By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
Tucker County Director of Emergency Management Kevin White updated the Tucker County Commission on the impact that the heavy snowfall and extreme cold has had on our area recently. “Our emergency responders are stretched pretty thin at this point in time just due to all the weather impacts we’ve had,” White said. “Nothing that anybody can control. Its just the nature of where we live.”
Responders from around the area have been working together on a number of calls such as stranded motorists and traffic accidents, according to White. “EMS, Fire, Law Enforcement have run multiple incidents, whether its stuff with intent to travel or whether its motor vehicle accidents, things like that,” White said. “Its been a very, very busy time of year for us with that.”
White explained that the area has seen a lot of SWIFT calls. According the White the acronym stands for Stuck With Intent For Travel and has been seen a lot with the high snowfall in the area. “Law Enforcement, both County, State and City have assisted a lot with SWIFT, Stuck With Intent For Travel,” White said. “Its not the Swift Company its just the acronym that they use.”
White said a lot of tractor trailers have been stuck on Tucker County roads due to snow falling faster than road crews can clear the roadways. “We’ve had a lot of trucks stuck,” White said. “The state roads just can’t keep the roads open enough at the rate the snow is falling. Its no punch on them. Its just coming down several times faster then they can remove it.”
White, who is also Chief of the Parsons Fire Department, said that the Parsons Fire Department has already been on close to 30 calls by the 22nd of the month and said that other departments in the area are just as overwhelmed with calls for service. “Parsons Fire has run about 28 or 29 calls already so far this month,” White said. “That’s a lot, its only the 22nd. We got several weeks to go. And I’m sure Davis, Thomas, Canaan has had their hands full as well with as many calls as they’ve been running. EMS the same way. Law Enforcement.”
Daniel Hebb of the Tucker County 911 Center reported a total number of calls for the month of December were 1, 391 with 211 calls requiring Law Enforcement, 121 requiring EMS and the remaining assorted calls to different fire companies. Hebb said that he expects January numbers to be even higher following the heavy snow events of the month. “With the way snow events have been and accidents, its been a little hectic,” Hebb said.
White said that officially as of the 22nd of January, Tucker County had received 118.7 inches of snow with 78 inches of that falling in January alone. “We have received officially at our reporting station in Davis 118.7 inches of snow this year,” White said. “78 of that, I believe, was in the month of January. So its been a very, very impactful snow year for us so far.”