- “Our message to North Carolina is simple: this is a serious storm, and we are taking it seriously, and so should you,” said Democratic Gov. Josh Stein at a media briefing Friday morning.
- Officials stressed that 911 should only be used for emergencies. For general information, call 211 or visit local government and emergency management websites and social media accounts.
“Our message to North Carolina is simple: this is a serious storm, and we are taking it seriously, and so should you,” said Democratic Gov. Josh Stein at a media briefing Friday morning at the State Emergency Operations Center in Raleigh.
The upcoming winter storm still looks to be a mainly significant ice event that will start late Saturday afternoon and go through Monday morning. Cold temperatures on the back side of the storm may make removing icy conditions very difficult in the coming days.
The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning for areas including Greensboro to Chapel Hill where heavy mixed precipitation is expected with total ice accumulations of around half an inch and snow accumulations of one to three inches. The western part of the state and the Charlotte area have an Ice Storm Warning with total snow and sleet accumulations ranging from one to three inches and ice accumulations of 4/10 of an inch to an inch. A Winter Storm Warning has also been issued for the Raleigh Durham area with total sleet and snow accumulations between one and three inches and total ice accumulations of half an inch are possible.
Stein said their greatest concerns remain unsafe travel and power outages that could last for days. He reminded the public not to delay in getting ready for the storm, repeating much of what was said in a briefing on Thursday.
State Emergency Management Director Will Ray said the State Emergency Response Team including all our interagency remain activated at the State Emergency Operations Center, as well as our regional coordination centers in Kinston, Burlington, and Hickory. Commodity distribution continues to be supported from the state’s activated warehouses and as of this morning, approximately 65 pallets of meals ready to eat or MRE’s and drinking water were shipped to assist communities with shelter operations if needed.
supplies in place
More than 460 cots and blanket shipments were sent to supplement local supply along with commodities that have been shipped into local communities over the past several months to assist in building local capacity. Additional commodities are shipping out from the warehouses today and Saturday.
Eleven counties have declared states of emergency, and two county emergency operations centers are activated, with many others monitoring plans to activate this weekend. Communities across the state are opening shelter locations and warming stations. Ray suggested visiting local government and local emergency management agencies’ websites and social media for the most up-to-date information.
About 95 force packages or groupings of approximately 430 North Carolina National Guard, along with 170 vehicles that have been deployed and pre-positioned across the state to quickly assist with clearing roadways from downed trees, helping disabled motorists, supplementing first responders, and assisting with commodity distribution.
He added that they are in close contact with the state’s energy sector partners and will be monitoring power outages, and the North Carolina Forest Service has six task forces on standby to assist local first responders or state agencies with clearing roadways.
Ray said that communications personnel and equipment have been pre-deployed to assist with any degradation of 911, radio, and phone networks. Forty-four caches of radios have been deployed to assist with local response efforts, and the North Carolina Highway Patrol has conducted checks of the systems that support the state’s Viper radio system used by first responders statewide.
He stressed that 911 should only be used for emergencies, and for general information, call 211 or visit local government and emergency management websites and social media accounts.
202.8 million gallons of brine, 160,000 tons of salt
North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) Secretary Daniel Johnson said their crews are in the process of wrapping up pre-storm preparations and have applied about 202.8 million gallons of brine on the roads. Crews are now transitioning their focus and equipment to be ready to clear the roads. NCDOT has 160,000 tons of salt on hand and is securing even more, and in good shape from a supply standpoint.
As a reminder, he said that with a storm largely expected to be ice-related, driving on the roads will be challenging for any vehicle, even a large truck or SUV, and advises everyone to stay off the roads after the storm begins.
NCDOT has also implemented immediate towing measures, in cooperation with the State Highway Patrol, to remove disabled vehicles, facilitate road clearing, and eliminate danger to travelers.
Stein and Ray said the state has learned lessons from past storms, like Hurricane Helene, including being dependent on cell phones alone, and has invested in redundant or other means of communication, including mobile towers and mobile data systems that can be deployed from a variety of agencies across the state.
“Some of the pre planning, for example, that our 911 community and the state has really been focused on the last couple of years is a failover system so that if a local 911 center in a jurisdiction is impacted, there is a failover plan for an unimpacted area to be able to continue to receive 911 calls, and again, that’s the great work that that the community has done in reaction to many of our events,” Ray said. “I think broadly, we always want to take a retrospective look at what we do and how we do it and how we can get better. We’ve done that for every event, low-level ones or major ones, as we’ve experienced in the last couple of years, and it’s certainly one that we will continue to do as we all move through this event.”
State Highway Patrol Colonel Freddy Johnson discussed the Voice Interoperability Plan for Emergency Responders (VIPER) system, a radio network that provides communication for state and local first responders.
He said they can adjust the system, so if a tower is impacted by a storm, a tower in an unaffected area can realign its microwave system and cover the overlap in that area.
“It can communicate to all our emergency services partners that operate on that system,” Johnson said. “If you have a local agency and their communication system is not totally owned by the Viper state system, we have caches of handheld radios that operate on the state communication system. We have about a little over 3000 of those that we can deploy into those communities and to the agencies so they can operate.”
Stein said he has been inspired over the past years by so many North Carolinians lending a helping hand to their neighbors, family, and to strangers in need, and to please keep looking out for them and themselves during and after the storm.
“North Carolina, that’s how we are going to get through this storm together,” the governor said.