- Mild weather is expected to change drastically with a blizzard warning in effect.
- The forecast predicts wind gusts up to 70 miles per hour, accompanied by rain and snow.
- Officials warn that travel conditions will be nearly impossible during the storm.
- Lieutenant Tim Owens emphasizes the importance of preparedness during severe weather.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
The past week's weather was pretty mild for February. But Tuesday will be a different story, with a blizzard warning in effect.
Watch Hannah's story:
"Travel is going to be next to impossible," said Lieutenant Tim Owens.
3 News Now meteorologists are anticipating 70 miles per hour winds, rain, and then snow beginning Tuesday evening and continuing on Wednesday morning. KMTV reporter Hannah McIlree met with Tim Owens, a Lieutenant for the Community Action Team at the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, he said despite the poor road conditions they'll be ready to help.
"The weather conditions are going to make it hard for first responders to respond to calls, but we'll be out there, but yeah, the weather conditions do sound very serious, so, the less we have people on the roads, the better it will be," said Lieutenant Owens.
A spokesperson for OPPD told KMTV they're watching the forecast closely and after the windstorm this summer they've become experienced with hurricane-level winds, which we are expected to get tomorrow.
In a statement, they wrote:
"Our field crews are even more experienced now in widespread outage events, and our operations folks behind the scenes coordinate with them to ensure we have the proper number of crews and types of crews staged and ready to go."
Nebraska State Patrol is also gearing up for the storm, Sergeant Cody Thomas told me, they're making sure troopers are ready to go. And are want to make sure drivers utilize 511 to check current road conditions. Thomas also said, that if you become stranded on the road call *55, and it will connect you to the closest dispatch
"We lost tragically lost, two individuals to a snowstorm. We don't want to repeat that, and tomorrow seems no different with the weather conditions and the road conditions are gonna be, extremely concerning," said Lieutenant Owens.
KMTV called City of Omaha engineer Austin Rowser to see what they're doing to prepare for the storm, and he told me, the city is not taking precautionary measures on Monday. He said because there are no leaves on the trees there should be less damage than the storm that happened in July.
KMTV also contacted the Douglas County Engineers office, however, no one was available for comment.
