Hampton Roads residents, city officials prepare for wintry mix

HAMPTON ROADS, Va. (WAVY) — Local residents, city officials, VDOT, and Virginia State Police prepare for a possible wintry mix overnight.

State police are encouraging residents to plan ahead and avoid having to travel during possible inclement conditions Monday. They are asking motorists to delay their travel overnight and early Monday until VDOT have cleared the roadways for safe travel.

They will also have all available troopers on patrol in order to respond as quickly as possible to traffic crashes, emergencies and disabled motorists.

If you must travel during the storm, be sure to keep these in mind:

• Know Before You Go! Before heading out, check Virginia road conditions at www.511virginia.org or download the VDOT 511 app.
• Clear ALL snow and ice from the roof, trunk, hood and windows of your vehicle – car, SUV, minivan, pickup truck, commercial vehicle – before you travel.
• Use your headlights – in rain AND snow. Virginia law requires headlights on when your wipers are active.
• Drive for conditions – slow your speed and increase your traveling distance between the vehicle ahead of you.
• Always buckle up.
• Avoid distractions – put down the phone.
• Do not call 911 or #77 for road conditions. Please leave these emergency lines open for emergencies only. 

According to Meteorologist Steve Fundaro, Hampton Roads will more likely see heavy rain Sunday evening and into Monday morning.

10 On Your Side’s Aesia Toliver says that as of Sunday afternoon, VDOT crews will not be pretreating the roadways. However, crews will be mobilizing early Monday morning.

In Williamsburg, city officials say approximately 450 tons of salt and sand are on standby and ready for deployment.

Officials say they will monitor the roads overnight and into the morning, however, there is currently no pretreatment of roads occurring due to Sunday’s warm temperatures and rainfall.

Newport News Shipbuilding is expected to conduct normal operations, according to a Facebook post on Sunday night. They encourage everyone to follow VDOT warnings.

Dominion Energy, meanwhile, is warning residents that the winter weather could cause small outages from the morning into early afternoon in several areas across the Commonwealth. No outages are expected in Hampton Roads.