Friday, January 19, 2024 @ 5:00 p.m.
The Hot Springs Village POA asks residents to please stay home until the ice thaws unless it is an emergency. Public Services Roads and Sanitation Superintendent Todd Noles said, “I understand that everyone wants to get out. People get cabin fever. Everybody wants their roads plowed and sanded, and we are trying to do this. But at the moment, we have vehicles hung up on Tomayo Way, a car sideways on Reata, a big truck has jackknifed and has the road blocked on Arias, and a U-Haul trunk is hung up at Sabiote.*
The sanding and plowing crews have spent the better part of today, Friday, January 19, helping first responders rescue people who have slid off of the roads, leaving the crews unable to do much plowing or sanding. Noles said, “While we are working with emergency personnel to try to get people out, we can’t sand and plow. I am saying that if people just stay home or at least avoid steep hills if they must go out, we will be able to make it to their neighborhoods to plow. Currently, all of our efforts are being spent on rescuing people. By the time we rescue one, we can’t even reload the sand truck before we get another rescue call or two. Nine calls have come in the past half an hour, four of which were in the past fifteen minutes. Public Services staff have been on duty since 5:00 a.m., which is over 12 hours, and they are still working”.
When someone requires rescuing, this situation is dangerous for the first responders (fire, police, and ambulance), road crews, and sometimes private tow trucks. You are not only putting yourself and your vehicle at risk but may also put a first responder or worker at risk.
Public Services Director Ken Unger cautioned, “We have limited resources if you slide off the road. Unger also asks that you avoid driving on hills unless you want to be one of the people they have to rescue. But keep in mind when you get into trouble, we have to stop plowing and sanding to assist first responders, this stops us from our plowing and sanding operations. We only have three plows and two sand trucks to cover 468 miles of road.”
While main roads are in fairly good shape, side roads are problematic. While the plows have cleared off the snow, they cannot do anything about the underlying ice, leaving very treacherous driving conditions. A lot of the hills are covered in ice.
Road crews will continue plowing and sanding operations beginning at 6:00 a.m. Saturday morning.
Fortunately, Public Services was able to replenish the sand and de-icer today, but yesterday, January 18, supplies were running dangerously low, as it was unsafe for the supply trucks to make deliveries in the Village.
Hot Springs Village is expecting another inclement weather incident on Sunday evening (January 21 into Monday (January 22) morning in the form of an ice storm.
Driving Behind a Barricade is Illegal
Noles stated, “Police Chief Kristi Bennett said, if you are caught driving in a barricaded area, you will be ticketed. Today there was an incident where a vehicle was driving on a barricaded stretch of road and came within a foot of hitting the plow trick. Luckily, contact was not made, but it could have resulted in a situation where someone was hurt or the plow truck could have been damaged and rendered unusable.”
*Street names may be misspelled due to my haste in publishing this important public service message.
By Cheryl Dowden
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