Osage County Crews Preparing For Different Types Of Bad Weather

City, County and State road crews are all getting ready for the winter storm moving in.

The emergency management director in Osage County is preparing for three different kinds of bad weather.

Right now there's a high fire danger in Osage County, so emergency crews are on standby. On top of that, the area could get ice or flooding - so the sand is ready and crews are pulling out the high water signs.

It's really not calm before the storm as road crews in Osage County are very busy; they're tightening tire chains and loading trucks with sand.

Tom Teel, Osage County road supervisor, said, “We're just preparing, and we're gonna do the best we can with what we have.”

Teel’s team covers the Skiatook area. In 30 years dealing with bad weather in Osage County, he said the 2007 ice storm was the worst he's ever seen.

“I'm sure hoping it's just rain,” he said. “We would rather deal with rain than ice, for sure.”

Teel said if freezing rain starts the sand trucks will head out, but if it turns out to just be rain the county is ready for that, too.

“If we get a bunch of rain we'll have to be out putting out high water signs and fixing wash outs in the roads and such,” he said.

Osage County is the largest county in the state, so there's a lot of territory to cover.

Emergency Manager Jerry Roberts said they are 2,650 square miles and have six county shops. He said he's hoping folks will help emergency responders, and themselves, by simply staying off the roads.

“Wish they'd stay home all weekend this weekend,” he said.

Emergency crews say people staying off the roads will make everything easier.