Travelers Hit the Road to Escape Winter Storm

People traveling by car either needed to leave this morning or stay put to avoid winter weather

FARGO– Holiday travelers started hitting the road early this morning to avoid winter weather conditions.

“We were celebrating Christmas with the family up in Grand Forks and we saw the snow was coming, we gotta get back to Sioux City, Iowa so we left Grand Forks about 6 and just decided to stop here for gas before the storm came,” driver Matt Bisenius said.

With a winter storm warning in effect until Friday, people traveling by car either needed to leave this morning or stay put.

“We were going to leave like at noon and instead we planned on leaving at 8 this morning, and now it’s 9, and so we’re just trying to get out earlier and get there ahead of the storm to get there safely,” driver Trichelle Kirchenwitz said.

Fargo Public Works is well-prepared to make sure the roads are safe for people in the area.

“Getting the sand trucks ready, checking all of our equipment,” Fargo Public Works supervisor Corey Houim said. “We did go anti-icing on all of our snow emergency routes last night; we were just wrapping those up this morning.”

The region is expected to receive between 5 and 10 inches and when the snow starts coming down..

“We’ll be going out with sand trucks right away and then we’ll have them out sanding and salting until we have enough snow on the streets to plow,” Houim said.

Once they switch to plowing operations, Houim says they’ll be going around the clock until the storm is over with.

They expect wide-open areas like 19th Avenue North to be troublesome for drivers.

“Thursday, when the wind picks up to potentially 50 mph and if we get five inches of snow on the ground, it’s going to be zero visibility, I would anticipate blizzard conditions, so definitely stay tuned to the weather,” Houim said. “If you don’t need to travel, I wouldn’t.”

Houim is anticipating all 32 pieces of Fargo Public Works equipment to be out on the roads cleaning up the snow.

Fargo Public Works also says employees from other departments will be helping get equipment on the streets if needed.