1 week Ago By Kenton Hornbeck
With an imposing winter storm expected to hit the Northern Kentucky region, Boone County road crews and first responders are gearing up in anticipation. To prepare for the winter storm, officials in Boone County are advising citizens to hunker down and take caution. One of the most essential jobs during winter storms is ensuring public roadways are safe and clear for travel.
Boone County, specifically, has over 500 miles of roadway to maintain. Boone County Engineer Rob Franxman said that public works crews have already salted many of the county’s major roads. Additionally, he noted that public works crews already have salt trucks loaded up in anticipation of the winter storm.
“We do have a nice pre-treatment down on all of our roadways right now,” Franxman said. “You know, whether it be our major collector roadways or subdivisions or back roads, everything has salt on it already.” Over the past year and a half, Boone County has deployed calcium chloride to help rock salt last longer.
This liquid is sprayed onto the salt and spread out of the back of trucks. “That does two things – it activates that rock salt and gets it more efficient in melting ice,” Franxman said. “Then the calcium chloride itself actually is effective at a lower temperature, so that calcium chloride addition essentially allows us to be more effective at treating snow and ice at lower temperatures.
” Kevin Vogelpohl, director of Boone County’s Emergency Management, advised county residents to diligently check all available information sources regarding weather, safety and travel alerts. Keep up with the latest NKY news with our daily newsletter Sign up “Listen to what the weather people are saying,” he said. “Listen to the meteorologists.
Listen to your local officials if they tell you that the conditions aren’t safe. We work very diligently with all of our partners – law enforcement, fire, EMS, public works, the hospitals – everything to ensure that we’re prepared to respond.” He noted that even though first responders don’t take days off, inclement weather, such as large amounts of snow or ice, can adversely affect their ability to respond immediately.
Winter storms can also affect essential home utility services such as heat and electricity. If the power goes out, he advised county residents to have blankets ready and around 72 hours’ worth of canned food that can be eaten without being heated. “Understand that when you get a heavy snow load, heavy ice load, there is a potential for utility interruptions that come along with those,” he said.
Regarding people’s cars, Vogelpohl recommended that people carry around water, blankets, and portable charging devices for cellular phones. Key items to have on hand: In your home : In your car : Watch or listen to weather updates on the news or a weather radio and understand the different levels of snow emergencies. Level one Level two Level three Warming centers available for through Jan.
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