Area road crews and winter weather equipment suppliers are
prepared for the heavy snowfall, which will last into today.

A heavy snow warning is in effect until 4 p.m. today, and Kevin
Fitzgerald, a meteorologist at the Penn State Weather Center, said
the area will see about 1 1/2 feet of snow from an area of low
pressure passing south of Pennsylvania.

Fitzgerald said after the bulk of the snow falls, heavy winds –
from 15 to 20 mph with gusts up to 35 mph – will blow through the
area, causing cold wind chill factors and dangerous road conditions
along with blowing snow.

“This storm is going to intensify rapidly as it moves up the
coast,” Fitzgerald said Tuesday. “The snow ends during tomorrow,
and the winds are going to pick up. Wind chills will be between 10
and 20 below for Wednesday night. Thursday night looks the same.
Your area will see the cold similar to the one you experienced
about 10 days ago. With all the snow on the ground, there will be
blowing and drifting snow. Stay out of the weather as best you can,
at least for the next couple days … even after snow tapers
off.”

Bradford Public Works Director Gary Alcock agreed.

“It’s best if you stay home if you don’t have to drive,” Alcock
said. “It’s easier for us to maneuver trucks around that way. We’ve
got three trucks out on the road right now (Tuesday). We’ve checked
over the trucks all day to fix anything we could find. We’ll run
two shifts tonight, which we usually do on heavier snow days.”

Patricia Shinaberger, McKean County maintenance manager for the
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, said they will also run
two shifts from midnight to noon and noon to midnight.

“All of our trucks are working, and we’re ready for it,”
Shinaberger said. “We have all our materials. The storage bays are
full. Our drivers are out there now. We’re just following the
standard operating procedure with dual shift modes. It’s routine
for us at this point.”

Other individuals and excavation services who are in the field
of snow removal are also prepared, making sure all equipment is in
working order.

“I’ve just been doing maintenance, filling everything up and
getting ready to go,” said Jeff Boser, who does snow removal in the
area. “The biggest thing is to be prepared.”

Jeff Hogue, owner of Highland Excavation & Tree Service, who
does some snow removal, said they were putting salt down Tuesday
afternoon to melt down the snow on the sidewalks.

“We’ll probably have to get up at 3 a.m. or 2:30 in the morning
to go plow, and I know it’s going to be a long time out,” Hogue
said. “So we prepare by sleeping mainly.”

Bradford Regional Airport officials are also on guard for
winter’s worst. On Tuesday, Airport Director Tom Frungillo said
officials have learned from past winters and will shut down the
airport’s runways if the snowfall becomes too onerous. The airport
itself, however, is never officially shut down.

“Generally, in a heavy snow like is expected, we (crews) are out
there continuously to keep the runways cleaned,” Frungillo said.
“We close (the runways) most of the time due to visibility (of the
incoming planes) more than ground conditions.”

Frungillo said if the airport shut down completely, by law, even
medical helicopters could not use the facility as a landing zone in
the case of an emergency.

“On the highways, cars are driving on the surface and packing it
down so it becomes slush and icy,” Frungillo said. “Up here, you
can plow (the runways) much closer to the time of arrival for an
aircraft. That way, the runways are clean.”

Frungillo said officials closely monitor the snowfall and
measure the “braking action,” or the amount of time it would take
for a plane to stop on the runway, by sophisticated equipment
provided by the Federal Aviation Administration. Under a snow and
ice removal plan, airport crews are required to remove snow when
there is two inches of dry snow and a half-inch of slushy snow.

“We also have minimums as far as visibility and ceilings for the
aircraft,” Frungillo said. “If our braking action is nil, we have
to shut the runways down.”

The weather has already claimed one event at the airport; the
monthly Bradford Regional Airport Authority meeting slated for
today has been canceled.

Hardware stores in the area have also been helping to prepare
residents by selling salt, calcium, snowblowers, snow shovels,
heating supplies and winter wear.

Debra Duet, floor manager at Valu Home Center, said Tuesday
they’ve been just as busy as they have been through the winter
weather, but she expected things to pick up as the day went on. She
said they’re prepared with lots of winter weather equipment in
stock.

Marcia McAdams, manager at Worth W. Smith Hardware, said they
hadn’t sold too much winter gear Tuesday afternoon but said they
have been selling a lot of heating supplies with the recent cold
spell.

“We’re low on snow shovels, but we ordered more,” McAdams said.
“They should get here by Thursday, if the truck gets through.”

Bill Webster, contractor with Bisett Building Center, said
business was steady Tuesday afternoon when it started snowing.

“We’ve sold snowblowers so far,” Webster said. “We did sell one
generator. (It’s) as much as we’ve sold in one time (this winter).
When it’s snowing, people seem to come in.”