By Rusty Nixon Correspondent
PLYMOUTH — Winter has appeared with a chip on its shoulder around the nation, and while the blast of bad weather may have caught local residents off guard, it didn’t surprise area road crews and emergency personnel.

“We’ve been lucky this year that it’s held off as long as it has,” said Neal Haeck, Marshall County Highway superintendent. “We’re ready. I wouldn’t say we’re raring to go, but it’s part of what we do so we’re ready. We’re just glad it held off as long as it did.”
Haeck says that he and his crews began battling the weather Tuesday night, but warmer temperatures early Wednesday helped out. The combination of wind, snow and ice is very difficult for road crews to deal with.
“All of the above,” said Haeck in answer to which was toughest. “Probably ice. Wind with snow is tough especially because it can drift so quickly out in open areas, but ice is probably the toughest for us to manage from a road safety point of view.”
City Street Department Super-intendent Jim Marquardt says his crews started to plow snow on Tuesday night.
“As soon as we started plowing it started raining,” said Mar-quardt. “But it did snow enough that we had to plow.”
Marquardt’s crews deal with a some slightly different difficulties than the county crews.
“With the wind, we’ve had some limbs down and we’ve got some street lamp globes and things that we’ve had to deal with,” said Marquardt. “Although I will say that the new trash cans don’t blow around nearly as bad as the old ones did.”
During the more temperate months, county and city road crews spend time stockpiling salt and repairing and preparing equipment for the tough times ahead.
“We make sure that all our trucks are running and all the salt and sand equipment and other things are in repair,” said Haeck. “Just like anybody gets their house ready for the cold, we do the same thing (with our equipment).”
“The bigger the snow the less salt you lose,” said Marquardt. “Some of the big storms you use very little, but if you get stuff like what we’ve had the past couple of days, you go through a lot of salt.”
Marshall County Emergency Management Director Clyde Avery has a slightly different task – preparing residents for all the possible problems that can be encountered during winter months.
His office wants residents informed of all the precautions they can take to minimize possible difficulties.
Winter conditions can often lead to power outages, isolation, dangerous driving conditions and health emergencies such as frostbite, hypothermia, and heart attacks brought on by overexertion.
The MCEMA encourages residents to know the terms used by weather forecasters so that they clearly understand the risk to them and their family, including:
•Winter weather advisory – Weather conditions are expected to cause significant inconveniences and may be hazardous, especially to motorists.
• Winter storm watch – Be alert, a storm is possible.
• Winter storm warning – Take action, the storm is occurring or will soon occur in the area.
• Blizzard warning – Snow combined with strong winds can produce near zero visibility, deep drifts, and life-threatening wind chill, seek shelter immediately.
Avery says that preparing your vehicle by having it fully inspected and winterized is important.  Keep your gas tank near full to avoid ice in the tank and fuel lines.  Let someone know your timetable and route of travel in case you get stuck.  Carry a “winter storm survival kit” in your vehicle that includes: a cell phone and charger, flashlight, blankets or extra clothing, first aid kit, snack food, tow rope, a sack of sand or cat litter for traction, a small shovel, jumper cables, flares or orange emergency flag to tie to the antenna.
You can prepare at home and at work for loss of heat, power, telephone service and a shortage of supplies by assembling a “preparedness kit” to last for at least 72 hours for each individual.
Haeck’s crews will be out doing their best to keep the counties roads safe for travel.
“Some of the guys were telling me this morning that we were out shoveling snow on Thanksgiving last year,” said Haeck. “We’ve been ready for this; it’s just nice that it waited into December to hit us.”
Marquardt’s city troops are just as ready.
“It’s kind of tough because the way they’ve forecast it you really don’t know what’s coming,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of salt and sand mixture made too so we have something to give people some traction if it gets bad.”