Are you ready for lowland snow?



SEATAC, Wash. – The possibility of snow hitting the lowlands has road crews on high alert. Wednesday, the Seattle Department of Transportation started rolling out its winter fleet and preparing for freezing rain or snow to hit the city.

“They have the salt spreader with the saddle bags adjacent that have the deicer with them,” said Seattle Department of Transportation Director of Maintenance and Operations Rodney Maxie.

All drivers and laborers are on call this week in case of snow.

“We would use the plows, we would use the salt we would repeatedly hit the routes a half a dozen times per shift 24 hours a day 7 days a week,” said Maxie.

Alan Maxie at SeaTac Hardware says you better start thinking about that now.

“Roadside assistance can be a long ways off at times,” said SeaTac Hardware Sales Representative Alan Linville.

He pulled out some items he says everyone should have in their cars like a flashlight, duct tape, tarp and a seven-in-one.

“This is an air compressor, it gives you lighting, it gives you booster cables for jump starting your vehicle or somebody else’s if it’s needed,” said Linville.

From the deicer to the anti-freeze, get it now and have it for a while.

“A lot of these items will last a long time. Store them in your garage, take them out and use them in the winter months,” said Linville.

Especially if you live in areas like Queen Anne because places with major hills won’t see city plows. They hit main roads like Mercer Ave and Denny Way which get first priority treatment.

“Usually we focus on the bridges and the ramps first. Those are the areas that get colder than the normal road. We have sensors on the bridges and roads that tell us the temperatures of the deck, and when we see those hitting freezing we hit those first with the deicer,” said Maxie.

Click here to look at a map that shows where S-DOT and where King County clears the roads first in its gold and then secondary emerald routes.