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In light of the weather conditions last Friday, and in anticipation of another cold weekend coming up, County Engineer Josh Harvill took some time at the County Commission meeting on Monday to talk about how Chambers handles winter weather events. 

“We got really lucky last Friday,” said Harvill. “You didn’t have to go very far to reach a county that got hit pretty hard. I know Randolph County’s weather was drastically worse than ours.”

Harvill said he has people in his Highway Department on standby during these events. 

“Generally, a group of us are monitoring payment temperatures, bridge temperature, talking to the sheriff… I think he had just about his whole staff out [on the roads],” he explained. 

Information on road and safety conditions gathered by the Sheriff’s Office and Highway Department is quickly communicated to the Chambers County Emergency Management Agency/911 Center. The EMA works directly with the National Weather Service in Birmingham as well. With the information compiled from these groups, EMA will disperse the information out to the media and public, through press releases and social media posts. 

“From our standpoint, in Chamber County, it’s not because we can do anything. We don’t have the resources,” said Harvill. “I want to make sure that’s clear. If we have a snowstorm, our goal is to figure out how bad the roads are and whether we need to issue a Travel Advisory.”

Harvill added that the Commission has provided the department with a sand spreader, however, it can only be used after a winter weather event to improve road traction. 

“That is a tool, that’s not a solution, and that is only to be used after the storm,” he said. “So there’s going to be a timeline there where the roads are going to be treacherous.”

The state did pre-treat state routes with brine, which Harvill said helped those roadways remain passable. 

He added that even when the Highway Department does not issue a travel advisory if there are weather advisories from the NWS, citizens should use extra caution on the roads or avoid travel altogether. Should the Department put out a local travel advisory, it would be publicized through EMA.

“Let the emergency responders get to calls as needed. Don’t create additional obstacles in the roadway for them,” he implored. “I can’t say how grateful I am, but I think people follow that [on Friday].”

In Chambers County specifically, forecasting can vary greatly from one area to another.

“If you woke up Friday morning and woke up anywhere south of Fredonia to Union Hill, you thought, ‘What was all the fuss about?’ What makes it so very difficult in our county when it comes to schools and business…things of that nature,” Harvill explained. “We have a drastic weather line on the north half of our county…Those people got to get to work too, and they got to get to school too, and they had really bad conditions.”

According to the County Engineer, the Northern part of the county had 4 to 5 roads completely covered in snow or sleet. 

“I say all this to say, the forecast is that we’re gonna have some cold weather next week, and you never know,” Harvill said.