PennDOT Ready for First Snows, and Ask Drivers to be Ready Too
With 80 million Americans traveling for Thanksgiving, keeping an eye on the weather will be critical.
November snows have hit all around us in recent days from Cleveland, Ohio during the Browns - Steelers game last Thursday, to a big snowfall in north eastern Pennsylvania at the end of last week.
Erie County has been spared so far, but the Penndot garage, they are ready for the first serious snows.
Mechanics are making sure that plows and salt trucks are in good working condition.
Employees have been making brine and filling the big tanks that will fill the trucks before their runs.
And the supplies of road salt are piled high.
We're about as ready as we can be," said Saxon Daugherty, District 1 Safety Press Officer for Penndot. "We're always preparing for winter, we never want to be caught off guard with the potential weather that we see here in Erie County. Right now we're about as prepared as we can be. As far as staffing, we have 90 operators with just a few vacancies, and 52 plow trucks at our disposal that cover 39 different plow routes around Erie County," he added.
As far as our materials, we're all set to go we just got our shipments in of salt and we've made our brine, so we're really in a good spot - now it's just to kinda keep an eye on the weather and react accordingly.
But Penndot officials want drivers to be prepared for the first blast of wintry weather too.
That means allowing extra time for your trips, slowing down in the event of snowy or slippery conditions, and not following other drivers or plows too closely.
It's also a good idea to have an emergency preparedness kit in your vehicle with things like extra warm clothing, blankets, non perishable food and drinks, any medications you may need and extra charging devices for your phone.