Jan. 3—EFFINGHAM — Forecasters predict between five to 12 inches of snow will fall on the Effingham area on Sunday.
According to National Weather Service Meteorologist Alex Erwin, the winter storm could start late Saturday night but is more likely to start early Sunday between midnight and 6 a.m., with the bulk of it hitting during the day and continuing into Sunday night.
The NWS predicts a possible mix of sleet and freezing rain, as well, which makes gauging the amount of snow the area will get difficult. As of Friday morning, there is an 80% chance of more than four inches of snow and about 1/10 of an inch of ice is possible.
Because winds aren’t predicted to be strong, the NWS isn’t expecting a lot of power outages, but because of the ice, they can’t rule out that possibility. Traveling is not recommended, but if it’s necessary to do so, Erwin recommends keeping an emergency kit in the car with items like food, water, blankets and a charged phone to call for help.
Effingham County Highway and Engineering Department manager Greg Koester says the department has all of its resources and equipment ready to go.
Starting at 2 a.m. Sunday, his team will be on call for 12 hour shifts until the roads are dealt with accordingly. Each group will be operating four or five Tandem snow plow trucks at all times since there is 148 miles of county highway to clear.
“Stay out of the way of us trying to clear the road. You don’t want to be an obstacle,” said Koester. “You don’t want to get hurt, nor do you want to be an obstacle in the way of other things or snow removal responsibility.”
Since there’s a mix of snow and ice, Koester says treating the roads is all about timing.
“The trick is really when to put material down and when not to,” said Koester.
If the road conditions become very bad and turn into a more serious situation, the Highway Department’s first priority will be making sure emergency response teams, such as fire and EMS, can travel where they need to.
Belinda Dedear, 63, lives in Shelbyville and stocked up on groceries to prepare for the winter storm: bread, sandwiches, chips, candles and flashlights. At home, she’s checking that all her windows are closed, has plenty of water and is gathering all her blankets.
“I’ll stock up now, so I don’t have to come out,” said Dedear. “I’m from Texas, so this is new to me.”
Since she doesn’t have to travel on Sunday, Dedear isn’t worried about the storm.
Christy Hakman, 50, lives in Effingham and also stocked up on supplies for Sunday: vegetables, fruits, frozen foods, eggs, milk and bread. She hasn’t prepared anything at home but said her husband will put down salt outside and charge all their batteries and devices.
“I’m not a cold person, like a cold weather person, so I’m hoping that we don’t get as much, and it doesn’t last and stick around as long, but doing what we can to be prepared,” said Hakman.
Hakman works from home, so the weather will not impact her. However, she has a son still in grade school who hopes to have a snow day.
“Like normal, we’ll get through whatever it is, and sometimes, we never know if it’ll be as bad as the forecasters predict,” said Hakman. “So we’ll just see and do what we can to be prepared.”
Erwin predicts the storm will begin moving out of the area Monday after 6 a.m.
Effingham Daily News Reporter Marie Adamick can be reached at marie.adamick@effinghamdailynews.com or 618-510-9230