City of Asheville gears up for winter storm response

 

With the National Weather Service predicting a wintry mix of snow, sleet and possible ice Saturday through Monday, the City of Asheville is preparing its storm response.

 

The City of Asheville is preparing a coordinated response with our community partners, including NCDOT, Duke Energy and Buncombe County Emergency Management.

 

Public Works crews have been fitting trucks with salt and brine spreaders in preparation. Public Works has 32 trucks to deploy, including snow plows and salt/brine spreaders.

The City has 4,000 tons of salt in supply.

Starting Friday morning, Public Works will pre-treat all priority 1 roads and many priority 2 streets. In addition, Public Works will pre-treat all sidewalks that the City of Asheville is responsible for and will remove snow from them as the storm moves in. This includes special efforts around the U.S. Cellular Center, which is hosting the Warren Haynes Christmas Jam Friday-Saturday.

 

Streets crews anticipate working around the clock as the storm moves in.

 

Here is a link to the City’s snow removal priority map. Primary roads have to be the priority for snow removal to ensure they are passable for our emergency responders.

 

What you can do

The City asks everyone to limit on-street parking during any snow event! This is extremely helpful to our ability to clear streets more efficiently.

Also, now is the time to get your Emergency Preparedness Kit ready! Plan now and be prepared. Here are tips from N.C. Emergency Management, http://ow.ly/J4Lz30mRfwv.

 

If you need shelter

The Asheville Buncombe Homeless Coalition has issued a Code Purple for much of this week. Please urge those who need shelter to come in out of the cold. Find a list of shelters here.

 

More information to come

Please check back as the City of Asheville will share more information as it becomes available. Also, follow City of Asheville social media channels.

Asheville Fire Department: FacebookTwitter

City of Asheville: FacebookTwitter

Asheville Police Department: FacebookTwitter

 

Public meeting rescheduled: Two community open houses about the Haywood Street Streetscape project originally set for Dec. 10 have been moved to Dec. 12, because of the forecast. Find that information here.