PA Officials Give Storm Update, Discuss Impacts To COVID Vaccine

PENNSYVLANIA — As agencies across Pennsylvania work to keep the state safe amid the ongoing, multi-day winter storm, officials said that the duration and widespread nature of the storm present unique challenges.

The winter storm is expected to intensify Monday, with up to two to four inches an hour falling in some areas, particularly in the northeastern parts of the state.

"One of the biggest challenges we're seeing with this storm is just the sheer duration of it," Highway Administration Deputy Secretary Melissa Batula said Monday afternoon, noting that snowplow drivers and other essential road crew members often work 12 hours shifts. "When we see the extended storms, it really stretches our resources."

Indeed, a storm of this length is highly unusual. Snow began falling in the late morning and early afternoon Sunday and looks to continue, largely unabated in some areas, into early Tuesday morning.

Climate change impacts are associated with more frequent and more intense severe weather events, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. PEMA Director Randy Padfield placed this storm in the context of these changing weather patterns, noting last summer's intense flooding.

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"That can very quickly overcome local resources, and create challenges," Padfield said.

And as officials noted, unusual weather patterns are becoming quite usual for the region. The greater Philadelphia area and many other parts of the state are coming off a winter just a year ago in which nearly no snow accumulated.

Any intense storm leads state emergency management authorities to mobilize alongside state police, PennDOT, and the turnpike commission to keep roads safe. Padfield and Batula said that overall, residents in the state were doing a good job at staying off the roads, allowing officials to prioritize emergency transportation and the movement of key personnel.

"With the complex nature of this storm, the impacts could have been much greater (thus far)," Padfield said, noting that there have been no major incidents on the roads.

But the timing of this storm means that roads need to be cleared for another vital reason: the delivery of COVID-19 vaccine shipments.

Healthcare institutions have emergency plans in place to facilitate the movement of both people and key goods. At the state level, PEMA supports both hospitals and county emergency management teams, and has the ability to utilize the Pennsylvania National Guard if need be.

"(We) make sure we have the ability to get that commodity to get wherever it needs to be in a timely fashion," Padfield added.

Numerous vehicle restrictions remain in place on many highways across the state, with certain types of vehicles, like tractors without trailers motorcycles, prohibited from interstates. "Tier 1" restrictions are in place on I-76, I-95, I-295, I-476 and I-676, while the central part of the state has "Tier 4" restrictions on portions of I-83 and I-81 preventing commercial vehicle travel.