WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The City of Wilmington’s Public Services Department began making preparations on Thursday, anticipating the wave of winter precipitation will have a major impact on Wilmington roads.
The city already has two trucks treating streets with a salt water mixture, and sand and salt, in an effort to minimize the chance of roads icing over.
“When you put brine out on the road, and it’s followed by rain, you lose the effectiveness, but I think in preparation we’d rather do it and not need it, or we can always redo it if the need becomes available,” said Dave Mayes, City of Wilmington Director of Public Services.
They’re focusing on the most used roads first, and those with an incline. They’ll be back out again tomorrow with three trucks, instead of two.
City officials are advising residents to limit travel over the next couple of days.
“We’ll do everything that we can to make the roads as safe as possible. Ultimately, with ice that’s the most difficult of situations that we would have, and if you don’t have to go out, please don’t,” said Mayes.
“We are going to be seeing power outages, we are going to see downed trees and tree limbs, and we have crew ready to go to clean that debris up as quickly as we can get them out in a safe manner,” said Bill Saffo, City of Wilmington Mayor.
Mayor Bill Saffo shared what the city’s expectations are for this storm, reminding residents public services and emergency management is prepared to respond.
“Just telling people to be vigilant, to be safe, to get prepared, and to get their supplies before the storm comes in, and be ready to weather it out,” said Saffo.
Plows have also been installed on the trucks, in case there’s an accumulation of sleet, ice or snow.