Cities decide whether to pre-treat; utility companies get ready for the winter storm

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    KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV ) — As snow gets ready to enter the metro for this weekend, some local salt trucks are loaded and ready to go.

But, they can’t head out just yet and wait for the rain to stop falling.

That rain would wash off any pre-treatment put down on the roads. KCK, KCMO, and Olathe will all try to send their trucks out as soon as they can before the freeze. Grandview and Blue Springs are not pre-treating, but say they are going to closely monitor and react appropriately to the snowfall.

Local utility companies are ready to work some overtime this weekend as they get ready for any power issues that might arise from the winter storm.

Just half an inch of ice can put 500 pounds of stress on power lines. That’s like a full-grown female grizzly bear or a large horse started doing a tight rope walk on the lines.

Our StormTrack5 meteorologists say we can expect more like a quarter of an inch, but local companies like EVERGY say they are doing their best to prepare for the worst, with crews standing by all weekend. They say if they start to see a lot of outage problems, they can call in local utility companies for backup.

Branches are going to be the biggest concern for any potential power issues, because ice can make them 30 times heavier, causing them to snap on power lines.

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