Buffalo, NY (WBEN) Highway crews are preparing for this weekend's blast of winter, just in time for the Christmas holiday. Public works leaders we surveyed say they're concerned about outages and low visibility.
Clarence Highway Superintendent Jamie Dussing says he's preparing for two different storms, a wind storm, then a snow storm. He says basic preparation is in progress. "Everything sharpened up plenty of gas, plenty of oil, all the necessities," says Dussing.
As far as staffing goes, Dussing says he anticipates his crews will stay close to home, especially with a lot of younger employees with with young families. "I know that everybody wants to be around the tree with their families understandably, opening up presents," says Dussing. "I've been at the highway department for a long time and and unfortunately there's been many Christmases where that goes you know that has been delayed. So it's very tough, especially with the with the young families. You know, everybody wants to be home on Christmas."
Erie County Public Works Commissioner Bill Geary says the worst part is looking for the tree limbs and power outages. "We could push snow all day long, but you start losing power, especially in these temperatures and winds, that's that's our biggest concern," says Geary.
As far as manpower goes, Geary says he's been asking to ensure he's staffed fully for all shifts. "We're gonna try and rotate them out a little faster. Not as long, maybe not a 12 hour shift was trying to do some eight hour shifts, but we're going to be flexible," notes Geary.
Geary notes Mother Nature is going to dictate how long and when crews work. "We're not going to put them in unsafe situations if it's zero visibility. blizzard like conditions with snowfall. That's when we're just going to have to wait till conditions improve enough that people can safely get out there and get everything opened up for the utility crews to get on there and start working on the utilities," Geary explains.
