Council Bluffs Declares Snow Emergency

City Preps for Thursday's Big Snowfall

By Kimberly Foley

CREATED Feb. 20, 2013

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COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa -- Council Bluffs will be under a snow emergency starting at 8 a.m. Thursday and lasting through 8 a.m. Friday. 

Randal Forristall knows a thing or two about winter.
 
"I own three snow mobiles and a lot of times, where I live, it's how I get to work," said Forristall.
 
He is taking the big snow prediction in stride.
 
"Look at the grocery stores," said Forristall. "Yesterday you would have thought it was the end of the world the way people were buying stuff." 

Forristall is one of the dozens of employees at Council Bluffs Public Works gearing up to clean up what mother nature leaves behind.

The department sent trucks to pre-treat all the roads Wednesday morning. Preparation wrapped up by putting chains and plows on all the trucks.
 
"We will begin the snow emergency routes, and we will stay on those routes until the snow ends," said Pat Miller, operations director for Council Bluffs Public Works. 
 
Miller said the preparation is standard for a predicted storm.
 
"Emergency routes are all your main arteries in the street," said Miller. "Schools, fire stations, hospitals -- things like that -- we will stay on them until the snow ends. Once the snow ends, and we have a final cleanup, then we go to residential areas and start cleaning up there."
 
While it is the same plan the department always executes, Forristall points to two concerns he and his fellow crew members will face: wind and timing.
 
"If you get into the busy districts when people are having lunch, you have a lot more traffic on the road," said Forristall. "It also depends on if the snow is going to blow. We go and plow something, and by the time you get back where you started, it doesn't even look like you hit it."
 
Starting at 7 a.m., Public Works will have employees at their facility 24 hours a day. As soon as it starts snowing, the trucks will be back on the road.