AccuWeather speaks with Brian Mason of the Houston Office of Emergency Management who updates us on how the city is preparing for looming snowy and icy conditions, which will cause dangerous travel.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00I know things are busy. What is the latest and did you just have a meeting with the mayor and city leaders?
00:08Yeah, you know we've been planning for the event since Thursday as the snows move through the area today
00:14It looks like it's starting to clear a lot of the residents are getting out enjoying the snow playing
00:19Outside and you know our real concern for a lot of folks is as we get to a hard freeze later this afternoon and tonight
00:25Everything's gonna ice over and road conditions are going to be become pretty dangerous around the city center around the area
00:31All right, so it's pretty rare in Houston, right?
00:33So, how do your teams keep the roads clear? Are there enough plows available in any other vehicles for treating the roads?
00:39Yeah, so as you can imagine in Houston, we don't have a fleet of plows like they do up in
00:44Minneapolis our local text thought the state highway department
00:48They've actually mobilized in 22 plows from around the state
00:52We got some plows from El Paso Dallas Abilene some different districts
00:57We're really focusing on the major freeways to have transportation going but it's very difficult for us, you know city of Houston
01:03We have 16,000 lane miles and this is just not something we deal with on a regular basis
01:09So obviously mobility is definitely a challenge for us
01:11And you mentioned another difficulty as we move forward temperatures getting above freezing during the day and then below freezing at night
01:19So this could be a problem that lingers for at least a couple of days, correct?
01:24Correct. Yes, sir
01:25And actually we are preparing for things to for our 9-1-1 call volume to go up through afternoon throughout the afternoon and into the evening
01:33We're really worried about tomorrow morning
01:35people are gonna wake up and
01:37They're gonna think that things are safe for them to get back on the road and we're gonna have some challenges with people slipping and
01:43Sliding all over the place. Well, I know if I was a Houston resident, I'd feel very
01:46That you guys are so prepared it seems like very ready for this
01:50So what messages do you have for your Houston residents during this winter storm?
01:55So I think the most important thing is as as public servants, you know, we've done our job
02:00We've been planning and preparing since Thursday. We've been collaborating with our county partners our state partners working really close
02:07Extra staff on you know work in 24-7 to support them
02:11Our request to them is please please please help us out do your part stay off the roads
02:16Give us another couple days things are gonna warm up and we'll be back to our normal Houston weather
02:21You know in the long-range forecast long-range forecast
02:24It looks like we're going to be in the upper 60s or low 70s come this weekend
02:27So hang tight stay home for a little bit
02:30We'll get through this and and we'll be be able to go back to business as usual in Houston
02:34Brian Mason director of Houston's Office of Emergency Management. Thank you for joining us
02:39Stay safe, and if you can enjoy the snow
02:43Thank you, sir