TULSA, Okla. -- — A dozen trucks are waiting at the ready, prepared to brine and salt dangerous areas as rain tapers off. Tulsa's street maintenance manager said with staff on standby, they can respond faster than they were able to on Wednesday.
"Kind of everybody it did take by surprise the way it shifted and moved up here real quick but thankfully we had plenty of people respond when we called them to come in and address it and we were able to get a handle on it pretty quick," Tim McCorkell said.
When calling people in, McCorkell said it can sometimes take two hours to get trucks out. On Wednesday, crews started working around 7 p.m. once ice started to form.
"We won't be spreading brine solution out because the rain right now would just wash it off the road. So we have employees on standby right now on hand with trucks ready to go as soon as soon as that temperature drops low enough," McCorkell said.
The roads also created chaos for first responders. Fire crews went to dozens of crashes overnight, and said these storms are coming at the busiest time of year.
"We responded to about 50 different motor vehicle incidents. I can't even begin to tell you how many cars were involved because several of them were multi-vehicle. It kept us pretty busy, especially late last night when the ice started moving in," Capt. Stan May said.
McCorkell said they were tracking the weather, but didn't expect it to go so late into the evening. However they are prepared with the usual amount of salt and the budget to order more if needed.
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