DANVILLE, Va. – As a second round of winter weather approaches the region, Danville emergency services and the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) are adapting their strategies to handle the challenging conditions.
Danville Emergency Manager Ryan Campbell said the city’s emergency services are working closely with public works to ensure emergency response capabilities.
“If we were to have an access issue getting into a street, a residence or something like that, we can make a call to public works and they’ll actually be able to send us a plow truck that we can get in,” Campbell said.
The emergency response team is modifying their approach by using more suitable vehicles for winter conditions.
“One of the things we did last weekend that we’re looking at again for this weekend is utilizing SUVs, things that are a little bit lighter that have four-wheel drive for calls that don’t necessitate the larger apparatus,” Campbell explained.
The city’s staffing levels are adjusted based on weather forecasts. “We take a look at the forecast, the onset time, the end time and try to predict where the impacts will be the greatest, and then we have varying levels of overtime,” Campbell said.
Meanwhile, VDOT faces unique challenges from the previous storm’s aftermath. VDOT Spokesperson Len Stevens said the combination of existing ice and new snow requires specialized equipment.
“We have to bring in some heavy equipment now to get that stuff off of the roads. Our standard plows just go right over the top of this stuff,” Stevens said.
VDOT is deploying motor graders – heavy-bladed machines capable of removing stubborn ice. While the upcoming storm is expected to bring snow rather than ice, Stevens noted they’re taking a different approach to pre-treatment.
“We have not pretreated the roads for this one because we had pretreated for the last one and there’s a lot of residue already on the roads,” he said.
Officials urge residents to stay off roads during the weather event to allow emergency vehicles and road crews to work effectively.