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PennDOT encourages drivers to stay home during wintry weather this week

Ice covered trees line the hills in Wolf Township Tuesday morning. KAREN VIBERT-KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

The state Department of Transportation is going to be out and about clearing roads as yet another wave of winter weather pelted the county.

Forecasters expect a reprieve today with sunny skies and a projected high of 30 degrees, however, PennDOT still cautions motorists to stay home unless travel is unavoidable.

“Roadways will not be free of snow while precipitation is falling,” Maggie Baker, a community relations coordinator for PennDOT, said.

Baker said PennDOT will not be pre-treating the roads as there is still residue from the previous storm in-place, and reminds motorists that roadways will not be free of snow while precipitation is falling.

Baker said PennDOT is fully staffed and that crews will be taking 12-hour shifts to treat the roadways. However, that does not eliminate every risk presented by traveling.

“With freezing temperatures, roads that look wet may actually be icy, and extra caution is needed when approaching bridges and highway ramps where ice can form without warning,” Barton said.

PennDOT encourages drivers to keep plenty of space when following a plow truck or spreading winter materials.

Additionally, although PennDOT recommends not traveling during the winter storm, it did recommend motorists who must drive to use 511PA.

511 PA is a 24-hour traffic map that provides traffic and weather information for more than 40,000 roadway miles, with color-coded winter conditions on 2,900 miles. The app provides delay warnings, weather forecasts, traffic speed information and access to more than 1,000 traffic cameras.

“You can figure out your entire route before you leave your house. You can find out where snowplows are, and where they plowed, and it shows their route,” Baker said. “You are able to click on all their plows and zoom in and it will tell you exactly where they have been.”

Motorists can access 511PA online at www.511pa.com before driving, or use it as they would a GPS on their phone. More information about safely driving during a winter storm also can be found at penndot.gov/winter.

“To me, that is important to readers. We call it ‘know before we go.’ It’s a fantastic tool I don’t know people utilize to the fullest extent,” Baker said.

Across the Eastern U.S., heavy snow and a coating of sleet and ice shut down COVID-19 vaccination sites on Tuesday. Some shipments of the vaccine could be delayed a day or two because of the weather.

At least two deaths in Ohio were attributed to the huge winter storm, which walloped the South and reached all the way into New England, dumping more than a foot of snow in parts of the Mid-West. Parts of the Chicago area got up to a foot and a half of snow, shuttering schools to in-person classes as officials urged residents to stay off the snow-filled roads. Gov. J.B. Pritzker declared a disaster proclamation for Illinois on Tuesday as roughly 7,000 Illinois households were without power, according to Pritzker’s office.

More snow is expected to fall in Lycoming County Thursday and Friday, with a wintry mix late Thursday night and early Friday morning. The projected high temperatures are 32 degrees for Thursday and 38 degrees Friday.

Associated Press reporting contributed to this article

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