Snow plows and emergency crews ready for Tri-State Winter Storm

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WEHT) — Commuting around the Tri-State will likely be treacherous overnight and Wednesday morning. Officials advise drivers to slow down and get to to their destinations safely.

The Indiana Department of Transportation says crews started preparing 48 hours ahead of time by having 25 snow plows ready and 20 deployed in Evansville. Public Relations Director Gary Brian says technology will help residents know where snow plows are located.

“Go to 511In.org or go to our traffic wise app. You can see every plow location throughout the entire state,” says Brian. “Some plows have cameras so you can actually see what they’re seeing, but you can actually tell where the plows are, where they’ve been, and probably guess where they go.”

Indiana State Police is also making preparations with slide off accidents and minor crashes already reported. Sergeant Todd Ringle wants to make sure people are prepared in case they get stuck on the side of the road.

“Keep in mind that it may take a wrecker or law enforcement a couple of hours to get to you during these conditions because it takes time for us to get to you,” says Sgt. Ringle. “You want to make sure you have the equipment inside your vehicle to keep you and your family warm. A couple of blankets, bottled water, some non-perishable food items, and an extra charger for your cell phone.”

Preparations are happening across the Tri-State as Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s Matt Hughes says they have already pretreated roads.

“The temperatures as they drop kind of become more issue with salt and brine, they don’t work as well,” says Hughes. “It works better with the warmer temperatures, but hopefully we got enough salt left from yesterday that that’ll help with that now I was just getting the snow plows ready so when the snow gets here that we can just get out and hit it.”

Check out INDOT’s traffic wise website for more information on Indiana road conditions. For Kentucky’s road conditions, visit the KYTC website.