ready to go.”
