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'It has been quite a long week' | Road crews prepare for winter weather after weekend storm

Crews in Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem are on standby as more winter weather hits the Triad after the weekend winter storm.

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Crews in Greensboro, High Point, and Winston-Salem remain on standby with a mix of rain, snow and freezing temperatures Thursday follow the weekend winter storm. 

"It has been quite a long week," said Justin Gray, the public services manager for the city of High Point. "It's times like these storm events that they truly are the unspoken heroes out there." 

Gray said High Point went through 500 tons of salt in this weekend's winter storm is trying to make sure they replenish their stock. Greensboro went through more than 2000 tons of salt and planned to salt overpasses and bridges Thursday. High Point planned to have crews coming in Thursday night in preparation. 

The warm temperatures Wednesday and Thursday helped crews clear streets.

"We have just been spreading salt in the neighborhoods and dealing with those that needed attention," said Randy Britton with the city of Winston-Salem.

RELATED: Schools, roads, and tracking snow potential | Thursday updates

With the rain Thursday, crews weren't able to brine streets ahead of more winter weather because the brine would wash off with the rain. 

"The main concern (Thursday) is just gonna be freezing temperatures as we head into the evening (...) as well as early morning of course there is a potential for ice to form on the roadways and that’s certainly what we want to continue to monitor as we move into (Friday) morning," Gray said.

While road crews worked around the clock, EMS workers also never stopped. 

"We are driving a large ambulance and they are really no better at going through ice and snow than any other vehicle," said Kyle Paschal, the deputy director of Guilford County EMS. 

Paschal said they had some ambulances get stuck in this past storm, but they were able to get the patient to where they needed to be and get the ambulance out as well.

Guilford EMS not only handles the struggles of a winter storm, but the COVID-19 pandemic has put a strain on them as well. Their call volume is up 30% to 40%, aside from the winter storm according to Paschal. 

"We are trying to meet the needs of the public however it is difficult on our staff," Paschal said. "We are looking forward to the day where COVID is behind us but we can’t see that day just yet."

The pandemic is also impacting road crews.

"Mostly we’ve had to deal with some COVIDexposures so you know that has had a slight impact on current operations," Gray said. "Overall we’ve had some issues with retaining staff right now as well as taking on additional staff."

Greensboro said they had some COVID issues in the latest winter storm but were able to make staff adjustments and be full staff. Winston-Salem officials said they made changes, just in case. 

"We actually did all of our prep-work (early), our treatment of the streets that we usually like to do more than 24 hours in advance of the event, we did that in about 36 hours in advance of the event because we were fearful that COVID would have an impact on our staffing levels."

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