Road Crews Plea For Public To Stay Home

HICKORY, NC – Threats of a winter storm have been in the news for several days. Some locals prepared for the storm by stocking up on bread, milk and other essentials. Others called the “bluff” of meteorologists, saying that we never get any “real accumulation.” For those who failed to prepare, they found themselves surprised Friday evening.

Snow started falling around 3pm on Friday and continued throughout the night and most of the day on Saturday. Steve Miller, a supervisor with Hickory Public Works Street Division, said that official accumulation totals range between 8-10″ in Hickory. Other parts of Catawba and Burke Counties have seen more than a foot of accumulation.

Law enforcement and emergency personnel were responding to HUNDREDS of incidents. Hickory Police Department called in extra personnel in anticipation of the storm, and even then there were times all of their staff were tied up on calls. Most of the calls were related to drivers finding themselves off the roadway, stuck and needing assistance.

“We need for folks to stay home unless they absolutely need to be out. Our crews are working hard to get the roads clear but vehicles on the roadway make that job difficult,” Miller said. “Our roads are going to get worse before they get better, so we need the public’s cooperation.”

Miller and his crews have been scraping and applying salt/sand to roadways since the storm began. He said the temperatures are preventing them from really getting a grasp on things. He explained that the salt used to loose the ice on the roadway doesn’t work well when temperatures fall below 26 degrees. The ice on the roadway gets so hard that their equipment will not loosen it. One public service worker referred to it as being “locked down.”

Miller said that the city has a few pieces of equipment that it uses when conditions get this bad – including heavy graders. They will use this equipment to get as many main roads clear as possible. Secondary and neighborhood roads will likely have to wait until temperatures rise and crews can break up and remove the ice.

A spokesman with the NCDOT told us that they are experiencing the same difficulties. He encouraged the public to “stay home and ask a neighbor if you need something. Only get on the roadways if you absolutely must and understand doing so that you are risking your life and the lives of others.”