LOUISVILLE, Ky. — An icy winter storm is creeping closer for Kentuckiana, but preparation for local crews will be limited.
A full day of rain Wednesday would wash away any salt crews lay down, so they'll have to be more reactive than proactive.
"It's just so hard with the ice. You have to keep throwing down the salt, trying to get it melted, it's just a tough game," Adam Kruer, the operations manager at Lamb's Law Service and Landscaping, said. They serve 110 properties in Louisville and Southern Indiana.
When it comes to laying salt, he said, "you don't want to put it down and the rain will just wash it away and you've wasted your time and the client's money."
The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) is using that same school of thought. "It's kind of a hurry up and wait game," Natalie Garrett said with INDOT's Southeast District.
When the rain does start to freeze, she said about a thousand trucks will be out in Indiana. "We'll have crews out around the clock through at least Friday morning," Garrett said. In our area, they'll have between 30 and 50 trucks out.
Sal Melendez with Louisville Metro Department of Public Works said mother nature is helping to prepare roads with warm weather Tuesday and Wednesday
"That type of heat combined with any treatment that we're able to put down will hopefully increase its efficacy," Melendez said. He's hoping it'll widen the window between freezing rain and icy roads.
"We just have to make sure that our timing is right and hopefully there are not as many vehicles on the roadways," he said.
Louisville and the state of Indiana say their jobs will be much easier Thursday if you stay off the roads. For those that need to drive, check the 511 map for Indiana and the GoKY real-time traffic map for Kentucky.
In the meantime, crews will put the finishing touches on their trucks and rest up for the bitterly long days ahead.
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