MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Daniel Hoffman ditched his shovel and used his boots to clear the ice off of his porch Monday.
“Surprise, surprise. There’s actually a little bit of ice on the ground today,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman braved the cold weather and the icy mess on the road to drive his pregnant wife to work Monday morning.
“I know the bridges down here. I got out this morning, and they were — they had ice and snow on them, but the sand and the stuff they put on them seemed to really help,” Hoffman said.
“Our crews have done a fantastic job,” Dale Lane, director of the Shelby County Office of Emergency Management, said. “They’ve been going for three days. Can you imagine what it would be had they not been there?”
Director Lane said his staff and colleagues were keeping an eye on the storm, roadways, and power outages.
If conditions worsen, Dale plans to bring more partners into the emergency operations center.
“As long as we have a threat to the community, we’re going to have someone in this office. We’ll have resources 24/7 until this is cleared up,” Lane said.
This February Freeze marks Lane’s first major storm as director of the Office of Preparedness.
Lane claimed to not face any major challenges and credits teamwork as the reason things were running smoothly.
Lane added his law enforcement background helped him get ready for the winter storm.
“Operationally you make sure all of the systems are in place, you make sure all of our equipment is ready to deploy, our people are where they need to be, and they have the equipment they need to be able to do their job,” Lane said.
The Office of Preparedness expects the roads to refreeze overnight and cause a hazardous commute for Tuesday morning travelers.
