Local officials respond to winter storm

Miranda Holman Managing Editor
Posted 2/8/22

The city of Mexico and Audrain County became a real-life winter wonderland this week as a winter storm dropped more than ten inches of snow in some areas. 

Just as the old saying says, …

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Local officials respond to winter storm

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The city of Mexico and Audrain County became a real-life winter wonderland this week as a winter storm dropped more than ten inches of snow in some areas. 

Just as the old saying says, “It takes a village to raise a child,” it also takes a community of local officials and emergency management to respond to winter weather.

During incidents such as this winter weather event, one of the responsibilities of the Audrain County Emergency Management is to stay in communication with response agencies such as police, fire, and EMS as well as 911 Joint Communications. 

Carl Donaldson, Interim Director of Emergency Management, commented that the Agency also communicates with other organizations that have resources available to aid the public in times of need, “For example, The Red Cross has services available to help stranded motorists or those who are without power during emergency incidents. We act as a coordinating agency connecting those in need of services with those who can offer them.”

The Road and Bridge Department, tasked with the treatment and snow removal for the county, communicates with the Emergency Management Agency to eliminate overwhelming situations where help could be called in from other sources if needed. 

According to Donaldson, the local Agency and any other in affected jurisdictions are in direct contact with the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA). “We report local information through a web-based Emergency Operations Center. This allows SEMA to see what is happening real-time across the state.” This operation also allows local jurisdictions to have predictive information on the progress of occurrences in neighboring counties, increasing the awareness of the incident.

Besides national services such as the Emergency Alert System, Audrain County has an emergency notification system that residents can sign up for on the website. Emergency Management also sends updates out on Facebook.

As the winter storm continued to move through the area, the Mexico Street Department and Missouri Department of Transportation (MODOT) worked to keep the roadways of Mexico passable, according to Mexico Public Safety Department. “In the 24-hour period prior to 8:00 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 3, Mexico Public Safety responded to about 14 incidents of vehicle slide-offs, crashes, and stranded motorists.”

There were no injuries from these incidents, but area residents were encouraged to minimize travel and drive slowly and carefully as the weather moved from the area.

The Audrain County Sheriff’s Office urged motorists to stay home and off the roads to avoid accidents, “If you crash because the roads are slick, first responders have to try to get to you on those very same roads. Please stay home if at all possible.”

Many families did stay home and spent the downtime building snowmen, having snowball fights, and creating memories. Others used the winter wonderland as the perfect photo opportunity, hopefully listening to the suggestion of the Mexico Public Safety, “Please, if you want to post a photo, do it from your front porch. Trust us, everyone in town is looking at the same snow you are.”

 


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