Ice storm? ‘Please stay home’

Roane County officials are advising people to stay off the roads if icy conditions develop.
“We can’t stress that enough,” Office of Emergency Services Director Howie Rose said. “Please stay home.”
According to the National Weather Service Office in Morristown, significant icing is possible across the East Tennessee Valley late Thursday through Friday evening.
Crews with the Roane County Highway Department were out treating roads on Thursday, but Superintendent Dennis Ferguson said the brine they were using is ineffective against ice.
“If it’s ice, there’s nothing that we can do, and people just need to stay home,” he said.
The National Weather Service said significant icing of between 1/10 to ¼ of an inch is expected across areas that receive several hours of sleet/freezing rain.
“Travel will become hazardous very quickly once ice and snow begin to accumulate, so those who must travel should exercise extreme caution,” the weather service said.
“The thing about the ice is you slide on it,” Ferguson said.
People can visit the Roane County Highway Department’s Facebook page for updates on road conditions and downed trees. 
“We will update that constantly,” Ferguson promised.
Rose said the Office of Emergency Services will be providing updates on its Facebook page, Twitter account and at www.roaneoes.com.
Treacherous road conditions aren’t the only problems ice can cause.
“If we get the kind of ice that they’re saying we’re going to get, we’re going to have a lot of power outage problems,” Rose said. “People need to prepare for that.” 
 

DAMON LAWRENCE/Roane Newspapers

Roane County Highway Department crews were busy Thursday treating roads, but Road Superintendent Dennnis Ferguson said the brine solution they use won’t help if the wintry mix in the forecast falls more to the icy side.

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