Officials busy prepping for snow storm

SOUTH BEND, Ind. --- Today’s rain caused many areas in Michiana, including south bend, to delay pre-treating the roads. But, officials tell me they have staff ready to start plowing once the snow hits.

“We’re anticipating that we’ll get somewhere between 10 & 20 inches and so we’ll have all of our crews out around the clock at 24 hours a day starting at 9 o’clock tonight," said Eric Horvath, Public Works Director for City of South Bend.

Michiana’s first big winter storm of the year is almost here. With many residents preparing by hitting grocery stores today — INDOT says officials have been just as busy prepping staffing plans.

“We’ll be operating in 12 hour rotating shifts so we’ll have the roads covered 24/7, but even with that with the heavy snowfall we’re anticipating that roads conditions are still going to be incredibly rough," said Cassandra Bajek, Public Relations Director INDOT Northwest.

To keep South Bend’s main roads clear, Public Works Director Eric Horvath says the city plans on having more than 70 plows out during the daytime.

“Any of the main roads that go to things like hospitals or to the fire station or schools we’ll hit those first. When you get heavy snow like this we stay on the mains until after it stops," said Eric Horvath.

In other areas across Northern Indiana, INDOT says it’s fully staffed to clear roads, but it won’t start full clean up efforts until Friday.

“At that point our focus will be first off snow removal if there still is snow on the roadways. But, also trying to get the roads as dry as possible because we’re gonna be seeing some freezing temperatures so we want to keep you safe from ice," said Bajek.

We’ll continue to bring you the latest details on this incoming storm both on air and online.