EMA director asks residents to prepare

Forecasts call for another winter weather system to affect our area from Tuesday night through Thursday of this week and EMA director Jimmy Totten is asking that residents be prepared. ”We may start having frozen precipitation in our area early Wednesday morning through Thursday morning,” he said “We could end up with a ¼ inch of ice by Wednesday night. People need to prepare now and stay off the roads when the frozen precipitation starts. They should prepare for possible power outages because of the ice and wind.”Totten warns citizens not to drive during extreme conditions unless it is absolutely necessary. ”The last winter storm we had, people were out driving around and becoming involved in accidents, just because they wanted to see the snow,” he said. “It’s not worth getting hurt or hurting someone else. This could potentially become a dangerous situation.”Totten receives updates from the National Weather Service and shares those with several department heads in the county, including public works director Todd Goolsby who is already prepared to spread a salt mix and sand on roads where needed.