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In the middle of back-to-back weekends with snow and ice blanketing North Carolina, state government officials made the call to spend $5 million on more salt to help clearing roads throughout the state.
Even after buying that mountain of salt — about 30,000 tons — the state is still not quite back to the level officials would like to see as they prepare for the potential of more winter weather this week. So additional purchases to further replenish the state’s salt supply are expected.
It’s just one example of the millions of dollars the extended storm response has cost North Carolina. As of noon on Tuesday, the state Department of Transportation alone has spent at least $24.8 million — costs that include buying salt and other supplies, or hiring private contractors to supplement the people and vehicles out treating and plowing roads.
That figure doesn’t count the overtime DOT workers logged, since those numbers aren’t available yet. It also doesn’t include any of the other state agencies that have also faced additional costs due to the storm.
Much of the cost has been for personnel, including paying overtime to state workers who had to pull double shifts to help keep highways clean — or leave their families to sleep in their office over one or both weekends, to make sure that state government functioned even if roads were impassable.
Those workers won high praise from Gov. Josh Stein Tuesday.
“So many people turn their lives upside down when there’s an event like this, just to try to help the rest of us have a more normal life,” Stein said during a regular meeting of the Council of State, a gathering of North Carolina’s top executive-branch officials.
He added: “I’m filled with immense appreciation for the remarkable state employees, local government employees and private sector employees, to just work their tails off for two straight weeks.”
Stein also mourned the three people who died due to the storm this weekend, in separate car crashes and a house fire.
Last week, during a lull between the weekend storms, Stein visited a state Department of Transportation facility and met some of the people working long hours there. “They were just finishing trying to do the work from the first storm and prepare for the next storm,” he said. “One guy worked 91 hours. Another guy worked 101 hours. And they were just coming into this weekend.”
Part of that work: Laying down more than 160,000 tons of salt in the past two weeks in all 100 counties of the state. And their work isn’t finished yet; more snow is possible in central North Carolina on Wednesday night.
Stein said DOT is hoping to spread another 20,000 tons of salt on Tuesday and Wednesday ahead of that next round of winter weather.
What happens if there’s another big storm?
The state could feasibly see more snow later this winter, and Stein told WRAL Tuesday after the meeting that he’s confident the state has enough salt on hand to respond to one more large snowstorm.
That’s less than the ideal amount, he said. State officials typically want to have enough salt and other supplies on hand to respond to two or three storms, in case of situations like what just happened, with back-to-back emergencies.
“We think that at the end of the next couple of days, we’ll have about 50,000 tons of salt, which is enough for a major storm,” he said. “But we had enough for three major storms before we started spending out of our salt bank. So we need to replenish it.”
That’s easier said than done. Stein said one major problem is that these storms haven’t only hit North Carolina. They’ve been massive storms, affecting nearly the entire country. So competition for the nation’s quickly dwindling salt supplies could complicate the state’s efforts to get fully stocked up.
Regardless, spending several million dollars more on salt would be just a drop in the bucket of the state’s $32 billion budget. Stein also told WRAL that, regardless of how much these past two weeks of disaster recovery have cost, he’s confident that the state will also have enough money for emergency responses later this year if hurricanes or other extreme weather pose a threat.
However, he cautioned, the state still doesn’t have a new budget. He said he’s working on an updated budget request now that he plans to present to the state legislature in the coming weeks. “We constantly need to replenish our storm relief fund, in case a big storm hits, so that we’re ready to respond,” Stein said.
Other state agencies stayed busy
While the road crews and first responders have been the most visible of the state and local government workers pulling long and uncomfortable hours due to the storms, Stein said, he wanted to acknowledge the many others whose work went unseen.
He singled out a number of state agencies, including the Department of Information Technology, which worked through the snowy weekend to fight off cybercriminals who seemed to target the state’s systems during the storm.
“They said that there was a big upsurge in cyber attacks, and so they were working overtime,” Stein said. “They didn’t go home for the weekend. They were working the entire weekend, just trying to ensure that our data systems are protected.”
He also praised workers putting in long hours for the state Department of Health and Human Services, which runs mental hospitals, the state’s Medicaid system and more, and the state Treasurer’s office, which runs the State Health Plan. Keeping its office and phone lines open meant that any state workers or retirees who needed help with a health issue could get that help, Stein said, crediting State Treasurer Brad Briner and employees in his office.
Stein also thanked behind-the-scenes employees at the Department of Environmental Quality for making sure wastewater systems were functioning.
“We don’t always appreciate it,” Stein said. “So I’m grateful.”
Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler added his own thanks to DOT officials, noting that they worked with his staff to make sure all the necessary roads were plowed to ensure that feed trucks could make their way to big livestock farms, keeping the animals fed and helping out a key part of the state’s economy.
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